Abstract: The Mysterious Stranger is Mark Twain’s last short novel. In this story Mark Twain shows us the essence of human civilization and the truth of reason. This paper first describes 4 leading characters in the novel of The Mysterious Stranger, and then analyzes the relationship between reason, wild and civilization. Finally, the truth of rationalism is pointed out that reason is created and used as a tool by some people to control others or to take benefits for themselves. 

Key words: reason, truth, wild, tool, control, benefit

摘要：《神秘的陌生人》是马克吐温的一篇有名的短篇小说，它也是马克吐温最后的作品。通过这篇小说，马克吐温向我们展示了人类文明的本质以及理性的真相。本文分析了故事中的主要人物，并讨论了理性、野性和文明这三者之间的关系，最终揭示了理性的真相。理性其实并不一定高尚，理性也会成为一些人控制他人为自己谋取利益的工具。

关键字：理性，真相，野性，工具，控制，利益