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Mark Twain's Essay 'The Lowest Animal'

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When you think about humans do you imagine caring compassionate creatures, or do you paint the horrendous image of society? Mark Twain wrote a satirical essay “The Lowest Animal” to satirize the differences between humans and animals further proving his general idea of evolution compared to the Darwinian Theory. Twain uses an assortment of trials to prove that Man has descended from the higher animals.

Twain uses human behavior to prove his belief that humans are in fact not superior to any animal. When expressing his theories, Twain noted “The hunters killed seventy-two of those great animals; and ate part of one of them and left seventy-one to rot (Pg. 1, Line 38-40)”. This proved that mankind is selfish, wasteful, and barbaric. The hunters see killing as a form of entertainment and are careless about it by leaving a murderous mess behind as if the great animals were never alive to begin with. …show more content…

The grateful reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied (Pg.1, Line 41-44)”. The anaconda no longer showed interest in the calves and only took what it needed. The anaconda proves its position is much higher than that of a man because man would have slaughtered them all merciless.

Twain claims that man is the only animal that has a burning passion for revenge. Not only do they want revenge, but they seek opportunities to inflict harm on others both physically and verbally. Twain argues “Men keep harems, but it is by brute force, privileged by atrocious law, which the other sex was allowed no hand in making (Pg.2, Line 70-73)”. Man, and rooster do not compare because the rooster is selfless, and man is selfish. Humans make excuses to cover up their inhuman actions while animals remain

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“Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity (these are strictly confined to man); he invented them” (Twain). In this satirical essay Mark Twain discusses his ideas about mankind’s useless morel sense. He observes that humans are the only species to possess a moral sense, yet they use it to perform evil. He states after comparing animals to humans he is humiliated to conclude that man is the least evolved of all species. Despite his use of satire, false authority and hasty generalizations, his piece was successful.

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By nature all human beings have a different opinion in term of man characteristics and behavior of being "the highest" or "the lowest animal". Mark Twain uses scathering sacarm and bitter irony and numerous examples in his writing to demonstrate that mankind is below all other animals. Although Mark Twain suggests his idea in " Lowest Animal" though mankind is superior than all other types of animals. Throughout this essay we will discuss the techniques and rhetorical appeals made by Twain and show on a scientific note that even if mankind the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals they are more virtuous, furthermore reject the idea of man being the second-rate animal and demonstrate such conjecture is false on a biblical essence ( Christianity

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He even looks at man as a "monkey" or an "Australian fledgling" to show there are "chuckling asses". He jumps at the chance to jab fun so as to demonstrate his point of view of man being positioned as "the most reduced creature". He should complete his visual cue rundown of man showing fiendishness however has one thought about the opposite side? On the off chance that Twain or someone else began discovering comes about man being equitable, they may wind up with an opposing conclusion: man is "the most astounding creature". It is very unexpected in light of the fact that while watching the title of the article, one would expect a kind of creature being positioned as second-rate yet in actuality Twain is alluding to man as subordinate.

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This also shows that they saw them as animals. To elaborate on that statement they basically saw them as race horses. After a race the horses that finish in last they are killed, but if they did well enough, they were expected to work harder and do better until they

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In “The Lowest Animal” by Mark Twain, a series of mockery or satire is being used throughout the essay. Twain takes it upon himself to disclaim Darwin's theory of human evolution, and the idea that humans are better than animals. He does this by conducting different experiments to show animal superiority, by showing the flaws and faults that humans have that animals don’t. He puts human nature in ridicule when he shows the cowardly traits we have within us,such as Greed, jealousy, and cruelty. Twain mentions the organization of a buffalo hunt for the “entertainment of English earl”, he explains how “they killed seventy-two of those great animals; and ate part of one of them and left the seventy-one to rot” showing how far the greed of humans

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The Lowest Animal by Mark Twain shatters the illusion that the human species is superior in every way to animals. The essay satirizes that animals are superior to the human species through the use of made up experiments. Twain utilizes these experiments to demonstrate the parallels between the behaviors of animals and man. These experiments showcase how animals are the “higher animals”. Even more, the experiments are attempting to prove how we, as man, have descended from these higher animals only to lose a few of their favorable traits.

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In “The Lowest Animal” one of the experiments was they put a anaconda in a cage with multiple calves and the snake only killed and ate one of the calves and left the others alone. In the story the English

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The scene of Mark Twain’s essay, Two Views of the River, takes place on the Mississippi River where Twain navigated the waters. Throughout the essay, Twain describes the river and the different experiences that affect his views of it. In describing his overall attitude, he provides imagery of the river, shifts his perspective, and uses figurative language to appeal to all audiences. Throughout the essay, Twain describes the river in immense detail, appealing to all senses.

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Also,“[t]he passion of revenge is unknown to the higher animals” (Twain 537). Man cannot get over the

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Some examples that Mark Twain has compared humans behaver as being low fashion compared to other animals was in his experiment with the earl and the anaconda. The earl using hunting/killing as a sport/game, away to be entertained. The anaconda clearly hunting only for its need to continue to exist. This experiment did prove that humans are crueler and constantly destroys thing they have no use for. We see this happening a lot, example, humans keep cutting down the woods, only to build another mall or a condominium; even though there is one about a mile away, humans will still build it.

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