Similarities Between The Damned Human Race By Arthur Miller And Walden

Man Vs Animal “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel” (Twain). In Mark Twain’s “The Damned Human Race”, he uses satire to demonstrate the irony in man thinking they are above all. He criticizes themes that can both be seen in The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Walden by Henry David Thoreau. To begin, Twain’s story focuses on the evolution of man and animal. He begins by comparing man to the food chain. Also, he explains the differences between the way of life of the two. He attempts to prove how man is actually at the bottom of the chain, not at the top like they like to believe. Man is actually in denial and more corrupt then they believed. Twain uses satire by showing the irony in man thinking they are at the top. The irony is that, he is comparing two things that should not be compared, Twain further tries to support his point that man is at the bottom of everything.

For example, he states that “they killed seventy-two of those great animals; and ate part of one of them and left the seventy-one to rot” (Twain 2). He goes on to compare an anaconda who, given the same opportunity, only ate what was needed. The anaconda left the other cows alone, man killed too much for no reason. This shows how wasteful man can actually be. In connection to Walden, a book written by Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau goes on to say, “the price of anything is the amount of life you need to exchange for it” (Walden). They both argue that man should be more simple in how they live their lives. If they change their way of life and be more like the anaconda, there could be less waste. Thoreau believes that the way of life should come at a cost and Twain believes that man is more wasteful than need be. Twain also thinks animals are far less wasteful than man