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The Damned Human Race Analysis

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Mark Twain’s essay “The Damned Human Race” proposes: “... that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals”. He reveals his view about society and how human nature is devolving. Mark Twain depicts this idea in his novel, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by demonstrating a young boy’s attempt to escape a corrupt civilization with his runaway slave, Jim. Even though they had different lives and beliefs, Jim and Huck share the ultimate goal of being free from the wicked society. Through the world which Huckleberry Finn live, Mark Twain satirizes the greed, racism, and hypocrisy of human nature to illustrate the complications of Southern society. Throughout the novel, Twain emphasizes the greed …show more content…

For example, Buck’s cousin died without doing anything wrong: “... so he stopped and faced around so as to have the bullet holes in front, you know, and the old man he rode up and shot him down” (Twain 121). This quote demonstrates the hatred of one family toward the other over generations, or the ‘feud’, in the Southern society. Twain emphasizes the beliefs of human in a civilized society, yet, they still commit the killing and revenging toward each other, which satirizes the hypocrisy of civilization. In addition, Huck describes how religious Miss Watson and the others are: “By-and-by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers and then everybody was off to bed” (11). This quote depicts the contradiction between people’s religious belief and slavery. Twain highlights the religious hypocrisy by contrasting the action to the belief of people in Southern society. On one hand, Twain shows the ideal aspects in society such as religious belief and civilization, on the other hand, he satirizes the flaws that contradict those ideals such as slavery, racism, and

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