In the reading “The Lowest Animal” Mark Twain explained how man should be considered the lowest animal due to its many flaws. Twain conducted a series of experiments and
In "Long Way Down," author Jason Reynolds explores the devastating cycle of violence that hurts many communities. Will, the protagonist, showed us a exciting journey that highlights just how difficult it can be to break free from the vicious cycle of revenge and violence. The author shows this by telling us about how the characters were always told to get revenge, how easy it is to get pulled into the cycle, and that it makes people's vision/mind cloudy making them make bad decisions. The first quote that shows this theme is "No.3 Revenge if someone you love gets killed find the person and kill them.”
In the article “A Change of Heart About Animals” by Jeremy Rifkin published in the Los Angeles Times on September 1, 2003 Rifkin advocates for the ethical treatment of animals and discusses how people perceive, and at times underestimate, animals and their abilities. Two letters were written, one by Lois Frazier and the other by Bob Stevens, to Rifkin in response to “A Change of Heart About Animals” and were published in the Los Angeles Times editorial section. Each letter expresses the author’s individual opinion on Rifkin’s convictions. Rifkin uses scientific studies, such as the ones conducted at Purdue University on pigs’ social behavior (Source #1 par. 4), to support his belief that
Another horrible aspect of human nature is shown in the quote about a field rat getting slaughtered wrongfully, “And there, a field rat, startled, squealing
Some people see humans as a bright and inspiring species while some see the human race as an inexplicably evil and self absorbed group of primates. The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, The Cask Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson highlight these inexplicable acts of murder and inhumanity. For example, in The Veldt, two children allow their parents to be mauled by lions to enable the prolonged use of the nursery. In The Lottery, people are being killed for no reason only to abide by the ways of the society, and in The Cask Amontillado, a man is left to suffer and die in a catacomb as an act of revenge for a minor slight.
Revenge: A Narrative and Scientific Perspective Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Browning’s “My Last Duchess” both revolve around revenge. We are introduced to men who swear vengeance on other characters. Yet, the mindsets of these men are, in some aspects, very different. To truly comprehend a story, we have to understand why authors make their characters behave the way they do in addition to the message being presented. In the case of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “My Last Duchess,” why do both narrators believe murder is totally necessary?
Ethos appeal to ethics and in this article, it is apparent that Mark Twain lost all credibility when he said that he was in deed a scientist. Once you read through the essay you quickly realize that it is written on a metaphorical foundation. Stereotyping every citizen as harsh, irrational and gluttonous. The comparison that Twain uses to illustrate his stances on the matter is the sport of hunting buffalo. Twain describes how man killed seventy-two buffalo for sport and left seventy-one to rot.
In “The Lowest Animal”, Twain infers man’s ability to achieve his self-serving
“It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another” (Twain). In the satire, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, cruelty is used in many different forms to affect an individual and his/her morals. It is true that human beings are cruel, whether in a purposeful way or not. Mark Twain utilizes cruelty to suggest that an individual’s morality is influenced by society; a person’s morals will adapt to match sociocultural norms rather than remaining unique to each individual regardless of their surroundings.
Mark Twain’s satire is present in, “The Lowest Animal,” when he states that man’s moral sense is his ultimate weakness. His literature challenged American views by his experimental discussion of how men have not evolved but have done the vice versa of that. Twain contributed to the idea
Shouldn’t humans be the more advanced?” The most appropriate response to these questions would be to look at the human moral sense and then decide. It is shown throughout Twain’s essay that “lower level animals” have a better sense of morality
The human nature is naturally dark- we come from animals. Everyone, no matter who they are, always has the animal instinct that they are above all, and they should get what they want. This creates a power complex among humans-- the difference between humans and animals, though, is that humans make it possible to act of this. This causes horrible things such as the Holocaust to be created and acted upon, killing millions.
The conceptualization of a better world has always plagued the mind of our species. However, this notion comes with the realization that mankind is and has always been cruel and terrifying, even to each other. Although some people tend to believe that they live in a perfect society, most people have never really explored the dark side of themselves until analyzing the works of Edgar Allen Poe. Both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Poe established themselves as anti-transcendentalists through their spine-chilling literature of horror, giving us the basis to what is today’s horror. They showed us what cruel animals humans can truly be.
Revenge can be a horrible emotion; it can sometimes lead people to do horrible things. By definition, Revenge means to get retribution for a wrongdoing done to you. In my opinion, revenge is mostly caused by fear and the overwhelming feeling of payback Throughout history, revenge, or vengeance, has been altered by several cultures and religions, and even the American culture. Though it often leads one to perform criminal acts, Howard argues that it is a necessary component in the functioning of society. He points out that revenge is a threat that acts as a disincentive to undeserved violence.
Accessed 9 January 2023. Smith, David. “'Less Than Human': The Psychology Of Cruelty.” NPR. 29 March 2011, https://www.npr.org/2011/03/29/134956180/criminals-see-their-victims-as-less-th an-human.
