Greed In Mark Twain's The Lowest Animal

One of the most treacherous qualities that mankind contains is greed. Greed often consumes men into choosing the wrong path which leads to

Greed is the desire for material wealth, or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. For

One of the people’s traits affected by human nature in many stories is greed. As shown throughout, greed is an evil sin. This

Mark Twain says greed is another of man’s failings. Of course, man is somewhat greedy. But, lots of men know how to control their greed, and also know to do favor for others. In other words, they are thoughtful (kind) and have mercy. For this moment, numberless charities are gathering the helpers and donations to support others who suffer by hunger and poorness. For a common example, there’s UNICEF. They work for saving children in hunger, teach them basic education and gender equality, try to prevent HIV & AIDS to children, protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse, and do policy advocacy and partnerships. They do these things only for the needy.

“The Lowest Animal” is Mark Twain’s way of criticizing Darwinism, saying humans did not adapt and become better versions of other animals, the animals are the better versions of us. Twain’s words have rotated my perspective 360 degrees, because he is absolutely right, I just never thought about things as deep as he does until I read “The Lowest Animal”. Human beings are cavalier, ungrateful, and narcissistic beings only thinking for themselves. If they are fortunate to have money, they waste it on things they won’t need or will never use, instead of using it to help others in need.

Greed, as defined by The Webster Dictionary, is the intense, selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. The greed the couple expresses in The Devil and Tom Walker is unmistakable. The devil reveals the treasure buried in the swamp to Tom and offers him a trade. Tom must think about the deal and returns home to inform his wife about the deal. “All her avarice was awakened at the mention of hidden gold, and she urged her husband to comply with the black man’s terms and secure what would make them wealthy for life” (Irving). Tom’s wife could not even fathom what the consequences may be, only that wealth is the ultimate outcome. “Greed has unpleasant effects on our inner emotional lives. The anxiety and restlessness we feel when we long for some possession, and the false assurance that upon gaining it we'll be put at ease and satisfied places us in a literally vicious circle. By contrast, the virtue of generosity is most present not only when we share, but enjoy doing so” (Austin). The wife succumbs to the devil and Tom ends up with the treasure, only to live a lonely, rich, and short life. If the couple had only practiced generosity with the wealth, shared joy would have been experienced by both. In the end, the greed cost Tom his life as well. The black man had come for Tom. “‘Tom, you’re come for,’ said the black fellow gruffly. Tom shrank back, but too late. He had left

Greed is undeniably a characteristic of being human. Even two hundred thousand years ago, when the first examples of modern humans were in a competition for food and survival, they naturally had to be greedy in order to survive and contribute to the gene pool in order for further generations to evolve and adapt. Darwin proved this with his theory of evolution stating that the species that are better adapted to the environment would be able to spend less time looking for food and more time mating (contributing to the gene pool), while the species who are not as well adapted would die off. The play “Macbeth” and the motion picture based on the book “A Simple Plan” display these themes of greed profusely as the main characters from each are affected by the same characteristic that had previously allowed for human survival. Macbeth in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Hank in the film “A Simple Plan” are both affected by greed as they both turn into murders who backstab their friends, they both ruin their relationship with their wives, and they both end up destroying their lives.

Greed affects everybody one way or another. It changes how people act in important situations. Greed can force people into doing what is beneficial to them and not the masses who could have their lives changed for the better based off the decision made by one greedy individual. Greed takes over people's mind and turns them into savages who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Greed is alive and well in Lord Of the Flies by William Golding, Greed can be seen numerous times throughout this fantastic book where dozens of young boys get stranded on an island with no adults and only themselves to stay alive. Throughout the book the boys come to treat each other very harshly and become violent when something does not go their way. This

Greed: the intense and selfish desire for something, greed is something that can control someone's actions or personality. In the story “The Crucibles” Rev Parris let his greed take over his mind and other choices during this period of time.

Greed is a selfish excessive desire for more of something than what is necessary or required. Greed within America has gradually escalated over the years hence; people have become corrupt with selfish ideas to obtain power, resources, and money without limits. Greed within America can be found all around the world in the wealthiest places and in poverty-stricken areas. There are many forms of greed it could be as small as a person stealing from a local mall or as big as a president instigating a war to steal recourses basically any person finding the means to take something more than what is necessary. In the past, there has been instances of greed displayed by our country one of them being The Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was brought about by “Taxation Without Representation” American colonists believed. Britain taxed unfairly to pay off damages that they had sustained during the French and Indian war. American colonists were approximately drinking 1.2 million pounds of tea per year, Britain realized this and made even more money by imposing taxes onto the American colonies not only with tea but also glass, lead, oil, paint and paper. By imposing taxes on the American Colonists on what they considered a

Merrian-Webster Dictionary defines greed as a selfish and excessive desire for more of something. Greed causes people's decisions to be abnormal and cause them to do things they would normally not do. The gas shortage in Texas after the Hurricane Harvey and the characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller both show the motif of greed as seen through the interviews and the characters, Parris and Thomas Putnam. Where their greed causes their decisions to hurt others emotions. We see the motif of greed a lot during the gas shortage during Hurricane Harvey, “The shortage may have been largely prevented if drivers had continued filling their vehicles as normal, according to CNN”(Pearce).

An excellent example of greed consuming people are the attackers. They were willing to do whatever was necessary to get the pearl from Kino and become wealthy. “Greedy fingers went through

Greed in today’s society is like when ISIS committing an attack on U.S. soil on 9/11. Greed has gotten them in a lot of trouble. An example of hate would be the Boston marathon of 2014 being compromised because of an individual ISIS attack. Again, similar to Hitler this bomber had no reason to put fear into the lives of American people. These examples show you how crazy

Fear is a poor motivator for virtue, but an excellent one for greed. Sometimes, greed is simply a desire to have so much that we can't possibly run out.

By itself, avarice does no harm, and may even do social good as a motivator to produce wealth. The desire of the owners and managers of polluting industries to avoid the social cost of their pollution is greed, a morally undeserved portion of income. Greed can take the form of seeking undeserved subsidies or privileges, or protection from competition. Greed also motivates dictators, politicians, and government officials to seek and maintain their power.