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The Damned Human Race by Mark Twain

Decent Essays

Mark Twain is arguably one of the greatest authors of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, writing unforgettable titles such as “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” which are still read by many today. However, it may be shocking for some to know he also endeavored in argumentative writing as well. “The Damned Human Race” is one such article. As with any Mark Twain writing, it is filled with emotion and thought. Although this article is extremely persuasive, due to Mark Twain’s dramatic word choices playing on the emotions of the reader, closer examination reveals his article illogical due to relevance as a scientist and fallacious reasoning found within the article. In this article, Mark Twain tugs at the heartstrings of his readers by writing, in detail, stories of how humans differ from what he refers to as “lower animals” (Twain 1). One such example places his readers in a mental scene by detailing an organized group buffalo hunt that was intended to impress an English earl (Twain 2). Twains described how “seventy-two of those great animals” were taken and how only a portion of one animal was consumed while the remaining was left to “rot” (Twain 2). Through his description of the hunt, Mark Twain was able to capture an emotion of sorrow and anger from his readers before explaining his experiment that was conducted to evaluate the difference between man and animal. In this experiment, Twain recalls placing seven calves into a pen

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