Twain Lowest Animal W Annotating

1. The issue Twain is satirizing is that youths are being told how to live and how to act when they get older.

What makes a being more evolved? Who are we to say that humans are the most evolved or even the least? It is believed by some that we are descended from the "higher animals", whereas others believe that we have ascended from the "lower animals". In Mark Twain's essay, "The Lowest Animal" (1896), he portrays the idea that the human race has no hope, as we have too many flaws. It is undeniable that we have our flaws, but what creature on this planet does not? The human race may not be perfect, or reaching perfection anytime soon, but it does progress and develop as time goes on. As humans, we are neither substantially higher nor lower than animals. Although foolish actions are performed towards each other and our planet, we have also

The statement that can best be made about the purpose of The Lowest Animal by Mark Twain is that he believes that mankind is immoral, vulgar, wasteful, vengeful, discriminatory; cruel, greed, and obscene. This is because he has a moral sense and conscience despite this, doesn’t make our decisions right and properly. However, contrast with Mark Twain’s thesis; I think human beings are not that all bad and not the lowest animal, but perhaps not the highest animal either.

In “The Lowest Animal”, Mark Twain uses satire to demonstrate that mankind is cruel. In his writing, Twain states, “Man is the only animal that robs his helpless fellow of his country—takes possession of it and drives him out of it or destroys him” (Twain 6). This is a key example of Twain using satire to demonstrate that mankind is cruel. Twain is stating that man is the only animal that takes land and possessions from its own kind, as well as that man is the only animal that destroys his own kind. This is an obvious cruel action and Twain is poking fun at it because humans take part in this action and animals do not. Twain is ridiculing humans as he is stating that mankind is the only animal that acts in this manner, which is a key representation

Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones -- not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.” This is his final example to show that human beings are the lower species. However, I disagree with this experiment, I do not believe that the experiment would end this way. People of different backgrounds are able to live alongside each other, and even become friends. Twain’s theory is disproved by communities great and small, neighborhoods, countries, and the world. If people were truly as evil and violent as Twain makes them out to be, we would have no civilization, no law, and no

In Mark Twain 's satirical essay, “The Damned Human Race,” Twain critiques human beings by declaring that “The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.” The motif of cowardice and the cruelty of humanity is also present in another one of Twain’s most famous works: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Throughout this novel, Twain passionately decries the immorality and corruption of society through the employment of rhetoric and themes. He utilizes irony to draw attention to the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of many Christians and the detrimental effects this hypocrisy can have on society. He implements pathos to highlight the greed and

The purpose of the reading for Mark Twain was to show: “That the human race is of one distinct species. That other animals also more or less distinct and that they are in the procession. They are links in the chain which stretches down from the higher animals to man at the bottom” (Twain). He eases his readers into his claims strategically by presenting his facts and findings. He frantically unravels as he depicts his findings to show the believed evidence as he attempts to stake his claim.

The final sentence of Twain’s essay is a powerful and effective way to end The War Prayer. At the end of the essay, the stranger is described as “a lunatic, because

Imagine if one was asked to compile a list of every flaw of human nature that was demonstrated by the boys in the novel Lord of the Flies. Among the words used would probably be naive, uncivilized, and unfocused. While these words certainly do describe the boys and their poorly constructed society, they also hold the same meaning and truth when they are applied to our own people in our own society. People in both our society and the one described in the novel exhibit a profuse amount of faults and flaws, but this extensive list of faults can be narrowed down to the three most common ones. The three most prominent flaws of human nature are being selfish, desiring power, and not following through with plans.

No human, or animal, or other living being in this world is perfect. Flaws are existent. However, the severity of the flaws can differ, from mild to rather dangerous. Most importantly, flaws develop in a human being due to specific reasons. In Lord of The Flies, the author William Golding’s portrayal of selfishness and pride are significant because they are emotions that prevail when a civilization is absent, showing that humans have a tendency to go towards savagery that is contained by the presence of a civilization.

There are good examples of natural behavior in the book. Huck used instinct a lot. He almost turned Jim in because society told him runaway slaves are criminals, but his natural instinct saw Jim as a friend who needed help. Jim then did the same when he had a difficult choice to make. He could either book it to Cairo, or take Huck to a doctor. He too saw a friend in need and helped Huck out. Again, Twain uses satire to prove a point. In the beginning of the book, Huck Finn appears to be nothing more than a simple, uneducated boy who goes on crazy adventures. At the end of the book, however, you can see that he uses his natural instinct to help him out. Although society has told him that slaves are nothing more than objects, he comes to know and treat Jim as a friend and person. He had numerous opportunities to turn him in, but didn't. In contrast, the seemingly "civilized" people turn out to be the ones who let society tell them what's right and what's wrong, instead of going with their heart like Huck did.

Although people disagree over what makes someone morally “good” or morally “bad,” most people can agree that caring and compassion are good qualities while intolerance and selfishness are bad qualities.  Mark Twain uses satire in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to amplify the good and bad qualities of people.  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn exposes Twain’s thoughts on human nature by showing undesirable qualities of people in the racist white people and showing preferable qualities in the African-American slave, who is a victim of racism.  The racist white people are portrayed by Twain as prejudice and egotistic while Jim portrays compassion.

Through his scathing remarks on the flaws of man, Twain finally actualizes the focal point of his argument, the Defect of Man. He claims that Man, in “true loftiness of character,” cannot claim to surpass even the lowest realm of the Higher Animals nor will he ever be capable of even approaching that altitude (3). Because, as he argues, Man is so “constitutionally afflicted” with this defect, it inhibits his person, permanently halting any acclivity he attempts to make in his standings. The perpetual Defect Twain speaks of, which is present in every human, is the thought to be beneficial, Moral Sense. Contrarily, he asserts that it only has one capacity in man, to facilitate man’s wrongdoings, an ability as valueless as a disease. While he

One of the most controversial topics in modern philosophy revolves around the idea of non-human animals being considered human people. Controversy over what makes up an actual person has been long debated. However, society deems it as a set of characteristics. The average person normally does not realize how complicated a question this is, and in fact many scientists, philosophers, and individuals will side differently on this specific topic. I personally do not believe that animals are capable of being human people, but throughout this argumentative paper I will address critical views presented from multiple philosophers on why this seems to be the case.

Critics generally agree Mark Twain takes on a goal to hold a mirror to society in order to reflect the problems it contains regarding the hierarchy and power of social groups. As critic Heather Shrum points out, “the flawless family will never be found,” but Twain attempts to promote improvement so that each individual works together as a unit to create a solid unit (2). The role and value of women stand as a key issue for him, thus he displays their typical lifestyles that involve their entrapment in positions of inferiority. The efforts made by Twain go towards a demonstration of how basic principles of these families should be shared by means of all the members. Such becomes a necessity in order for a family to truly