Analyzing Mark Twain's 'The Damned Human Race'
The Damned Human Race
Mark Twain stated that he has been studying the traits and dispositions of animals and contrasting them with that of man. Be he ashamed to report that his findings are humiliating and that the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the lower animals should be called the Descent of Man from the higher animal.
Twain did many “experiments” and spent much time observing his subjects. Twain first talks about how man is ravenous. An English Earl organized a buffalo slaughter. He and his party killed 72 buffalo and only ate the meat off of part of one. He tried the same type of experiment with an anaconda where he put seven calves into a cage with an anaconda. The anaconda only ate one and then left the rest alone. …show more content…
Twain believes that the defect in humans is the moral sense which both distinguishes and creates evil at the same time.
Twains essay can be interpreted in many ways because of its symbolism and irony. Personally I feel that Twain’s essay is entirely truthful. Even if Twain was meaning to be ironic I think that he made a lot of good points on the negative aspect of human emotion and life. He provides many situations that are both possible and likely to happen
I think this essay is very affective at portraying Twain’s view of the world because it includes both realistic and relevant experiments, and historical evidence. This realism adds a certain truth to the piece that is hard to ignore. Because of this I feel that this piece is a very strong eye opener to any people living in the dark. It provides useful knowledge about what is going on inside many human heads to some degree. It may even tell you about yourself, but then again if you are suffering from these traits then you will most likely not know because you are already so used to doing these things that they are engrained into your mind. By reading this I got a very good interpretation of humans, which I have never thought about
Mark Twain stated that he has been studying the traits and dispositions of animals and contrasting them with that of man. Be he ashamed to report that his findings are humiliating and that the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the lower animals should be called the Descent of Man from the higher animal.
Twain did many “experiments” and spent much time observing his subjects. Twain first talks about how man is ravenous. An English Earl organized a buffalo slaughter. He and his party killed 72 buffalo and only ate the meat off of part of one. He tried the same type of experiment with an anaconda where he put seven calves into a cage with an anaconda. The anaconda only ate one and then left the rest alone. …show more content…
Twain believes that the defect in humans is the moral sense which both distinguishes and creates evil at the same time.
Twains essay can be interpreted in many ways because of its symbolism and irony. Personally I feel that Twain’s essay is entirely truthful. Even if Twain was meaning to be ironic I think that he made a lot of good points on the negative aspect of human emotion and life. He provides many situations that are both possible and likely to happen
I think this essay is very affective at portraying Twain’s view of the world because it includes both realistic and relevant experiments, and historical evidence. This realism adds a certain truth to the piece that is hard to ignore. Because of this I feel that this piece is a very strong eye opener to any people living in the dark. It provides useful knowledge about what is going on inside many human heads to some degree. It may even tell you about yourself, but then again if you are suffering from these traits then you will most likely not know because you are already so used to doing these things that they are engrained into your mind. By reading this I got a very good interpretation of humans, which I have never thought about