Preview

The Damned Human Race

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
299 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Damned Human Race
“The Damned Human Race”
Mark Twain the Human Race more superior that that of the (so-called) “lower-animal”? Is

Assignment 1) Is

Charles Darwin’s theory in the “Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals” an accurate assumption?
Assignment -2and 4)

THESIS In the text “The Damned Human Race” author,

Mark Twain uses satire to ridicule Darwinian’s theory in regards to the Ascent of Man from Lower Animals. Twain believes the opposite from Darwin; he believes that Lower Animals ascended from the Human Race. In this text Twain provides sarcastic behaviorial examples for comparison between animals and man-kind to support his theory. Assignment 4: 1) “These experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals: He is avaricious and miserly, they are not.” (pg. 672) a. Explains that the ficticious experiments conducted in this text have supported Twains declaration that Animals Ascended for Humans and not the opposite.
2)

“Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel.” (pg. 673) a. This allows an open dialogue of another difference between man and animals. This quote allows the opportunity to speak of examples showing needless violence, vulgarity and indecency that is exhibited by humans but not by animals.

3) “He has just one stupendous superiority. In his intellect he is supreme.”(pg.677) a. This gives credit where credit is due, however allows for a final sarcastic example to conclude Twain’s theory on the Ascent of Man from Lower Animals.

Assignment 3)

The imaginative contrast that Twain uses to describe the differences between

man and animals suggests that animals did ascend from the human race.
Assignment 3)

Twain uses ficticious and historical examples of moral atrocities conducted by

man that subsequently excludes animal behavior for comparison.

.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Paragraph one- In her book, Opening Skinner’s Box, Lauren Slater maintains that “…there’s that one percent of me that’s not from the forests, and this fragment of self can see that to hurt one is somehow, somewhere, to hurt all.” (153-154) In making this comment, Slater urges us to realize that hurting these animals is like hurting ourselves or our loved ones. We are after all as she explains earlier, more monkey than human.…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Satire and irony have a long and storied history in European literature. This year, we briefly analyzed Voltaire, a French writer and poet who used these literary devices to criticize the unjust society in which he lived. The American heir to this European tradition is Mark Twain, who was one of the first American writers to be known and read all around the world. Twain uses the powerful tools of satire, situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony to make incisive commentary on a variety of topics. We see this clearly in his masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Discovering Ardi

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the 1800’s Charles Darwin, a physician of his time discovered the theory of natural selection, stating that a genetic change in population results in differential reproductive success through plants, and animals including humankind. Darwin concluded that humans had evolved through great apes by the process of natural selection. After many years of searching for ancient fossils to piece together evolution and Ardi was discovered, palaeoanthropologists have developed the “Savanna Hypothesis”, stating that the general difference between hominids and apes were caused by hominids being forced out of the forests and onto grasslands, developing a gradual way of life in bipedalism. This hypothesis has long been the conclusion to evolution and the upright walking species.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charles G.D Roberts is known for his 250 odd realistic animal stories published in the contemporary period. These so called realistic animal stories may be thought of as a response to Darwin’s exploration of the connections between man and animal; it is around this time when the “Origin of Species” broke down the barriers between the two. “Do Seek Their Meat from God”, one of Roberts’ animal stories, is no different in its ability to force a comparison between man and beast. With that said, in an essay concerning “Do Seek Their Meat from God” Seifert explains that “Roberts opens the story with a seemingly traditional nineteenth century landscape description… The wilderness is not depicted for its own sake…but directly bears on the theme, plot,…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cited: Attell, Kevin. Novels for Students: Man and Animal. Stanford University Press: Stanford California, 2004.…

    • 1937 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Huck Finn Too Mature?

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages

    fact shows that Twain made his own character superior in a way to the others,…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pudd'Nhead Wilson

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cited: Twain, Mark. Pudd 'nhead Wilson. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. 1-121.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Is Man the Lowest Animal?

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "...some hunters on our Great Plains organized a buffalo hunt for the entertainment of an English earl--that and to provide some fresh meat for his larder...” Through this over simplification of man, Twain successfully explains to the reader man’s love for violence. man finds entertainment in violence while animals are only violent because it is how they survive. If man finds entertainment through violence or even death, and animals commit violence for survival, then man is naturally inferior to animals based on man’s evil mindset.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twain’s philosophical beliefs are most valid because he highlights how animals indeed avoid revenge; they in fact are not even aware it exists. Twain additionally states that humans willingly created evil in the form of cursing, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. “Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity--these are strictly confined to man; he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing; they are not ashamed.” Animals, being subjects of nature, naturalize each and every aptitude and sense they carry. Twain, in the contents of his essay, mentioned how, unlike animals, humans tend to kill for leisure; hunters will strike down twenty buffalos, use one for nutrition, and abandon the other to rot to their cores. Twain’s ideal that humans are the lowest of all animals oppose Gould’s belief that unnoticeable acts of kindness redeem humanity; however, Gould’s notion is flawed once questioned on the value of a human life. For example, how many acts of kindness must be made to…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mark Twain’s satire consistently addresses the shortcomings of man, as seen in both his commentary on the hypocrisy of slavery within The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the juxtaposition of humans with “primal” animals within “The Damned Human Race.” By taking characteristics generally considered to be superior aspects of humans, such as patriotism, religion and reason, and revealing inferiorities instead, Twain satirizes humans’ assumption of superiority based solely on augmented intellectual capabilities. Twain views religion not as a path toward enlightenment, but as an excuse to butcher members of opposing faiths. Combining a positive characteristic and its antithesis in a single sentence— “He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight”—allows Twain to reveal inconsistencies within mankind’s “spotless”…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.” This quote about animal abuse is from Thomas Edison, an engineer known for his life changing innovations that continue to impact on our world today. Animal abuse is a long-debated problem, often causing the world’s population to split into two sides over the dispute. On one side, are those who say that humans are far superior to animals and other living beings who have been put here solely to feed or entertain us. On the other hand, there are those of us who recognise that these “inferior life forms” should have the same rights as us, and so they deserve the same treatment.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Lowest Animal

    • 300 Words
    • 2 Pages

    He ridicules his claim, the Descent of Man from Higher Animals, by presenting humans’ wrongdoings to bring about change to mankind. In The Lowest Animal, Twain is right with his claim that humans are patriotic, religious and slothful but good deeds shouldn’t be overlooked and humanity shouldn’t be generalized by the actions of the few.…

    • 300 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story “The lowest Animal” written by mark twain, he explains his logic on how he thinks…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I both agree and disagree with mark twains essay. He did live in a different time, however cruelty still exists the same, just in a different age and time. If one analyzes the Human race or all animals, one can find vulgarity in both creatures. To say which is of a higher or lower status because of barbaric qualities both humans and animals both have, cannot be compared properly. Animals do some awful things to each other as well as human beings . Mark Twain just lists human’s bad aspects. There are lots of positive aspects of humans, he goes into detail of only the negative aspects of human. If there are bad people, there can also be good people. It’s true in these days, and was also true in the time which Mark Twain lived in. In 1860s, when Mark Twain lived in, there was an American Civil War and this is most likely why he is so ashamed of human beings. there’s something he missed about humans One has to look outside of all the bad and evil and recognize those who are becoming vegetarians to save an animal, going green to save the planet, those who become doctors to treat sick people. If we didn’t have a moral sense how would we be capable of doing these things? Mark Twain is pointing out to many of the flaws that the human race has, and not enough of the qualities that we posses. these points can go both ways with man and animals, although, I agree on his point about religion. I see where he is coming from completely when he states “Man is the only Religious Animal.” He goes on to say how historic people murdered others because someone’s religious beliefs didn’t fit to theirs ,whereas animals don’t murder for religious reasons and never will. his essay is intense and really gets one thinking, it was well written and described in…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays