Analysis Of Mark Twain's The Lowest Animal

I completely agree with the main idea of Twain’s essay. I also believe that humans are not the highest of the animals. How could the highest of the animals be so willing to kill and do wrong the way humans do? “The cat plays with the frightened mouse; but she has this excuse. She does not know that the mouse is suffering… she only scares the mouse, she does not hurt it; she doesn’t dig out its eyes, or tear off its skin, or drive splinters under its nails) man fashion; when she is done playing with it she makes a sudden meal of it and puts it out of its trouble” (Twain 3).

Cruelty is a vice of many motives. A cruel act is one that inflicts pain, suffering, and difficulty on others. Some of the motives that create cruelty are explored in the novels The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Ender’s Game, and The Catcher in the Rye. Although the characters are in these novels are in different situations, they each experience cruelty in a variety of forms. People use to cruelty to express their fear of change, manipulate others to go beyond their limits, and create new images.

The Lowest Animal by Mark Twain shatters the illusion that the human species is superior in every way to animals. The essay satirizes that animals are superior to the human species through the use of made up experiments. Twain utilizes these experiments to demonstrate the parallels between the behaviors of animals and man. These experiments showcase how animals are the “higher animals”. Even more, the experiments are attempting to prove how we, as man, have descended from these higher animals only to lose a few of their favorable traits. Twain argues that a trait the human species has gained that sets us apart from animals is “moral sense”. He states that this trait is where all of our unfavorable customs stem from, such as cruelty, greed,

Jack the Ripper has left a mystery since his first horrific murder; the information that has been gathered helps narrow him down to specific suspects. In the time between August and November of 1888, in Whitechapel, five prostitutes were mutilated by a knife (“The Hunt”). The women who were known to be killed by him are Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Polly Nichols, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly

On a daily basis, does one think of him or herself to be cruel or violent? Many think that mankind has a nature of being savage. People believe that we acquired the trait of viciousness and that it is inside every one of us. One person that focuses on the savagery of humans is writer William Golding. In his novel Lord Of The Flies and article “Why Boys Become Vicious”, he tells of the production of savagery.

On December 23, 1981, Thomas Sophonow, a Canadian man, was wrongfully accused of murder. 16 year old Barbara Stoppel was ruthlessly killed at the washroom of her workplace. Unfortunately, eyewitnesses mistakenly chose Mr. Sophonow as being the murderer. Eye witnesses stated that a man, whose appearance was very similar to that of Thomas Sophonow, locked the door and made his way to the back of the shop where he was presumed to have strangled Barbara Stoppel to death. Furthermore, while Thomas Sophonow was in custody, he showed an undercover officer a door locking technique.

“These experiments convinced me that there is a difference between man and the higher animals: he is avaricious and miserly; they are not.” This quote by Mark Twain portrays his stance on the idea of mankind’s feeling of superiority over other species. Although some people believe mankind is superior on Earth, the reality is the human species is the lowest species due to the fact that we are the only species to experience greed and stinginess.

Accessed 29 Jan. 2018. Newton, Michael. Unsolved Crimes. Chelsea House, 2008. Infobase eBooks.

The need to survive takes over most of the people, leading them to act cruelly. Even in desperation, there are those who rise above chaos to fight in countering the harshness of society. Zusak suggests that when man understands that they must carry out kindness in the midst of cruelty they are empowered as individuals to fight for the survival of humanity. Zusak’s use of symbols highlight the shining kindness in the darkness cruelty, which in turn gives man the strength to fight for the existence of humanity.

Police say that she has been raped and stabbed. About a year later on November 30, 1985, the police brought in an 18 year old boy named Christopher Abernathy for an interrogation. An acquaintance of him named, Allan Dennis told the police

In “The Lowest Animal”, Mark Twain explains man’s morals and ethics as they compare to the “higher” animals, while in the poem “Ethics” by Linda Pastan, a simple situation is given to show what a person believes is right and wrong; both works reveal the theme hope. Mark Twain takes an interesting approach to explain human nature in his work, “The Lowest Animal”. For example,“[h]e is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it” (Twain 538). People understand that hurting another human being is wrong, whether that be physical or mental abuse. However they sometimes do it anyways for the satisfaction that the action provides.

Summary: In 1983 a young 11-year-old girl, Sabrina Buie, was found in a soybean field in a rural area of Red Springs, NC. She had been raped and murdered. There was no physical evidence as to who committed the crime. However, suspicion was cast upon two half-brothers, Henry Lee McCollum, 19, and Leon Brown, 15, who had recently moved to the area from New Jersey and were considered outsiders.

Another example of metaphor in the novel is how Mr. Twain depicts the characters to enunciate his views of the bigotry of social norms pushing the reader in a sense to understand what he means. Huckleberry Finn with his innocence and Jim with a thirst for equality metaphorically portray the minorities, Pap the trope of humanity that are corrupted and deprived by those that are uncivilized. “You’re educated, too, they say—can read and write. You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? i’ll take it out of you”(Twain 21) Widow Douglas and Miss Watson stand for the comity of religious woman in America and the judge is stands for the government with laws and regulations. Finally and very importantly to be clear Mark Twain utilized Diction and word choice to reveal the different languages in the South derived from these cultures in an effort for the reader to engage in a more realistic approach for his message about slavery, society and standards to be understood. In the beginning of his novel Mr. Twain in a clever detail as the narrator and character explains about the different dialects that are found especially in Missouri “the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary “Pike County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last “(Twain 4) . Mark Twain tells adventurous tale is told by a teenager’s point of view successfully with colloquial language. That is words and expressions of

This catastrophic event occurred on December 13, 1937 in the capital of China, Nanking. These victims were raped, beat, and burned. Japan was making a statement when this occurred which was surrender or this while happen to all your cities. Japan's attack on Nanking, at the time known as Nanjing was not random. China has tried to attack and take Japan's islands, these events date back to 1274.

On Sunday, November 13, 1842 a double murder occurred at Smith Farm in Old Fields, Long Island. The victims, Alexander Smith and and Rebecca Smith, were a wealthy, well- respected married couple who ran Smith farm. George Weeks, the Smiths farmhand, was reporting for work the monday after the murder and heard the dog barking from the work-shed by the Smiths house. George Weeks then became suspicious since the dog was usually inside with Mr. Smith. George then looked in the house and saw that the east room window was broken and Mr. and Mrs. Smith were lying on the floor covered in blood.