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Summaries of Mark Twain...

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In Mark Twain’s The Damned Human Race he states how the human race is the lowest animal. Twain draws this conclusion by contrasting higher animals to humans. He uses the scientific method to prove “this unpleasant conclusion”. A case Twain studied showed that humans kill for game and for little survival yet animals (anacondas) kill only for survival. He came to his first conclusion that we, humans, have descended from the anaconda, not the other way around. The second case he studied is the human “hunger for more”. Twain says that humans will never have enough to please their craving for more. Animals only collect what they need, therefore they are higher than humans. Humans are the animals that act on planned revenge which is a rarity to higher animals. He goes on to say that men have no respect for the ther sex unlike roosters who are higher. Man created indecency, vulgarity, and obscenity. They are only confined to humans, not animals. Animals are unashamed of ho they are. Man is the only animal who is cruel, who enjoys causing pain and suffering. A cat may play with a mouse, but he does not know that he is causing another harm. Afterward, the cat may eat the mouse therefore putting it out of its misery. Twain states that man is the only animal to have wars. Humans are the only animal to want to kill its own species. Higher animals provide for themselves as opposed to humans who enslave their own species to provide for them. Man is the only animal who can kill and sit under the same flag. Humans are the only religious animal yet somehow we are the only animal going to the afterlife. Twain conducted an experiment comparing a plethora of different animals to people with different ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. He went away for two days and came back. His results were disturbing. The animals were quite fine, but the cage with the humans was deathly. There was not a single being alive in the cage. The higher animals did not fight each other and were reasoning with each other unlike the humans. Humans are the only animal who has moral sense. It allows them to do wrong and without it, humans would be a higher animal. Evil cannot happen in an animal who does not want it. Humans have a conscious of wanting evil. Twain comes to the unpleasant conclusion, “we have descended and degenerated” from higher animals. Humans are not the higher animal, they are the lowest. In Mark Twain’s The Damned Human Race he comes to the conclusion that humans are the lowest animal. I agree with Twain’s statement that we are the lowest. I believe this because we, as humans, act as though every situation we are put into is a game. As the study showed, the hunters were wasteful as the anaconda only took what it needed. We take more than we need or can take. It is human pride. Humans think more is better and we need to be better than others. Twain states the facts he has learned and says them bluntly. He did not downplay the severity of what we are. I like how he said we invented, “indecency, vulgarity, and obscenity”. It reminds me of the story of Adam and Eve. How they were ashamed of themselves physically and mentally. I also agree with Twain that man is the only patriot. I strongly believe in world peace and do not like conflict and Twain states that man is the only animal who can kill and try to form peace under one flag. It shocked me to read this. I knew it was true and we see it happen everyday but he says it so bluntly it hurts. I like how Twain says humans are the only religious animal. He goes on to saying that the other animals will not go to the afterlife, unlike ourselves, who will. My belief is that all animals will go to the afterlife, but we, humans, have choice. We have the choice to either go or not. I think Twain does a remarkable job getting his point across that we humans are the lowest animal. Humans have choice and we always choose wrong....