Critical Essay of Mark Twain’s “The Damned Human Race”

Mark distich, through a doughy point of badinage, irony, and a not-so-subtle attempt at the scientific method, set ups readers with an stiff, scarcely flawed, argument as to why worlds atomic number 18 the lowest of animals in his hear The cursed piece Race. While the establish is successful in providing facts that support dyads advance of humans have descended from animals, and not the opposite way around, his bias and pessimism towards the human race in general strongly emanates from the essay, and he does not provide any opportunity for the reader to gather any evidence to the setback of his beliefs, further limiting the legitimacy of his argument. pair provides several sound reasons for stating that humans atomic number 18 worse than animals, all conveyed in an effective manner. He makes simple and classic statements which ar principally believed to be legitimate of humans and not animals, and elaborates on these statements to pinpoint just what is wrong wit h human beings. For example, Twain states Man is the l wholeness(prenominal) Patriot (Twain). While most believe this to be a arrogant trait of humans, Twain straight follows this statement by stating that humans ar the precisely species to kill one another for their countries, writing Man is the solo Patriot.He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy disbursal to grab slices of other peoples countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals in the midst of campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal mating of man, with his mouth.(Twain) Twain goes to on to point out that humans are the only species that take slaves, are the only species to take more than they need, and the only species that offer religions, and provides specific examples of different types of animals behaving differently in this regard (Twai n). His points are effective arguments because he uses facts and strong language to solidify each point that he makes, and does so in a way that leaves little for argument.While the points that Mark Twain makes in his essay are for all intents and purposes true, and he conveys his beliefs in a very effective manner, the essay as a whole is not a successful argument, largely because he primarily uses only one of the three main means of persuasion. Twain provides facts throughout his essay that are generally hard to argue with in regards to the bad things that humans are capable of that animals are not, but does not use emotion to motivate a response from the reader.This could be by design because of his use of heavy satire, and the fact that this was written in a scientific manner rather, which generally are written to not contain the authors emotions. There is a collect lack of ethical appeal, or ethos, in Twains essay because of the fact that he is writing this in an official sci entific capacity, though he is understandably not a scientist. He also does not provide instruction that may contradict his beliefs, which prohibits the reader from gathering opposing views of the story.Twain could have easy provided facts and arguments that point out the good things that human beings are capable of that animals are not, such as charities, social welfare programs, and medical care. With that said, The Damned Human Race is an essay containing heavy satire, something that Twain makes apparent almost immediately by stating I have not guessed or speculated or conjectured, but have used what is commonly called the scientific method (Twain).By the time that this essay was published in 1905, Twain was an established as a long-familiar author, known for his humor and famous works rather than scientific prowess. Also, at this point in his life, Twain was also very open to the highest degree his overall disdain for the human race in general, perhaps repayable to circumsta nces regarding his family and life experiences, though it has been debated that Twain had no more of a troubled life than most normal people (Byrne 19).All of these things prohibit his essay from being considered a legitimate argument, and points to it being more a rabbit on by the author, however effective it may be. While Mark Twain provides many solid facts about the human race that are true and should be noted by the reader, the heavy doses of clear bias and satire overwhelm any legitimacy the essay could possibly carry. It is also problematical to ignore the cynicism throughout the piece, even in the last line when Twain is describing the human races declension from animals, stating, Below us, nothing (Twain).