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Jesse Arenas
Osman
13 March, 2019
What is Twain’s overall purpose in writing The Lowest Animal? How effective is his use of
Hypocritical Standards
Human beings are immoral, unethical, and greedy compared to other animals thus
making them the lowest animal. Mark Twain expresses this sentiment passionately in the
excerpt “The Lowest Animal,” nevertheless he uses satire as a way to deliver his message
effectively that the human race is incoherently abrasive. He provides many examples and
comparisons between the Human Race and the “lower” animals in the world.
Lowest Animal.” By making the comparison between humans and other animals in a cage, he
makes the statement that Humans are cruel. This is proven when he states: “These Reasoning
Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a higher court” (Twain
186, 187-189). Twain essentially states how these humans had a difference in belief of religion
and killed each other to take it to a “higher court” meaning heaven. Humans perform
unnecessarily cruel acts compared to other animals, Twain exemplifies this through his examples
Humans are hypocrites, counterintuitively creating standards when they fall beneath their
own ideals. Twain can be quoted as saying: “Man is the Reasoning Animal...he blandly sets
himself up as the head animal of the lot; whereas by his own standards, he is the bottom one”
(Twain 185, 162/168-170). Twain conveys the overall message of this passage through this
quote by stating how Man’s own standards place him on the bottom of the temple of morality
and ethicality. Humans are immoral and cruel, although the definition of morality is up for one’s
own interpretation, it still ties into the theme of what’s ethical, and what’s unethical.
In a room filled with cruelty and immorality, man is isolated, with no other animal for
company. In “The Lowest Animal,” Twain also states on page 184, lines 116-117: “Man is the
Cruel Animal. He is alone in that distinction.” Twain argues that the only cruel animal is Man,
and goes on to state on page 184 how “Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who
enslaves.” He states how “higher” animals do their own work, and don’t enslave others to
complete the work for them. He then proves this by providing the example of birds who search
for their own food and provide for their families without enslavement, referencing the job of
Man, to constantly work for someone over them, and have people working under them.
The importunate abrasiveness of Human beings drastically sets them apart from other
animals, however not in the way most humans would like to believe. The unethical behavior of
Man is exactly what sets him as the “lower animal.” Twain uses satire and comparative
examples of man with other animals to express the message and overall purpose of “The Lowest
Animal” successfully. That message being that Humans are cruel, immoral, greedy, and
unethical, whereas compared to other animals, they (humans) are beneath them.
Arenas, 3
Works Cited
Twain, Mark. “The Lowest Animal” California Collections, Grade 11. Kylene Beers, et al., eds.