Mark Twain wrote and published “Cannibalism in the Cars” in 1868, however, the meaning underlying the political cautionary tale persists one hundred and fifty-six years later, in modern 2024. Twain published “Cannibalism in the Cars” during the height of a mass political shift following the end of the Civil War and the transition into the reconstruction era that was met with great political unease. The era of political unease set the perfect stage for Twain’s story, as it lends the tension that brings importance to the metaphor Twain is exploring with “Cannibalism in the Cars”. Twain uses “Cannibalism in the Cars” as a device to open up conversation surrounding politics, Twain draws attention to the topic of voting and participation within …show more content…
Twain points out that the vote that is least heard, is oftentimes the voice that needs to be heard the most. He is bringing attention to the way in which the least heard group is often the most affected. While there may in this case only be one vote that is decided against, that voter is the most affected by the outcome, having not been heard he ultimately loses his voice further by losing his life. Twain’s metaphor does a wonderful job of pointing out the characteristics of our political system; he brings to the surface the animalistic, dehumanizing, fearful reality of those who participate in the United States political system. The dehumanizing nature of politics that “Cannibalism in the Cars” draws out is deeply analyzed by Adam Brooke Davis and Gerd Hurm, in their article “At the Margins of Taste and the Center of Modernity: Mark Twain’s ‘Cannibalism in the Cars’”. “The metaphor of cannibalism is tied to fear of major cultural realignments, fear that culture itself will ultimately fail in its essential function (as an idea, at any rate, if not in fact) of distinguishing the human from the "lower"
Ace Atkins begins by providing the reader with a scenario of two distinct persons driving a Prius and a Ford truck. He describes the stereotypical thoughts that may run through the Prius driver’s mind of the Ford driver such as being “a red stater”. The tone of Atkins introduction is certainly humorous and nonchalant as he explains that the man behind
Mark Twain in his essay “A Presidential Candidate” uses hyperbole, irony, and diction to accost politicians and show their faults to the well-read voters. Twain’s use of hyperbole, which is seen through his past stories such as the incident involving his grandfather, establishes an exaggerated sense of himself as a candidate which creates the image of a forthright yet malicious man running for office. He also uses reductio ad absurdum to show the ridiculousness of the politicians running for office and how they are deceitful about small things while he is willing to tell how he killed his grandfather for snoring. Twain’s diction as seen through such phrases as “prowl”, “heartless brutality”, and “Napoleonic” set up a sarcastic tone that was
Humans tend to think of themselves as the best of the best and consider other beings to be pathetic in comparison. In Mark Twain’s satirical essay,”The Lowest Animal,” he argues that in fact, humans are the ones that are the lowest animals, not the superior species as they like to think. Twain utilizes concrete examples, irony, and satire to make his argument that humans are greedy and foolish, making them the lowest animals.
Mark Twain quickly rose to fame after the release of his story, “Jim Smiley and the Jumping Frog,” and he continued to make a name for himself through the release of stories such as The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Twain saw immense success and fame; he was easily recognizable and wildly popular, even to the point of being called “the greatest American humorist of his age” by the New York Times. In short, Twain was as close to being an international sensation as one could hope for in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, it wasn’t until the later days of his writing career that Twain became so well known. As photography was expensive and hard to come by, caricatures were the method of choice to portray celebrities. And, as
The structure of the essay leads the reader to make conclusions about the morality of the human species. Twain presents specific examples of human deficiency that certain populations can identify with, then moves to broader topics that anyone can relate to. Twain describes mankind's moral dilemma by saying (quote). Allowing the readier to come to the conclusion that man kind is jaded when it comes to issues on morality Twain has successfully achieved his goal. He does state his opinion but does not force the reader to come to the same idea. The manner that he presents the information allows the reader to come to the conclusion that humans are flawed in comparison to animals in a logical manner even though the overall theme of the essay is a satire
Owning a person to work for less or no money has been practiced for years. Like other countries, people in the United States also owned slaves. Since the north was mostly industrial, they didn’t need slaves. On the other hand, southerners owned thelarge plantation and they needed cheap labor in order to make profit. Slavery was a backbone of south’s prosperity. Yet, arguments on whether to emancipate slavery divided the nation in half. To keep the country united, both sides tried to convince each other why slavery is right or wrong. There were many documents written about slavery. One of the document that talks about why slavery is beneficial to our society is the excerpt of Cannibals All by a slave owner, George Fitzhugh. While there are document that support slavery, there are also documents written by fugitive slave that talk about their life as a slave. One of them includes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass. He was born in
In conclusion, Mark Twain exposes humanity throughout two opposite episodes of violence and joy. The author uses these episodes as metaphors to prove humanities cowardly actions and the lengths people will go to, to not look
In Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” chronicles both the erosion of childhood innocence and the dissolution of a particular sibling relationship. In order to suggest these themes, the narrative foregrounds imagery of movement and stasis, conveying their meanings in complex ways. As such, it’s no surprise that the title of the story itself not only describes the symbolic importance of the convertible to their brotherhood, but also embodies freedom to transcend one’s societal confinements, which, in this case, imparts the literal power of movement. The car gives both of them a kind of agency that lifts them from their economic and social disadvantages as Native Americans. Hence the story establishes the joyful memories of Lyman and Henry’s brotherhood with an extended description of their movement throughout the land, going as far up to Alaska. Not surprisingly, Lyman thinks that making Henry focus on the car, an agent and symbol of freedom, will ultimate save his brother’s soul and regain his spirit. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a false assumption.
Politics is dirty and competitive and has not changed between 1879 and 2018. It is a complex system of jargon, charm, facts, and lies. Mark Twain’s “The Presidential Candidate” satirically expresses the essence of both old-world and modern politics as a presidential candidate who blatantly tells the truth of his wrongdoings. As a politician, one must be an open book. Their life must be truthfully written on the pages for the readers to analyze and evaluate their credibility as leaders. “The Presidential Candidate” resonates both in 1879 and 2018 with his use of humor, use of diction and use of subtlety.
The parallelism that is introduced in the two long sentences that make up paragraph 14 emphasize Twain’s belief in people. He shows that people believe that they are putting time and effort into thinking about politics and deciding what party they belong to when in all actuality they are influenced by those around them. This can be seen when twain states “they read its literature, but not that of the other side” (720). This shows that many people are actually clueless of the whole picture. They only receive information about a single part and make their decision based off of that, without taking the time out to view both sides.
“Things like morals, religion, and politics, get their following from surrounding influences and atmospheres.” (pg. 4) Twain says this to show that anything you can possibly think of, even things commonly found in everyday life stemmed from some sort of opinion. Furthermore, he asserts that self-approval is achieved mainly through public approval, which is the definition of conformity. Paragraph seven states that political emergencies create the greatest example of conformity because being in the majority means that you’ll never be in the wrong. So to speak, no one will judge you for a difference of opinion because most people agree with yours. Once again Twain uses an example that appeals to logos, and can be applied to everyday life. Paragraph eight continues the issue of politics by saying men think with their parties, not their brains. No one will seek out the opposite argument because that isn’t what their party believes, therefore it doesn’t
The short story, “The Damned Human Race”, seems to take the form of a scientific journal. Throughout the passage, Twain writes of experiments he performed and hypotheses he had developed by watching the human race. The whole article has almost a mocking tone. He writes of how he was able to put several animals in a cage together and they all “lived together in peace;even affectionately”, but when he placed people of different religions and ethnicities together, they all killed one another. I think that he used this tone, because it is effective in creating a satire, which is highly effective at catching people’s attention. It makes a passage memorable, because it almost seems ridiculous. This use of tone completes the idea that humanity is
At the turn of the twentieth century “Muckraking” had become a very popular practice. This was where “muckrakers” would bring major problems to the publics attention. One of the most powerful pieces done by a muckraker was the book “The Jungle”, by Upton Sinclair. The book was written to show the horrible working and living conditions in the packing towns of Chicago, but what caused a major controversy was the filth that was going into Americas meat. As Sinclair later said in an interview about the book “I aimed at the publics heart and by accident hit them in the stomach.”# The meat packing industry took no responsibility for producing safe and sanitary meat.
In the early 1900’s America begin to transform rapidly. Many immigrants started moving to the United States in the early 1900’s with the hopes of living the “American Dream.” However, that glittering and gleaming American lifestyle is merely a distant ideal for the immigrants living in Packingtown, the meatpacking district of Chicago. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle portrays life through the eyes of a poor workingman struggling to survive in this cruel, tumultuous environment, where the desire for profit among the capitalist meatpacking bosses and the criminals makes the lives of the working class a nearly unendurable struggle for survival. The novel The Jungle is a hybrid of history, literature, and propaganda. Sinclair, a muckraking journalist of the early 1900s exposed to the nation an industry grounded by the principles of deceit and filth, and offered a new resolution to end this problem. The novel and its massive depiction of the grotesque and unsanitary conditions created an impetus for the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act (McCage 1) which transformed American lifestyle. The Jungle is notorious for exposing the grotesque and unsanitary conditions that existed in the meat packing industry; however, the novel’s purpose expands beyond this issue and reveals the disillusionment of the American dream, the evils of a capitalistic system, and a feasible plan to end corruption.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a time of great social and political change. With an influx of immigrants rushing to work in factories, the dynamics of culture were swiftly changing. The naïve, new Americans were easily persuaded into making decisions in voting that were greatly influenced by the corrupt individuals guiding them (Sinclair, 1906, pp. 97-98). Unknowingly, these immigrants were working very hard to prevent themselves from achieving the heavily desired “American Dream.” Upton Sinclair’s own political beliefs are reflected in his startling novel, The Jungle, which details a believable account of such an immigrant’s experience. Though it is often thought of as an exposure of the unsanitary meat packing industry,