How Does Mark Twain Use Ethos In The Damned Human Race

Mark Twain is recognized as one of the most talented and influential writers of classic American literature. Twain possessed an intangible skill that made him connect with the readers of his works. Perhaps a great example of this connection is in his work titled The Damned Human Race. This great piece is a work of satire set out to prove that animals are nobler than humans because humans are aware of and choose evil. Twain wins the reader through use of logical fallacies, appealing to the reader’s emotions and logic despite lacking credibility as an authoritative source or addressing any counter arguments.

Mark Twain’s appeal of pathos with his audience is superb. Mark Twain tells a story near the beginning of The Damned Human Race about

a hunting expedition in which the human hunters killed seventy-two buffalo for sport but only ate part of one (2). This example resonates with many Americans who were taught at a very young age to “clean their plates” and “waste not, want not”. Twain pulls the reader on his side with many of these kinds of examples. Another use of pathos occurs when Mark Twain tells of squirrels and bees accumulating and storing enough food for the winter, yet no more, whilst men accumulate vast amounts of wealth and do not put it to any good use (Twain). Obviously, with the wealthy at the very top of our socio-economic pyramid, Twain is able to connect with the masses on the issue of greed. However, Twain does not admit to the philanthropy of man, men such as Bill Gates that donate vast amounts of wealth for the betterment of society. Twain uses many negative examples of mankind’s behavior throughout his piece to keep the reader on his side by targeting the emotions that he knows are of value to most of his readers. Due to Twain’s skill at manipulating the reader’s emotions, the reader is amenable to Twain’s logic.
Mark Twain wrote The Damned Human Race with a logical appeal.

His use of logos is crafty as he strings the reader along from start to end, making sure the reader arrives at the conclusion Twain has in mind. Upon closer inspection, a reader can see the logical fallacies Twain uses. One such example, a reader can see that Twain claims that man is the only species to keep slaves, that even in non-slavery times, man still is a slave to another man for wages (Twain). This particular example uses a hasty generalization. By this logic, would not the lionesses that do all of the hunting of the pride be slaves of the male lion? Another example of Twain’s false logic can be seen in the paragraph that he states “Man is the only patriot” (Twain). In this argument, Twain states that man is the only species that will fight over territory (Twain). This is obviously false since it is well known that animals of many species fight over territory. It is well known that wolf packs will fight each other until death or expulsion of the weaker pack to gain territory. Since the work is satire focused on mankind’s disgusting behaviors, the reader will easily dismiss this Twain’s failure to include and address these facts. It is in this way that Twain is crafty in his appeal with

logos.
Mark Twain’s approach of ethos attempts to lend him some credibility. Despite his profession as an author of literature and not any sort of authoritative source on animal behavior, Twain claims to have conducted experiments to arrive at his conclusions. In fact, Twain claims to have used the scientific method, conducting all of his experiments in the London Zoological Gardens (Twain). Since the London Zoological Gardens opened in 1828 for the purpose of scientific studies of animals, this seems to be legitimate. The manner in which Twain writes this wins many of his readers over to his side before he employs pathos and logos. Twain also writes this in the second paragraph, right up front to gain this credibility as quickly as possible to set the tone. Twain gives several examples of experiments, which seem plausible. It is not until near the end of Twain’s piece that he claimed to confine various men of different religions in a cage, only to come back to a bloody mess of disemboweled corpses (Twain). By this point, the reader is entirely caught up in the emotion and logical fallacies that the reader may not care that this experiment was obviously not conducted, nor question whether Twain conducted any of the other experiments at the London Zoological Gardens, as he claimed.
The Damned Human Race is a brilliant work of satire. Mark Twain writes very convincingly that humans are beneath animals because humans are aware of and choose evil. It doesn’t matter to the reader that Twain isn’t a scientist or that he doesn’t address the opposing arguments surrounding his case. Twain employs a strategy to make him appear credible up front, rapidly stirs emotional response from the audience to sway opinion his way all whilst reinforcing his arguments with logical fallacies.