Mark Twain Satire

“Man is the Cruel Animal. He is alone in that distinction.” (Twain) Mark Twain discusses his ideas and feelings regarding humanity in this satirical essay. He points out that although humans possess a sense of morals, they use it as a compass to perform evil. He goes on to compare the human race with other, “lower animals” and points out that man is actually less evolved than any of them. Although clearly satire, his piece could be more successful if he did not apply sweeping generalizations and clearly exaggerated examples. His points on the flaws of humankind do have some validity, but the presentation of the argument takes away from its credibility.
As the piece begins, Twain claims to be a scientist, clearly to appeal to the ethos

of the reader. As the story progresses, you can determine that Twain is in fact no scientist, and that is his essay is meant as satire. He makes sweeping generalizations about man based on examples that clearly portray greed, cruelty, and foolishness. “These experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals: he is avaricious and miserly, they are not.” (Twain) His experiments are nothing more than examples selected to support his feelings.
While his experiments were clearly not scientific, or experiments at all for that matter, he does point out some valid points about his fellow man. One such example is that man will continue to amass large amounts of wealth despite having plenty to live off; while animals will stop collecting food once they have enough to survive. He uses this example to stress his argument that man is greedy, and that the other species are not. The use of this example to generalize all of man is somewhat narrow minded and stereotyping, let the point he raises is valid.
By not citing any desirable qualities of humankind, Mark Twain set a dark and gloomy tone throughout this essay. He clearly was trying to make a point about the undesirable, and did not want to take away from that point by citing anything positive. At one point, he denounced the moral sense of man, comparing it to that of Rabies, but did not elaborate further. The pessimism in his writing seems to implore readers to look for a deeper meaning in the essay.
One thing Twain used well throughout the essay was pathos.

His “experiments” are described in a vivid and captivating nature that grab the reader’s attention. When discussing man’s wasteful habits, he describes a buffalo hunt. “They killed seventy-two of those great animals; and ate part of one of them and left the seventy-one to rot.” (Twain) He uses vivid descriptions like these to have the reader feel the outrage and shame that he felt himself.
He uses satire as the tone for this essay, enabling him to point out the problems he sees with humankind without singling out or offending anyone in particular. He cites man’s values regarding war, slavery, and women’s rights as corrupted. He goes on to belittle these corrupt values and uses pathos to have his readers share in his disgust. By not directly insulting anyone, but calling out the ridiculousness of some of these values, he uses satire to convey his point.
His use of satire and pessimistic tone is designed to motivate the reader to examine their own values and moral sense. He generalized humans as immoral and valueless, which compels the reader to prove him wrong in a sense. The reader would then act in a manner contrary to his examples, thus being accepting, generous, and kind. This motivation of the reader to examine oneself is a successful step towards

change.
In conclusion, Twain uses bias and generalizations to have readers analyze themselves. He uses satire to convey his points without offending anyone in particular, and uses pathos to invoke emotions within the reader. He conveys valid points, but exaggerates the negative attributes of man to the point that some readers will just dismiss him as nonsensical. Overall, his writing did invoke emotions and motivate self-reflection, which would make his essay a literary success.