Santeros 1

Kathlyn Santeros

English 3p

Osman, per 2

March 13, 2019

The Lowest Animal LRA

What is Twain’s overall purpose in writing “The Lowest Animal”? How effective is his

use of the satire in achieving that purpose?

In the essay “The Lowest Animal” by Mark Twain talks about how animals are way

better than humans. His purpose for writing this was to say how he feels about the human race.

Twain compared us humans to animals. He compared us to animals because he wanted to show

how we are similar to animals but he also wanted to show how much more greediness we have

and animals do not. In Twain’s essay he states “They killed seventy-two of those great animals

and ate part of one of them and left the seventy-one to rot...the grateful reptile immediately

crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied” (Twain 181). Twain stated this

because he wants people to know how selfish and greedy humans can be. He made his point

when he said that hunters needed to kill seventy-two innocent animals to only be satisfied with

one while there is this reptile who only kills one animal and still be more satisfied. Humans are

wasteful and ungrateful and they will do absolutely anything even if it means being cruel. If

animals were to be cruel to one another they would not know because they are not trying to hurt

them on purpose. On the other hand humans do know when they are being cruel to an innocent

animal or just to another human. In the essay it states “The cat plays with the frightened mouse,

but she has the excuse, that she does not know that the mouse is suffering” (Twain 185). He is
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stating how the cat does not know she is hurting the mouse but humans would know if they are

hurting someone or something. Twain's purpose is to show how horrible humans are that they are

never satisfied with anything they are always selfish, cruel, and ungrateful. But yet there is

animals that are satisfied with what they have even if it is one little thing.

Twain uses satire in his essay by using exaggeration and irony by stating his points. In

the essay Twain states “In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends” (Twain 185). This is the

type of exaggeration because dogs and cats do not typically become friends and if they do it is

not usually in an hour. He made this statement because his purpose is to show how these animals

can get along but humans can not. Twain also said “In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple

things which the other animals easily learn he is incapable of learning” (Twain 185). Twain is

saying this to state how humans can not learn this simplest things but animals can. Twain

believes that humans are just getting worse and worse and that animals are better than humans in

everything.
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Work Cited

Twain, Mark. “The Lowest Animal” California Collections. Grade 11, edited by Kylene Beers et

al., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, p 177-186.