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This is a place for us to discuss openly and honestly the literature we are reading. Here we are all just communicating our thoughts on what we are reading. There are no right and wrong answers. However, you are expected to be polite, mature, and on topic.
6 comments:
I fully agreed with Twain's argument and found his most convincing argument to be where he addresses the millions that were murdered in religious wars. His experiment in which hostile various religious leaders murdering each other in a cage while a fox, cat, rabbit, dog and other animals peacefully coexisted in a separate cage drove his point home. Humans are truly lesser beings because of hypocritical brutalities such as this. C.A. 3rd block
I agree with Catherine. I feel like that was the strongest connection. Twain said that he put a fox, cat, rabbit, dog, and other animals in the same cage. In another cage, he put men from different religions and races together in a cage. When he came back, the animals were still in the same cage, each one well. However, when he looked in the cage with the men, there was nothing but bones. This shows that animals can get along in a short amount of time but humans cannot. Today, we still have an issue with this. For example, right now, the government is shut down because people in the white house have different opinions on a certain thing and do not want to consider what the other has to say. None of this exist with animals. I remember when I first got my kitten. He was introduced to my puppy. The first day, he was running away from the puppy, but, a couple days after, both of them were playing together. Animals can get along better than humans.
I felt that Twain used his reasoning, flawlessly, and I could find no fault in his reasoning. I agreed completely with Twain's hypothesis of human's being the lesser to higher animals. I felt that Twain's greatest argument was when he touched on slavery and said that humans are the only creatures that have deliberately enslaved one another based on differences that animals would never notice. He claimed that the high animals do the work for themselves and I agree with that. All in all, I found that Twain roasted the human condition quite effectively through his reasoning, and I think that someone would have to be a human elitist in order to completely ignore Twain's arguments.
humans*
I totally agree with Twain that humans are the lowest ranking of all creatures. I fully agreed with all of his points, and I definitely agree that his best point was the instance where he describes caged animals verses caged humans. The fact that these religious leaders had different religious views so they killed each other is ridiculous and worse than any other animal’s actions. Throughout human history and even currently, there are wars being fought because people cannot accept each other’s different views on religion. Another excellent point that Twain makes is how hypocritical humans are. Man hates countries other than his and tries to steal other countries land by bloody war but tries to promote world peace in between these wars. Again, there are wars currently going on, and the same people who wage war often are the ones who try to promote world peace. Also, quite ironically, former President Roosevelt won the Noble Peace Prize but had an aggressive, violent foreign policy.
-Hannah S.
I found Twain's most interesting and convincing point in the beginning where he explained the experiment with the anaconda. This, to me, fully showcased mankind's greed and cruelty. The anaconda, a known killer, could stop after just one kill because it knew that was all it needed to survive. On the other hand, the English Earl felt the need to slaughter an innocent animal way past the point of necessity. All in all, I agreed with every point that Twain meant including how he believes humans to be at the lowest point. We have degraded ourselves over the years as a society for sure.
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