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How Does Mark Twain Use Ethos In The Damned Human Race

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In Mark Twain’s essay, “The Damned Human Race”, Twain contrasts the different features between animals and human beings using the appeal to pathos and logos approach. He uses the appeal to pathos as the dominant appeal to connect with the audience and persuading them to feel and the see things the way he does. He uses the logos approach to support his conclusion. All of his comparisons have some truth behind them, making the reasoning behind his arguments successful. And although he uses false authority and hasty generalization, the argument was successful. “Man (when he is a North American Indian) gouges out his prisoner’s eyes; when he is King John, with a nephew to render untroublesome, he uses a red-hot iron; when he is a religious zealot dealing with heretics in the Middle Ages, he skins his captive alive and scatters salt in his back”(Twain, 2012). This passage is used to connect with the audience through the appeal of pathos. Just imagining this happening will get any audience emotions running. Claiming that “Man is the reasoning animal”(Twain, 2012), is an example of the logos approach. This …show more content…

Calling himself a scientist sounded good even if it was false and using false authority is very common in these situations. The Damned Human Race describes the ill behavior of humans compared to animals. One example of this is between an English earl and an anaconda. An earl killed 72 buffalo, ate part of one and left the rest to rot. Seven calves were put into a cage with an anaconda. He ate one and left the others alone, with the same result with a different reptile each time. An earl was considered cruel while the anaconda was not (Twain, 2012). This makes people look greedy and malicious for killing buffalos for entertainment while the reptile looks sane for only eating what is needed. By this example, he shows hasty generalizations, which is a conclusion based on one and not

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