The king of satire, Mark Twain, points out the evil attributes of mankind in “The Lowest Animal” in order to wake society up to its blatant disregard for civility.

Twain’s essay is a diatribe against human beings’s worst tendencies. He describes various traits that people have: stealing, enslaving others, becoming greedy for money, fighting, and so on. He compares humans to animals throughout the essay, arguing that humans occupy the lowest level in the chain. Twain’s premise is that although humans claim to be the highest, the “Reasoning Animal,” they are not. He clearly states that the idea of reason is “open to dispute,” since animals behave in a more civilized fashion than human beings do.

Twain argues that humans must learn to coexist in peace, as animals do. For instance, he claims that not only can a cat and dog live together, but they can also befriend various other animals such as a rabbit, doves, a squirrel, a goose, a monkey, and even a fox. Twain’s message is that everyone of different backgrounds must learn to coexist and share the world, not believing that one is better than the other.

However, people have shown that they do not use their reasoning ability or moral sense to coexist. Instead, they enslave others and fight wars in an effort to prove themselves the best. His example of the representatives of various religions is effective to underscore that humans tend to fight each other without recognizing that everyone has the same goal. Thus, “not a specimen [is] left alive” because the Reasoning Animals tear each other apart instead of working together.

Twain blames the moral sense for mankind’s problems. He claims that, ironically, human beings are the only animals that have this ability, but it is “the secret of [their] degradation.” People disregard the moral sense in their quest to be the best and have the most. Humans’s so-called religion, patriotism, and principles are nothing but a façade—the truth is that “we have reached the bottom stage of development . . . Below us, nothing.”

Twain’s use of satire to illuminate his points is quite effective. Through humor and wit, he shocks his readers and forces them to evaluate their own behavior and the behaviors of those around them. His juxtaposition of human beings to animals compels his audience to change mankind’s low status on the chain.

I think "The Lowest Animal" is both convincing and funny because of the absurd situations that Twain sets up throughout the story.  He wants to show that people treat each other in cruel ways so he upends thoughts that people have towards bad behavior.  How often have we heard someone say something like, "They behave just like animals!"  Twain shows us that, no, our behavior does not follow any sort of natural order in the way that animal instinct operates.  We are more cruel than even the cruelest animal.