Actually, in “The Lowest Animal,” Twain shows the difference between a “civilized” earl and his hunting party and the “lowly” anaconda. Twain details a case where an earl on a hunting trip to the Great Plains of the United States killed 72 buffaloes. He notes that the hunters only ate part of one and left the rest to rot on the plain. It was “sport,” and Twain maintains it was cruel and unnecessary. The anaconda;...
Actually, in “The Lowest Animal,” Twain shows the difference between a “civilized” earl and his hunting party and the “lowly” anaconda. Twain details a case where an earl on a hunting trip to the Great Plains of the United States killed 72 buffaloes. He notes that the hunters only ate part of one and left the rest to rot on the plain. It was “sport,” and Twain maintains it was cruel and unnecessary. The anaconda; however, only eats when he is hungry. It doesn’t kill for sport but only takes what he needs. Twain says, “ . . . the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is cruel and the anaconda isn’t; and that the earl wantonly destroys what he has no use for, but the anaconda doesn’t.” Because of this, Twain infers that the anaconda is not a lower species on the evolutionary chain but is superior in its thinking and logic than man.
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