In Mark Twain's essay, "The Damned Human Race", he addresses the question of Darwinism and the possibility of the human race evolving out of different animal species. Through comparison, he confirms the idea that men have come from a species other than human. Instead of evolving and becoming greater, man has devolved over time into a species far different than any other living creature. The idea that man has not come from other animals is also brought up, as men are far more savage than an animal would ever be. We exercise certain beliefs and actions that animals do not have.
Twain notes that all humans are of the same race and are equal to each other, yet they do not treat one another as equal, but inferior. Humans are all slaves that own their own slaves. With no one being treated as equal, the belief of kindness and equality is not taught and the cycle continues. If humans came from animals, why don't we have the same way of thinking? How did the idea of inferiority come into human thought and culture?
When one is not called "slave", there is still unfair treatment: not in the form of words but still the idea of dominance over one another. Twain noted that humans are the only species to rape and be unkind to each other without cause. Toni Morrison provides an example of this in Beloved. The main character, Sethe, is a slave at Sweethome Plantation. While she is of equal status to the other slaves that work there, they still treat her with cruelty by attacking her when she is pregnant and taking her milk. Though this is done out of hunger, the cruelty is evident in the fact that they chose to hurt a person that was just as hungry as them. They could've searched for food elsewhere but Sethe was an easy target.
Unlike humans, animals do not kill without cause. No species would kill another animal unless they were starving. They also would not hurt their own children in desperate times but instead look for other solutions. In her own desperate time, Sethe sees only one answer to the problem of having her children become slaves. She kills one of her kids with the intent of murdering all of them. This is a distinct difference between humans and other species. The point of unnecessary harm goes hand in hand with the idea of humans being wasteful. Humans waste other lives and materials to feel powerful, as they do in the wars that only humans participate in.
Animals are far more sophisticated, at least in Twain's eyes. They know the worthiness of life and everything Earth holds whereas humans tend to take it for granted.
