Jonathan Harrison march 2 , 2009

Samuel Clemens

"While his reputation as a popular author overshadows his contributions as a social critic, Twain held strong views on the political topics of his day; his friend Helen Keller had her radicalism similarly neutralised by history. Through his wife's family, Twain had contact with many well-placed progressives. He spent the last twenty years of his life as an "outspoken anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist".[21] He did, however, make capital investments with the aim of profiting from them, albeit with little success" {wikipedia}

This quotes theme is bursting out of Twain's story, "Letters From the Earth" as Twain's disdain towards man in general is definitely present. He was born and raised in a time of constant turmoil and racism was a real factor in his life. One imagines that it must be hard to grow up and see slavery so present in everyday life. Twain sees man, at times, as a machine and his lack of regard towards human nature is apparent from the quote above.

"Letters From the Earth" starts out with God creating the universe, the planets, and Earth itself. God goes on to create man and invites his council of angels to admire his work. Satan is punished briefly and during his punishment he visits Earth to see God's creations. Satan proceeds to write letters back to the other angels where he chastises humans as dumb creatures who are stuck on themselves. Satan mocks humans and all our negative qualities till the story changes and we observe angels receiving negative prayers from earth. The prayers consist of outlandish acts such as the wish of a death towards a rival and treacherous acts such as that. The story reaches a sad conclusion ,as the tale of a women who needs 50 dollars to get buy yet only receives 15 from a wealthy millionaire, is told and the true negative nature that all humans own is revealed.

The story "Letters From the Earth" is a satirical look at Human nature and the high esteem with which we hold it to. From the beginning of the story man is made to look like a fool as we construct a heaven that no one would want to live in. This is a shot at human intelligence for how can man be so smart yet construct a heaven that is so poor. Twain even goes as far as to call Moral sense as the parent of all immoralities.This remark eludes to the fact that Twain thinks men are hypocrites allowing so many injustices and wrongs take place while still concluding that they won moral sense. The mere fact that nations go to war with each other is a contradiction to anything that is morally right. Twain nails down the coffin with his tale about a wealthy, greedy buisness man as the vile nature of man is revealed. When it comes down to the bottom line people will protect their pockets with no concern for right or wrong. This is the heart of Twain's argument against man and their nature and is the final argument towards the negative moral sense that all men are stricken with.