Mark Twain Rhetorical Analysis

The overall argument that Twain presents is that people don’t have entirely original opinions or ideas. He breaks down his argument by using several premises and backing them up with examples and reasoning that is easy to follow. If the audience was persuaded by his reasoning the most obvious consequence would simply be that we would be more aware of the things and changes that are going on around us. The general public, or those that read and agreed with the essay, would begin to question or analyze why this or that became popular. People would be more mindful of the decisions that are made subconsciously, and would question them.
The first premise Twain presents is that it is human nature to conform, he ties yet another premise into the first one: self-approval leads to conformity. “A new thing in costume appears--the flaring hoop skirt, for example--and the passersby are shocked, and the irreverent laugh. Six months later everybody is reconciled; the fashion has
“The Smiths like the new play; the Joneses go to see it, and they copy the Smith verdict.” As with the previous examples each premise can be seen in the example. Despite the fact that this essay was written a century ago, the premises and argument still hold true. If the argument were accepted and constantly taken into consideration we would live in a society that was more self-aware. If the essay were assigned to be analyzed in say, high schools or even middle schools, we would have young adults that are at least mindful of the coming and going of styles. They would be confident in their ability to seek out answers to why this movie was popular or why everyone is wearing that style of Nikes. This habit of questioning sudden changes would translate into questioning other things. This habit of questioning in general would lead to a society where everyone has a kind of philosophy of not allowing changes to occur without sound