Public
opinion has been influencing peoples’ choices for thousands of years,
especially in the areas of fashion, politics and religion. The peer pressure of
public opinion causes many people to believe that they must change to fit in
with the rest of the crowd. The essay Corn-Pone
Opinions by Mark Twain was written around 1901 and focused on political,
racial, and religious issues in America and England. Twain has written many
successful fiction and non-fiction pieces in his career including the classic
novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
He created his own style of writing and used it to express his opinions on
hypocrisy and prejudice. Twain’s purpose in writing this essay was to show the
world how public opinion influences the daily lives of individuals in our society.
Many people base the choices and beliefs in their daily lives on the opinions
of other people and ignore their own self-opinion. “But as a rule our
self-approval has its source in but one place and not elsewhere – the approval
of other people” (Twain 2). In Mark Twain’s essay, he sets out to prove that
peer-pressure has taken over the choices made by individuals. Twain includes personal
anecdotes to help his audience understand his feelings about society’s pressure.
He also uses other rhetorical devices including repetition and rhetorical
questions to make his point. Twain wrote in a mode of exemplification giving
numerous examples of peer pressure including fashion, manners, and politics. I
believe that Mark Twain successfully achieved his purpose in this essay by his
use of emotion and exemplification throughout this entire piece. This essay is still
relevant to the world today because people continue to make their decisions
based off of other people instead of realizing that their own self-opinion is
most important. Mark Twain’s essay successfully encourages people to make their
own decisions and to think for themselves.
https://ehistory.osu.edu/sites/ehistory.osu.edu/files/mmh/gildedage/PublicOpinion.jpg
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