Throughout "Corn Pone Opinions", Mark Twain informed readers not to follow the trends in the society, but instead they should have their own voices. Twain achieved his purpose by employing imagery. Twain suggests that, "A new thing in costume appears-the flaring hoop skirt, for example-and the passers-by are shocked, and the irreverent laugh"(6 Twain).This demonstrates a humorous sense on the majority’s view when see people wearing hoop skirt. At their first glance, most people will find the clothes very funny, but when they found out the public opinions had accepted this type of fashion and people would forget all their teasing. This social case example suggests that, the society needs to reform because once people started to accepted things, other people just followed them aimlessly.
Mark Twain also used judgmental diction to support his purpose. He discussed that, "We are creature of outside influences, as a rule we do not think, we only imitate”(9 Twain). The word imitate suggested a negative connotation, it means to follow others as an exemplar without bringing up any innovations. Nobody reasoned why did the public opinions suddenly changed, because of how it had became a part of human nature. It is human nature to follow and not to think. It has been a habit that it’s hard to get rid of ; we were afraid of mistakes and ashamed of it as well. Outside influences poured toward the society heavily, but people chose imitate the public opinions and put it above their inner thoughts. Mark Twain recognized and aware of this society trends, therefore he expressed his views on public opinions and hoped the society could transform into a place where people were able to think.
Today, public opinions are important on deciding important issues. According to the article, “ Public opinion can play a positive role in policy making”, public opinions have the power to change history. For example, after the pearl harbor attack, this event swayed people’s heart from staying neutral to anti-fascist. Public opinions thus provided public supports and motivated the president to make the decision of entering the war. Most of the time, public opinions has the authorities to reject a leader, such as the scandal of Park Geun-hye, her people are having multiple protests that aim to stress the government to impeach her. Overall, the public was an essential factor that influenced decision-making.
