“For him, the possibility of any mutation or metamorphosis was to be taken for granted, if not indeed welcomed, as was the contingency that, dead sun or no dead sun, the terrestrial globe could very readily be imagined after we’re gone,” claims Christopher Hitchens, an English author, literary critic and journalist, in his article The Catastrophist, where he comments on the pattern which James Graham Ballard takes for the course of his works, each one of them showing a depressing and deranged picture of humanity prone to animalistic and self-destructive actions. Hitchens describes Ballard as heavily influenced by Freud and surrealists, who “taught him what he already knew: religion is abject nonsense, human beings positively enjoy inflicting cruelty, and our species is prone to, and can coexist with, the most grotesque absurdities.” It also reveals the latent effects that The World War II had on Ballard's psyche, as it forced him into life in the internment camp in his early teens, where he experienced over two years of the helplessness of religion in defiance of worldwide violence and the more animalistic particularities of people cramped in a limited space. Ballard adheres to the motion of humanity degrading, no matter if in an overpopulated place like the tower in High Rise or almost entirely secluded house as in Enormous Space.
The author, Logan Feys in his article, ¨The Sociology of Leopard Man¨, discusses the topic of society and being a nonconformist. He claims that people should be psychologically free and strong enough to live independently, leaving society and entering society on their own terms. He supports his claim by first comparing abnormal people and ¨normal¨ people. For example, in the article he states, “Plenty of weird people do have serious mental problems. But so do plenty of ¨normal¨ people.¨ (Feys 1). He then goes on to explain the dangers of conforming to society. ¨Conformity can be seen as the world's most common but dangerous psychological disorder. Living in society, we are under constant pressure to surrender our individuality to the will of
	In Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Black Cat," symbolism is used to show the narrator’s capacity for violence, madness, and guilt. "The Black Cat," written by Edgar Allan Poe serves as a reminder for all of us. The Capacity for violence and horror lies within each of
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. “The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural world.” (Womack). Poe uses many of the American Gothic characteristics such as emotional intensity, superstition, extremes in violence, the focus on a certain object and foreshadowing lead the reader through a series of events that are horrifying
In Chapter two of Moral, Believing Animals Christian Smith argues that human beings are moral animals because they are strong self-evaluators who inhabit morally based orders. In the next chapter, smith adds that humans are moral animals because they also believe. This ability to believe and act morally allows humans to stray away from our instinctive minds. In other words, it is apart of what makes us human. Smith finds that this way of viewing humans provides a better account of human religiousness. Religion is the manifestation of our capacity to be self-conscious. Smith uses Narrative morality writing to help explain his views on religion and human beings, which allow us to recognize our true moral capacity.
Charles Darwin, the famous evolutionist, once wrote: "In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.” It was this message that Elie Wiesel learned during his captivity in World War II and incorporated into his novel, ‘Night’. It was also this message that William Golding tried to express through the scenario of his magnum opus, ‘Lord of the Flies’. Though, in both their novels, there was another message, an idea first realized by the great psychologist and philosopher Sigmund Freud. The idea was that when man is taken away from civilization, his instincts (the id) will overpower his conscience (super-ego) and man will return to their
Alexander Hamilton presents his knowledge of human nature in this statement, “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased”. In 1954 William Golding Published the novel Lord of the Flies in order to get a deeper look into the flaws of society that are related to the flaws of human nature. During WWII a group of British school boys were being transported by airplane, nevertheless the airplane was shot down, killing the pilot and leaving a group of boys on an island where there is no adult supervision. Today our topic will be focusing on the pessimistic views of
Humanity haunts humans. The daunting concept proves difficult to define. Science may delve into the depths of our bodies, how they work, why they can work. Scientists can pick apart our DNA or describe the way our brains function. Philosophy and Literature know the question of what makes us human to have a far deeper context. Writers comment on our morality, our emotional depths, our flaws and foibles. Humble, they rarely claim to know the true markings of humanity. They only express what they see and what they believe. They conjure stories or document realities that ultimately serve to comment on the human condition. The works, The Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglas and Fahrenheit 451, depict superficially different
Imagine a world where you are not allowed to be yourself. Imagine a world where morality was abolished and science dominated all aspect of life. Imagine being told what to do with your body, your sexuality. Imagine a world where you are so heavily controlled, even your thoughts are not your own. Imagine not being able to recognize your own emotions that lie inside you. Imagine being taught to rely on prescriptions drugs to cope with not being able to express what you feel inside. Imagine being so heavily controlled, you are oblivious to the veil over your eyes. Aldous Huxley portrays a fantastic peak into our future by conveying
Krakauer uses the symbol of a beast in Into the Wild to reveal that as Chris’ journey continues his inner beast continues to develop. To begin, the beast reveals Chris is “strong in Buck” (Krakauer, 38). As a form of resistance a beast will buck; it does not worry about who it may hurt but just kicks, throwing a rider off its back. In the same way Chris does not agree with society so he bucks and runs away, he had “an uncanny knack for making a buck” (115) “there was no way to stop him” (118) his leaving was “one abrupt, swift action… completely knock[ing] them [his family] out” (64). This is significant because this symbol reveals Chris rejects society and thus leaves his family to fuel his own desires. Just as a beast will buck to resist its master
Mankind has struggled throughout eternity, battling the demons that come from the very depths of the soul. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, and William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies show how quickly humans can descend into chaos and savagery. When dehumanization presents itself in unruly civilizations, humans turn into more primitive beings. The process of dehumanization begins through a loss of morals, knowledge, and innocence. The main characters in both novels find themselves in the eternal battle of good versus evil.
There is a human organism located exactly where you are located. Eric Olson argues that you are identical to that organism. This view is known as animalism. His “thinking animal” argument takes the following form: (1) There is a human animal where you are located; (2) If there’s a human animal where you are located, it is thinking; (3) The only thing thinking where you are located is you; and (4) So, you are a human animal. One argument, which exhibits parallel reasoning and boasts premises motivated in the exact same way, may be employed to resist Olson’s argument. In this paper I will show that this argument, which I will now call the Guanilo-Style argument, is structurally
In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, the writer depicts a futuristic civilization where humanity has evolved to leave behind its natural human dispositions. In this time frame the value of self-discipline is restricted by the government whom neglect free thinking. Guy Montag, protagonist of the novel, shifts from an obedient man with a hopeless perception of happiness into a self-righteous ideological thinker with an emphasis on seeking the truth. Meanwhile much of society is blinded by the standards of this futuristic society, three people in particular play a fundamental role in applying their own philosophies: Clarisse, Faber, and Granger. Although all three of these mentors share different views of the world, they do value the origins of humanity and go against modern society’s status quo.
In 1915, Franz Kafka, writes a fictional short story, Metamorphosis, metaphorically reflecting on societal norms. The metaphor he uses is absurd. It is absurd because the main character becomes a giant cockroach. This is not quite the lived experience. However, Kafka stabs at the theme of dehumanization.
The chapter “The Age of Total War” in Eric Hobsbawm’s novel “The Age of Extremes” is broken into four sections in order to explore the time period of 1914-1945. This essay will explore the subjects and processes that are present in this chapter of Hobsbawm’s (1994) novel in a limited scope. The processes that will be discussed are how the zero sum game led to the total war of World War one; the desire for revanchism led to the existence of World War Two, the cost of World War Two led to the economic crisis and how the disaster these events caused resulted in the desensitization of human beings. Throughout this chapter, Hobsbawm (1994) frequently expresses a fear for human kind in both a literal and metaphoric sense arguing that people of
Evil also personifies the earth with these conations stating that the once kind “earth turns evil”. Together with grief’s taste this helps the reader to visualise even more clearly the future earth which Wright imagines. From the picture that she has developed inside the reader’s head Wright hopes for them to get a better understanding and a greater concern for the consequences that follow a lack of environmental attention.