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The Consequences of Being Smart Essay

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?The Consequences of Being Smart
The good and bad sides of intellect and knowledge have baffled people for centuries. From the beginning of time, man has struggled to draw the line between knowledge and science, and religion, and have fought countless battles over it. However, this is no one-sided matter. The benefits and consequences of intelligence and knowledge are determined only by how it is being used. In the novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, this conflict of interests tore and shook Dr. Frankenstein’s life to its very foundations. Dr. Frankenstein creates the creature in the hopes of helping mankind, but because of his intelligence he becomes overconfident, ending in his creating the very being that was to destroy …show more content…

Prometheus, a namesake of the Frankenstein novel, uses his intelligence and wit to defeat the Titans, earning him Zeus’s favor. However, he also used his aptitude to later steal fire from the Apollo chariot to bring to the humans. Zeus, after discovering that Prometheus had disobeyed him, chained Prometheus to a cliff where his liver would be eaten by vultures every day. It was a never-ending punishment, since his liver would painfully grow back at night, just to be pecked out the next day. Prometheus’s intellect may have been useful, but when he turns against Zeus to bring fire to the humans, his intelligence turns on him. And even though fire advanced humans into organized civilizations, Greek mythology also mentioned that once man received and mastered fire, strife and warfare began. Another Greek myth worth mentioning is the story of the Greek hero, Achilles. His mother, the Nereid Thetis, had the ability to predict the future. Upon learning that her child, Achilles would later die in the Trojan War, Achilles’ mother took baby Achilles to a spring of immortality, and dipped him in the water. Hoping that this would allow him to escape his fate, she submerged the baby into the water, making him immortal. All of him was covered except the heel because that is where she held onto him. He became almost invincible, except for his heel. In the end, he was shot there by an arrow, and he died.

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