The Role Of Animals In Compassion For The Brute Creation

The suffering of animals who are raised and slaughtered for food is not justified, since it is not necessary for us to eat animals to get the nutrition we need. We treat animals cruelly simply just to serve our trivial enjoyment of taste. In addition, Rachels asserts that it is impossible to treat the animals decently yet still produce a sufficient amount of meat. According to him, the humane production of millions of pounds of meat would be so costly that it would force most of us to become vegetarians, as most of us would not have the resources to be able to afford much meat. In response to the question that: “if meat could be produced humanely, without mistreating the animals prior to eating them painlessly, would there be anything wrong with it?” (Rachels 372), he argues that human being the subjects of biographical and not merely biological lives is what qualifies humans for rights; however, the animals with which we are most familiar are subjects of biographical lives and if we have the right to life on the basis of having a life, then those animals have rights to life as well. Thus, even if the farming practices are completely humane, killing the animals is still immoral. There are millions of vegetarians already, there is already less cruelty than there would be otherwise, so little effect does not equate none. He uses the analogy of slavery to

“As I read, however, I applied much personally to my own feelings and condition, I found myself similar yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read and to whose conversation I was a listener. I sympathized with and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind; I was dependent on none and related to none. ‘The path of my departure was free,’ and there was none to lament my annihilation. My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.” (Shelley 109)

In the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, the relationship of external apperence and internal feelings are directly related. The creature is created and he is innocent, though he is seaverly deformed. His nature is to be good and kind, but society only views his external appereance which is grotesque. Human nature is to judge by external apperence. He is automatically ostracized and labeled as a monster because of his external apperence. He finnaly realized that no matter how elequintly he speaks and how kind he is, people will never be able to see past his external deformities. Children are fearful of him, Adults think he is dangerous, and his own creator abandons him in disgust.

Throughout Shelley’s work, the creature struggles to conform to society, alone from his first moments - abandoned by his creator - he is given no proper upbringing, and abhorred by society. He grows up in hiding and fear, his only interactions with others ending in violence. Hence, seems only natural that his desperate need to conform would lead to violence. The need to “belong” is an essential “human” desire, however this sense of belonging his completely dependent on one’s upbringing.

In the article “A Change of Heart About Animals”, Rifkin asserts that humans are treating animals in the most atrocious way, and he claims that in order for their lives to improve, we need to definitely adjust ours. He uses great amount of logos, and several experiments done with different animals and tries his best to closely relate animals to us, humans. Rifkin although, never inserts a call for action to this problem throughout his article. Instead, he puts the emphasis on the pathos of the argument. In the world we are living in today, there is about 8.7 million different living species. Whether they are land or marine animals, they do play a big role in our community such as being apart of the food pyramid, assisting handicapped people wherever they go, or being a transportation for people living on farms and fields. With this being said, the ranking of animals in our community has brought up a heated argument in connection to their rights and welfare. Eight legged, four legged, or two legged land or sea animals do not comprehend the concept of rights. If we, humans, give animals “rights”, we are basically inferring the fact that we are like animals, and they have the entitlement to share our rights. Although they don’t understand rights, the fact that many of these animals are being treated inhumanely is wrong and animal welfare should be ingrained into this community rather than the massive inhumane treatment.

In the infamous novel, Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley, there have been a variety of recurring themes throughout the book, one of them being good versus evil. Good versus evil is a popular theme that appears in several movies, TV shows, as well as literature itself. According to Wikipedia.com, it means: “[...] the battle between ideologies, with one side Good, and the other Evil. Another variation is the inner struggle in characters (and by extension, humans in reality) between good and evil.” This theme is specifically crucial to the plot because it ultimately asks the readers what it means to be “human.” Shelley supports her representation by manipulating society’s behavior, questioning the limits of humans, and

This rejection parallels the struggle of playing the female role: women have low societal value based on their female physical appearance. Judged solely based on their physical appearance, they are given a minor role to play due to being seen as inferior to men. Shelley uses the creature as a representation of women, as he is rejected based on his appearances despite being compassionate and kind. The creature is content with having a minor role in his story, even willing to be a servant to the cottagers, but he is rejected — this ignites bitterness and loneliness in him. The stories make him feel as though he has “‘sunk into [...] the lowest dejection’” (155), by enabling him to feel worthless. His resulting resentment towards humanity further emphasizes the destructiveness of stories: they make him believe that the world is a story and he must find a role to play, but the role he desires comes with social consequences.

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.

Animals have similar characteristics to humans in terms of their physical and psychological states, thus we have a moral obligation to free them from unnecessary pain. More ethical alternatives to animal testing are more cost-effective, quicker and more reliable.

Finally, the creature tells us about one of the seminal experiences in any child's life - the destruction of the ideal of the just world. The creature has a childish idealism in his belief that he will be accepted by the cottagers: "I persuaded myself that when they should become acquainted with my admiration of their virtues they would compassionate me and overlook my personal deformity" (Shelley 125). But the cottagers are instead deeply afraid of the creature when they finally behold it. It is at this moment that the creature progresses out of childhood and into what we might see as a protracted adolescence. This adolescence is characterized by an awareness of the unfairness of the world, which shows a cognitive development past the idealism of the child. The creature is not yet adult, however, because it displays a certain egotism characteristic of those not yet fully mature.

This quote shows Shelley 's theme of how devastating the consequences can be for one single unthinking act. Obviously, Victor 's single unthinking act was his creation of the creature. When he made this creature, there is no way that he thought he would kill two of his closest loved ones, and later kill more. However, it happened and Shelley is showing us how devastating the effects can be. Similarly, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Mariner also suffers for a single, unthinking act. His act was the killing of the albatross. He paid for it in more than one way. First, he was sent to a Life-in-Death, then after he

Shelley’s presentation of specific and powerful diction helps illuminate his strong thoughts about the mutability of humans. Shelley’s use of the two words “poison” and “pollutes” in the third stanza of the poem alludes to his thoughts about the human mind mentioned in his biography, “We rest.---A dream has power to poison sleep; / We rise.---One wandering thought pollutes the day; / We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; / Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:” (Shelley, 1734). Shelley was frequently bullied as a child and was expelled from school for being an alleged atheist; thus, he had notions before writing the poem about man’s corruption and “man’s general

In Peter Singer’s article All Animals Are Equal (Winston 29-36), Singer talks about the point of view Jeremy Bentham had on the capacity to suffer, going into Bentham’s idea on what humans would do with non-human animals in order to satisfy our taste for their flesh. That in order to have meat products on the table at an affordable price to the population of that area, we must treat non-human animals like machines, enclosing them in unsuitable conditions for their entire life (p. 33).

Hallie Osmon Postlethwaite English 228 October 4, 2017 Nature as a Healing Force Both born in the late 1700s, Shelley and Wordsworth lived in a time of great appreciation for the sublimity of nature. Awe-inspiring natural landscapes were often included in their works. The power of nature is recognized in The Prelude and in Frankenstein by way of the healing qualities the natural world possesses, and how it draws us out of melancholy and despair. To be healed by nature is to shun mankind and distance oneself from mankind...

“The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but "Can they suffer? “ Jeremy Bentham. Does not animals deserve pity? Or because they cannot talk they do not deserve it? Indeed, one of the greatest injustice in the world is to neglect animals’ rights. Animals need rights. Basic rights. To move freely, to communicate and to get food, clean water and shelter. Nowadays, animals are suffering a lot to live because the lack of mercy in human beings. Also, it is not only the problem that animals are imprisoned for personal benefits. Moreover, they ar0e getting killed in zoos and circus and so on. They are suffering from moral abuse and lack of animals rights. In my opinion shutting down all zoos and circus and all the places like that which violate animal rights.