Creation And Transgression Essay

Flowers for Algernon is a story rich in themes or life lessons for us to think about. Through the genre’ of science fiction we explore the role of intelligence in human relationships. Flowers for Algernon cautions us about “man playing God” through the experiment tampering with man’s intelligence. This theme is supported by Fanny Girden’s actions and comments.

Shelley chose to write her novel to criticize and comment on human nature’s form of judgment. In order to accomplish her writing purpose she shares Frankenstein’s reaction to his creation's existence through imagery and foreshadowing. Shelley shared Frankenstein’s reaction to his creation

Furthermore, when Frankenstein meets his monster while journeying, the ghoul states that despite the hatred between them, “’I ought to be thy Adam’” (73). This is a biblical allusion to the story of the world creation, and the story of Adam and Eve. Adam was the direct product of God. He was tempted to taste the knowledge fruits, but eventually averted his will. He also attempted to persuade Eve not to taste these fruits.

Like snowflakes, no two creation myths are identical, “The Story of the Creation”, which highlights on the creation of the Akimel O’odham, more commonly known as the Pima, and Megan Wren’s “Mayan Creation Myth” are no exception; however, there are many similarities. The “Mayan Creation Myth” and “The Story of Creation” both follow the basic path that most creation myths do starting with the emptiness in the beginning, a void to be filled by a God-like figure, who would soon create vegetation, animals, and humans who he would then destroy and start anew. With every creation myth, there is a void, or an emptiness before a greater power takes it into his hands to change that, and this is true for both the Mayan, and the Pima creation myth.

If you mean to tell me that anyone who was born into a family of monsters exiled by God is not misunderstood, I hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong. It would be like being born into a family of Nazi supporters: you grow up supporting the Third Reich and even though it’s wrong, you don’t know any better. Beowulf introduces this tragic backstory, however, without defending Grendel and without assuming he is anything but rotten and nefarious. Grendel further expands his backstory while leaving the readers to wondering Grendel really is the way he is for a reason.

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the novel as a means to convey her attitude on certain scientific and moral issues of the time. She utilizes the plot of the novel to express concern surrounding scientific achievement, to put forward the notion that God should not be a passive being, and to iterate the concept that beings are not born “good” or “bad”, but rather become “good” or “bad” based on their interactions with their surroundings. In Victor Frankenstein Shelley creates a character driven by his pursuit of scientific discovery. He can be seen as an allegory to the industrial revolution that was changing the world in which Shelley lived in radical ways.

In this, Victor brought up things that no mortal should know about, such as: cloning, stem cell research, and IVFs. Examples of these were shown when the author states, “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn… my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical… the physical secrets of the world” (43). Victor is knowingly tampering with knowledge that is essentially too great for man. He is also essentially trying to be like God, which is the original sin, and as a result, he is put in eternal despair.

In the beginning of the novel, Victor is seen as a proactive scientist who intrigues upon the development of life. The creation of the monster, however, causes Victor to shower himself with dishonor, degradation, and contempt. This is due to a lack of mental stability, of which he proclaimed that the monster “saw a wildness in my eyes for which he could not account”(Shelley 64). As a definite sign of insanity, this strikes resemblance to King George III and the start of his manic episodes, an involuntary deranged response to the unpredictable-climax of the Revolutionary

Alan Jon Hauser contends that the theme of intimacy in Genesis 2 (God's creation of man and woman) is intertwined with the theme of alienation in Genesis 3 (man and woman's original sin against God). This dual theme, argues Hauser, integrates the narrative and is used as a literary device by the author to reveal the disruption of order that occurs in day-to-day life. While Hauser's analysis focuses on the disorder that apparently results from the sin of Adam and Eve, other critics view the end of this tale somewhat differently. Dan E. Burns studies the inconsistencies within this myth, finding that they are only problematic when viewed from a logical, rather than literary, standpoint. Burns concludes that the tale is best viewed as an awakening,

Steinbeck examines the repetitive punishment for errors in human choices. Nonetheless, many early critics judged East of Eden a literary disaster, blaming Steinbeck for not understanding the biblical story and the American experience. They assumed the story of Adam to be the story of the fall of Man. But East of Eden is something quite different: a story of the rise of Man. East of Eden, therefore, is part family history and part fiction.

Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir about a boy’s terrifying experiences during the holocaust during the years of the 1940’s. God created the world only for it to be destroyed by such hatred. In times of trauma and distress,one may begin to question and doubt their faith in the power of a God. On the contrary, in the event that there is a situation that demonstrates pure evil,such as Wiesel’s perspective in The Holocaust, there is always a reason for all that happens. As mentioned in an article titled “How Could God Have Allowed the Holocaust?”

The male God of Genesis defines the formation of the world through the power of separation, especially in the case of light, water, and air in the Judaic tradition. In a similar manner, the Mesopotamian god Marduk was also a male that formed the world through his powers, yet with the contrastingly misogynistic killing of the goddess Tiamat as part of the formation of Heaven and Earth. These examples of creationism reveal the human-centered formation of the world through male gods, yet with differing examples of cruelty towards women/goddesses as part of a gender divide in the godly realms. Overall, these two creation myths define the anthropocentric formation of the world, which provides a sense of faith-based comfort in knowing that the world was made through the supernatural powers of a human-like being. These are the important aspects of Judaic and Mesopotamian creation myths that define the patriarchal, elemental, and divisive methods of the formation of the world through an anthropocentric point of

In Chapter 15 of Frankenstein, the author compares the monster to Adam (the first man) as well as comparing Victor to God. I believe that Frankenstein is not as much a commentary on the bible, but rather on the nature of man. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley compares the monster and Victor to biblical figures in order to relate that everyone is capable of moral good and evil. As we see in the novel, the monster is much like Adam in that he desires companionship, he is made in the likeness of his creator (a man), and he eventually turns to evil.

In chapter V the monster has been created and has realized he is ugly and does not have a place in the world. In season 4 of Buffy, Adam, a modern Frankenstein’s monster has been created secretly by the government. Both of the “monsters” question their existence and find themselves as recluses to the community earning for a friend and becoming violent due to lack of love. The creations wonder the reason their creators want to destroy them after they have just been created. Victor’s creature and Adam in Buffy display the misuse of technology and power shown by scientists and the government.

From the point of birth, Man always pursues knowledge, this pursuit is always kept within certain boundaries. In her novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explains how the pursuit of forbidden knowledge can become dangerous through symbolism, allusion, and foreshadowing proving each effectively to the reader. Employing symbolism as her first technique, Shelley uses this in the way many other enlightenment authors do. The strongest use of symbolism is prevalent while Victor is contemplating suicide on the lake near Geneva. Feeling “tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever” (63)