Name: Thy Pham #17 The Importance of Humanity What if you’re an exact copy of someone? Will you make the same decisions as that person? Are you your own person or a backup for the original you? The House of the Scorpion, a novel written by Nancy Farmer, is about a clone named Matt that struggles with his identity and survival. Like many books, The House of the Scorpion has many themes. The theme that I feel fits best is: don’t let anyone take away your humanity. Farmer expresses this theme by writing about Matt’s inhumane treatment, Matt learning about humanity, and Rosa losing her humanity. Let’s take a closer look at the evidence. One piece of evidence for this theme is Matt’s inhumane treatment. In the book from chapters five to six, Matt was treated like an animal by …show more content…
Throughout the book, Matt was repeatedly called an “animal”. In fact, he was called, “an animal” so many times that he considered himself to be an animal. On page 92, when Maria said that Matt is like a wild animal, Matt replied that he is an animal. On page 159, Matt and Maria discuss that Matt can’t go to heaven because he doesn't have a soul and all animals don’t have souls. Everyone’s insults had such an effect on Matt that he considered himself to be an “animal” for the majority of the book and his life. Finally on page 245, Tam Lin reveals to Matt the truth that there is no difference between humans and clones. In the book, Tam Lin said that no one can tell the difference between humans and clones because there is no difference. He also said that clones being inferior are a lie. When Matt heard this, he couldn’t believe it because his whole life argued against it. However, as he lived in Aztlán, he realized that what Tam Lin had said was true and no one found out Matt was a clone until they found Matt’s tattoo. The tattoo is the only sign that shows Matt is a clone. Let’s take a closer look at a final piece of
The Graveyard Book Theme The theme of the text, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is that fate and free will are apart of life and we need to embrace them. Neil Gaiman weaves this throughout his novel by showing how Bod is destined to fight the Jacks. He somehow gets lead to the graveyard where he meets people like Mr. and Mrs. Owens that take care of him. Thousands of years ago someone predicted Bod would defeat the Jacks.
One of the most important aspects of “grit lit” is the violence that occurs in almost every novel. The violence that reoccurs throughout all of the “grit lit” novels allows for a more exciting plot and character conflict throughout the novel. One of the most influential and famous southern writers is Harry Crews. Crews is responsible for many different novels, short stories, and autobiographies, and almost all of his works include some type of violence. The main reason for violence in southern literature is due to the unordinary, low-life characters that the author includes to allow for a violent plot.
In Ray Bradbury's “Fahrenheit 451”, the character Guy Montag is similar to the prisoner in “The Allegory of the Cave” because, Montag and the Prisoner were brought into the world with forced opinions and thoughts that shaped how they feel and think. Both Montag and the prisoner had nothing to look back on that showed a different opinion, so they were both stuck to believe anyone at face-value. These forced opinions however, were later changed after they were revealed by a character (the old man or Faber) and caused them to shed a whole new set of skin.
Another technique the author uses is to put you in the farmer’s shoes so that the audience can empathize with the farmer. “Three thousand hours a year is a staggering amount of time to spend working, particularly if many of those hours involve being bent over in the hot sun, planting and weeding in a rice paddy ”(Gladwell, 2008, p. 235-6). Here the audience both feels bad for the farmer and feels the enormity of the amount of work that a rice paddy farmer has to go through which allows the audience to both empathize with the farmer as well as sympathize. Other techniques that Gladwell uses to appeal to the reader’s emotions are the use of a description of rice farming so that the reader can understand the complexity of rice farming, the use of powerful proverbs to invoke the reader, and the use of a joke to include the
If people give up all the time individuals will never get far in life or become successful, but if people try their best until people get better or at least try, people are less likely to fail. To begin, in the realistic fiction novel, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, there is a kid named Brian Robeson whose parents are divorced. So he gets on a plane to go see his dad, but usually stays mainly with his mom. When he goes on the plane for the first time since the divorce his plane crashes in the middle of a forest. Brian has to learn how to survive in the wilderness and hope he gets saved.
Pride is Ignorance Disability is a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movement, senses, or activities. " The Scarlet Ibis," a short story written by James Hurst, focuses on the relationship between two brothers: the narrator and his disabled brother, Doodle. Doodle is born when the narrator, Brother, is only six years old. Since the narrator is young and does not know how to cope with a situation like this, he plans to kill Doodle. The prideful narrator wants a brother he can play with and is disappointed and embarrassed that he will not be like a regular boy.
Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies is a work of historical fiction set in the Dominican Republic that focuses on the four Mirabal sisters who bond together to rebel against the corrupt leader of their country, Rafael Trujillo. The four Mirabal sisters, Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and María Teresa form closer relationships with each other as they figure out a way to bring down the tyranny of Rafael Trujillo. Although they have a mutual goal, each of the Mirabal sisters has different feelings and thoughts throughout this time period. The theme of coming-of-age and identify is best exemplified through the character of María Teresa, known as Mate, through the ways she matures throughout the novel and becomes her own person who stands up for what she believes in.
Never let me go, a movie directed by Mark Romanek, was based on a book of the same name written by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is set in an alternate reality where a breakthrough in medicine made not only human clones possible, but clones specifically designed for organ donation. The story follows the growth of Kathy H., a clone, from her childhood in the boarding school, Hailsham, to The Cottages, and through her career as a carer. It is revealed throughout the movie that the future of all clones is grim and inevitable, giving away all their organs until they go through “completion” at a young age, which viewer eventually learns is a euphemism for death.
In The Living, a young adult novel by Matt de la Pena, the reader follows the main character, a teenage boy named Shy, as his quest to work over the summer for extra cash becomes a life threatening journey he never could have expected. In this novel three themes are very present in the forms of Romero disease, stereotyping, and the past versus present experiences. All of these topics arrive in very different ways, but can be traced back to not only Shy’s life experience, but Matt de la Pena’s as well. Though it is not always the main focus of the storyline, Romero disease plays a huge part in shaping the action.
Around the world there are many kind of problems that afflict kids of all age but there is one in particular that is relevant, this problem is the bullying. Also many kids commit suicide because of this problem, this isn't an actual problem, the bullying exist many years ago almost all generations of humans witness the bullying in the childhood.
When first reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm, one might assume it to be a simple narrative about Farm Animals. However, through closer analysis, you begin to see the allegorical connections and satire of the work. By drawing parallels to certain major events and individuals from the Russian Revolution, Orwell is able to provide a political commentary about the harsh conditions caused by the Revolution. In George Orwell 's Animal Farm, he uses Napoleon, Snowball, and Mr. Jones to show the allegorical connections, as well as its satirical motives.
As Maya Angelou once said “In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” Though diversity exists in the world today, that could diminish due to the downfalls caused by human cloning. There may be controversy surrounding human cloning, but the consequences will desolate society if the issues with it are not addressed. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, a scientist obsessed with life animates a creature who becomes evil from society treatment. Moreover, in “The Birthmark,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a newly married scientist becomes obsessed with a hand shaped birthmark on his wife’s cheek, which leads him to attempt to remove it but to no avail, as he ends up killing her.
‘Will I survive?’ , ‘Am I the same person?’ , ‘Will there be some person alive who is the same person as me?’ (Parfit, 1971, p.9) these are all questions that must be answered in order to determine ones survival or future responsible actions. Parfit, however, argues that these beliefs are false or mistaken as such.
Humanity needs to take action to become their own identities instead of becoming clockworks in the palms of someone else’s
In Animal Farm, two themes were shown throughout the book. One theme was “Not everyone is equal; some people believe that they are more superior than others.” another theme was “People deserve to have their own thoughts and ideas. These were shown when Napoleon used his powers for hurt hurt not for the better of the farm. He used his powers to create a farm that is not equal for everyone.