Humanity’s Separation from Nature The gray unhappy air surrounds civilization as the pollution of human creations and discoveries tears us further and further from our natural beginnings. Nature no longer encompasses us with sunshine and beauty, left alone we become monsters in our outlook and attempt to take control of power we were never meant to have. With the use of drugs and the constant striving for upmost power to create living from dead we have destroyed our natural roots. Natural processes slowly disappear from the world around us, in Brave New World the Director says; "Bokanovsky's Process is one of the major instruments of social stability!" (1) This is a process where people are artificially made and conditioned into certain parts of society.
They are called “industrial statesmen” for the great economic power they helped America become. At the same time, they are regarded as “robber barons” because they built their great wealth by abusing the system, abusing employees, and destroying their competitors to satisfy their own needs. They grew America, but brought down many on their path. Document F is concentrated on John D. Rockefeller. A great man, really, in charge of having possibly the biggest oil refinery company in the world.
In what ways does a comparative study accentuate the distinctive contexts of Frankenstein and Blade Runner? The values and morals of society have dramatically changed throughout the course of history, so too has the knowledge of science, its teachings and influences on the world. As new technologies have been under further experimentation into the production of man-made life forms, the debate between science and religion has continued. It is these issues within an author’s context that influences them and the texts they create. Mary Shelley’s gothic promethean novel, Frankenstein (1818), was released during the industrial revolution as romanticism was thriving, while Ridley Scott’s futuristic sci-fi Blade runner (1992) grew with the dawning of a capitalistic increasingly globalised and technologically driven society.
The private zaibatsu (10-15 extremely powerful corporations) ,the heads of which had direct ties to the ruling Oligarchs, directed the economy towards pure profit at the expense of workers rights. This modernization policy helped the ruling class expand the economy rapidly while still realizing vast profits. Not only in the economy was the Oligarchs hunger for power apparent, the way the government worked was to the direct benefit of the select few men in power. The elite men in power very shrewdly gave the public a sense that the
In Ray Bradbury's short story "There will come Soft Rains" technology negatively influences society. Ray Bradbury demonstrates the technology can and will lead to war, pain, and laziness. To begin, mankind’s misuse of technology leads to their end. Humans were so thoughtless and selfish that they fought until "a radioactive glow could be seen for miles" (Bradbury 90). Mankind was consumed with technology they ended up not thinking of the damage they could cause with a nuclear war.
Atwood structures her novel through the flashbacks of the main character, Snowman, who survives a horrific virus created by his best friend Crake. She creates a dystopian future where all economic and political power is held by avaricious corporations, which militaristically monitor their employees. Many of these themes and issues which Atwood explores are based on contemporary themes and issues that are relevant in today’s world. Therefore there’re many significant comparison’s drawn between the items in the futuristic world of Oryx & Crake and in, the contemporary world as we know it. Through skilful characterization and techniques Atwood engages the reader’s mind, resulting in a chilling realisation that is not easily forgotten.
Shelley warns the audience that we, as the creators, must take care of our surroundings or the outcomes could be fatal. These warnings continue to resonate with 21st century audiences, and it seems that the warnings are almost more important today, in an age of environmental breakdown and the use of nature as a commodity. Shelley also examines the moral responsibility of the scientist, and how far humans can go in their quest to be the creators. This moral responsibility is also examined in Scott’s Blade Runner. In Frankenstein, the ideas of cloning and the ability of human science has only started to catch on with small numbers of scientists such as Frankenstein, whereas in Blade Runner the human ability to create and control has manifested itself on a global, corporate scale.
This highlights the issue that capitalist corporations are able to work their way around the system due to their ‘importance’ and ‘status’ in a capitalist society. Fight Club draws attention to the types of control the bourgeoisie use to keep the proletariat passive and under a state of false consciousness. On one hand the film recognizes how coercive control (direct force)
The creature’s emotions have power over them and they become slaves to it because they are inexperienced. They end up developing more emotion than humans themselves which makes them surpass equality, but, they remain dissimilar to them. They are made the obvious outsider of the world and are just mere artificial creations of life; not the natural born life. The motif of abortion recurs as the creators of the creatures intentionally ostracise their creations. Consequently, the ethics of humanity is challenged through these creators in both texts as they express the contextual concerns such as post-industrialism and greed.
Frankenstein was being written in a time when philosophers and writers such as Rousseau and John Locke where developing their ideas on the human condition. Rousseau’s Theory of Natural Human, which acknowledged that morality was not a societal construct but rather “natural” and “innate”, is questioned throughout the novel. Shelley examines the effect of society and knowledge on the innate goodness of the Creature, suggesting that he has become the monster that Victor sees him as because of the unwillingness of his creator to accept him and nurture him. The idea that humans’ innate goodness is tainted and polluted by society is present when the Creature expresses that his “sorrow only increased with knowledge” and this “increase of knowledge only discovered to [him] more clearly what wretched outcast [he] was”. The relationship between Frankenstein and the Creature is also paralleled with that of Lucifer and God and this is shown when the Creature, a symbol of humankind, acknowledges that “I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed”, suggesting that had it been nurtured/educated, it would have become an