Frankenstein essay.

Murder is the most unforgiving crime, yet when one looks beyond the death and the motives and reasoning of the murderer, they can begin to understand the truth.  The creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is most definitely a murderer, however the creature is an abandoned being, who finds a hard time even understanding what is right and/or wrong.  For these two reasons alone, the creature should be considered one of innocence.  Sure, it directly and indirectly took the lives of two of Frankenstein’s family, but when a being receives absolute no love or care when they are first born, or created, they are going to be severely different from those who have been nurtured from the start.  The creature is one of misery, it was not his choice to be created, and he is living a life of despair and suffering.  He even states in his conversation with Victor, “All men hate the wretched:  how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!”  Right from the start, Frankenstein referred to his creation in a grotesque manner, and as the creator it is his full responsibility to care for it.  If Frankenstein would have loved it and treated it as the living being it is from the start, then his brother and sister would both be alive.  Because of its inhumane treatment from the start, the creature was destined to be a murderer.  Frankenstein needs to show it how to live in society, and what is acceptable and normal in society, because he knows the being is one of intellect.  Instead, Frankenstein is disgusted as what he created and he abandons it.  The creature is reflected as a product of cruel society, but more definitely the neglect of his creator.   Frankenstein perceived it as this monster of evil, though in reality that is what he has caused it to become in his lack of responsibility.  Frankenstein completely hated his creation, even stating:  “I had been the author of unalterable evils, and I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness”.  Through this quote, it is shown very clearly that Frankenstein does not understand his creation and its real intellect.   If he had taken the time to search beyond its “ugly” appearance, it could have established a connection with the beast and led it down the path to a good, moral future.  However, the creator chose to abandon his creation, which is morally wrong.  “With great power comes great responsibility” is a famous quote that most certainly reflects the error made by Frankenstein.  He spent an unordinary amount of time creating his creature, so it is also his time to care and over-see his creature.  Though the creature did commit irreversible crimes, he stands innocent since it is the job of the creator to look over his creation.  Frankenstein is at fault for the murders, not the creature.

Frankenstein letter.

Dear My Dearest Helen, 

I know I will most certainly miss your companionship this summer, since I will not be able to see you.  Though we will be hundreds of miles apart, I hope we can consider and keep in mind the friendship that we have established.  We must continue to talk through our many forms of technology, I would not want it any other way.  I will certainly miss our many long talks and moments filled with laughter, however I will cherish this moments and I will reflect back on them during the summer months.  I know I will see you again in the future, so this is not a good-bye, simply a letter to reflect on the happy times we have experiences, along with my thought that you will be deeply missed.  I will not be lonely without you, but it will be different.  I am excited when the day comes that we can meet again.  I will be thinking of you my dearest.  

Your good friend, Danielle.

I wrote this letter similarly to the one written to Mrs. Saville by Walton.  In his letter, he expresses that he has no friends and that he "bitterly feel the want of a friend".  I then thought about the fact that I will not be seeing any of my friends this summer and that while I have friends, I will not see the ones from Chicago for a long time.  In a way this is similar to the letter since there is an absence of certain friends.

artist statement project 3.

            For my final project of New Millennium, I decided to create a colorful booklet of quotes regarding the topic of eating meat.  I titled it, “The Great Debate:  Or is it?”  It features numerous quotes from important and known people in the past and present such as Leonardo DaVinci and Paul McCartney, along with college students that I personally know.  The well-known figures all condemn eating meat and their quotes are all related to a non-meat diet, while all the college students I asked are pro-eating meat and they each state their reason for this.  The quotes are relatively short and are typed-out and are pasted on colorful sheets of paper.

            When I first decided to create a booklet about eating meat, I originally wanted to present a debate about it.  I wanted to keep it neutral by providing quotes from famous figures who were both for eating meat and and who were strictly opposed.  However, this was much harder than I anticipated since I could not find any quotes from famous figures who spoke out about how eating meat was moral and acceptable; I could only find quotes on the famous condemning it.  I then decided to resolve this issue by asking my fellow college students why eating meat is acceptable to them.  I know very few vegetarians so I knew this would not be a difficult task.  After I received my desired quotes, I was able to create a “semi-debate” where the famous were the vegetarian side, and the college students were certainly the meat-eating side.

            I love bright, flashy colors, which is the reason I wanted to construct my project with bright pieces of colored paper.  I put it in the form of a booklet, which I believe would be easiest to read and would be the most organized way of presenting the quotes.  I am a very visually person, so I decided to type out the quotes and then tape them to the paper.

            My booklet answered the guiding questions, “What ought I do?  How ought we act?”  It is based on the key question of "is it morally acceptable to eat meat?"  In our society, there is an ethical dilemma on whether eating meat is morally acceptable or not.  Though the majority of the world does indeed follow a carnivorous diet, there are millions who strongly oppose this choice.   Many believe that eating a living being for no reason other than pleasure is not morally right.

            The main message I have arrived at is that it is far easier to speak out against eating meat than it is to speak for it.  Thousands of celebrities and important figures throughout time have stressed a vegetarian diet, yet there are virtually none who have promoted a carnivorous one.  This certainly should be an eye-opener that eating meat is not all it is cracked up to be; there is something wrong with it.

            This project could be related to a similar one I created in high school.  I tend to always use bright colored paper, and for my AP history final class project, I presented a similar booklet that addressed the lifestyles of renaissance women.  While this project is much more creative and not nearly as dry, the two booklets are closely related to each other.

            I want the audience to know that even though most eat meat themselves, there is a reason that no one majorly voices their opinion to why eating meat is necessary.  Thousands of the famous have voiced their choice to go vegetarian, while there are virtually not any who voice their carnivorous diet.  They audience will hopefully receive this and think about it.  I hope they would ponder on this  idea and perhaps lean towards a vegetarian diet.

            The strength of this project is most definitely the quotes.  Some of the quotes are extremely powerful and really make the audience think. Also I believe the aesthetically pleasing style of the book is a strength as well.  Perhaps a weakness would be only seven quotes were taken from college students reflecting their choice to eat meat.

project 3 digital documentation of quotes and text used.

Why do you think it is acceptable for you to eat meat?

 “Because the animals were put on the planet for us to use.  For food, clothes, blankets, etc.”

-Maria Parise, 18, student

 “Because it’s what our ancestors have done for forever and it’s our natural instinct.”

-Zack Patton, 19, student

 “I eat it cuz it tastes good and I get all the nutrients from it.”

-Justin Nowakowski, 19, student

 “It's a practice that's been around for ages and even though it's bad for you, it's still a form of nourishment. That's not to say it is necessarily right to eat meat seeing is nourishment can also be, say, cannibalism. It can sustain you to eat the meat of a person and the only reason it isn't widely practiced is because it's found immoral. If most of the world thought eating an animal was immoral, everyone here would probably be a vegetarian.”

-Earl Rigsby, 19, student

 “Because we’re the superior being.”

-Julien Robinson, 18, student

 “Although it is morally acceptable for humans to eat animals since animals eat other animals, I don’t feel good about it myself since I respect animals and there are better ways to get protein than eating once living things that are injected with a lot of disgusting things and chemicals.”

-Tessa Konkol, 18, student

 

 In the United States, more than twenty-seven billion animals are slaughtered every year in 5,700 slaughterhouses and processing plants employing 527,000 workers; in 2007, 28.1 billion pounds of beef were consumed in the U.S. alone.

 “If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat.  That’s the single most important thing you can do.  It’s staggering when you think about it.  Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty.”

 

-Paul McCartney

 

“Let thy food be thy medecine”

-Hippocrates 460-377 BC

 "My opinion is well known. I do not regard flesh food as necessary for us at any stage and under any clime in which it is possible for human beings ordinarily to live. I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species.”

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

-Mahatma Ghandhi 1869 -1948

“I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.”

-Leonardo DaVinci 1452 -1519

 “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

-Albert Einstein 1879-1955 Physicist, Nobel Prize winner 1921

 

“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”

-Thomas Edison 1847-1931

 

 “Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.”

 

-James Froude 1818-1894 (Professor of Modern History, Oxford)

 

 "One night I couldn't sleep, and I was up and just Googling random stuff, and I'm like, 'Hmmm, PETA.' I saw all the videos, and I just thought it was horrible. It's animal cruelty. A lot of it has to do with knowing what happens to the animals, and it really bothered me, and so I will not eat meat."

 

-Kellie Pickler

 

 “Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic-and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal.”

—  Ingrid Newkirk, founder of PETA

 

 “If we really know a 100th part of the agony of animals we should rather starve than profit by it.”

—  Max Tooley

 

“For as long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”

—  Pythagoras, 569 BC-475 BC

 

 “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.”

—  Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982

 

 Auschwitz begins whenever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they are only animals.”

—  Theodor Adorno, German philosopher, sociologist

 

“I know in my soul that to eat a creature who is raised to be eaten, and who never has a chance to be a real being, is unhealthy… You’re just eating misery.”

- Alice Walker, 1944

 

 “But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.”

—  Plutarch, 45-125 AD

 

 

 

also my question would be when did you first decide you wanted to speak out for the important issues regarding the natural aspects of our world, such as animals and such?

slifer response.

What draws you to this piece? What makes it compelling? What is your connection to this work? 

I chose the piece of the Andrew Jackson twenty dollar bill with the imposed stamp printed, "Great Heroes of Real Estate Indian Removal Act of 1830."  What really drew me to this piece was an everyday item was used (a $20) imprinted with a stamp that conveys a story to how that person on the bill changed America as we know it.  The compelling part that if not for Andrew Jackson's push of the Native Americans farther west, we perhaps could be living in a different world than we are today.  Perhaps the majority of Natives would not be living on reservations, but perhaps living out more of the lifestyle they once experienced.  For a church youth group trip I went to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, which is why I am very connected to this work.  I have seen first-hand the struggles of the Lakota people in terms of education and poverty.  They are still a very powerful people, but there lives have been vastly altered.

Project 3 corrected.

Alright so for project 3 I am going to use the humanity for non-humans opinion piece.  I want to create a booklet and interview numerous different people of all age groups.  I am first going to see if they are a vegetarian, vegan, meat-eater, etc., and according to their eating styles I am either going to ask them the question, "Why do you think it is acceptable for you to eat meat?", or if they do not eat meat, "Why do you choose not to eat meat?"  I will put their answers in it along with real facts about the slaughtering of animals for meat, and percentages and such.  My stance is going to be that eating meat is unacceptable and can be prevented (except for those who need it to survive or for population control).