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(2016
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2016 (Index) Essay 1: Compare, contrast, and evaluate Narratives of the Future |
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Zach
Thomas
3/23/16
Essay 1: Where is Our Humanity?
When someone thinks of the word “apocalypse,”
they most likely picture the destruction of humanity. Either war or some
external and drastic climate change is responsible for the end of everything we
hold dear. However, so much fiction is centered around the idea of
post-apocalyptic resilience to the “virus” or a meteor collision with the Earth,
or so have you. Readers are not satisfied with one cosmic event that destroys
life in an instant; they wish for a blade of grass to spring up from the barren
soil. In other words, we desire hope in seemingly impossible scenarios.
For
the Revelation given to John, we read of the destruction of the world by Satan
(Dragon) and eventually, God himself. God brings down fire from heaven to
cleanse the Earth for the second time of all sin and the perverseness of those
who do not believe in him. The dragon is first seen by hurtling stars down at
Earth with his mighty tail. But this process was not an end-all situation.
Revelation says that God will use this fire to purify the present world we live
in, in order to create a new heavens and a new Earth. This is a very drastic and
terrifying apocalypse described by John, but it eventually gives way to a very
beautiful picture of the future as the Earth is evolving into what God intended
it to be.
Victoria Webb analyzes the fact that, “Evolutionary driven narratives assert
that while time is always moving forward, we may change in a way that progresses
us, or in way that declines us.” I agree with this statement because time is
neither a foe, nor an ally. Humans accept change as progress or decline. We also
may interpret that through evolutionary measures are we able to contribute to
improvement or de-escalation. For Lauren in Parable, her view of humanity
was for progress that was spurred on by a unique belief system. Much different
from her father’s
view of “just stay put and don’t
do something risky,” Lauren is pushed out of her home to desire a place that is
later named Acorn, by any means necessary. Survival was not the finish line for
Lauren, just a platform for the future. She meant to thrive with a community
built from her own hands as the result of her efforts.
As a result of future events, we as humans will hold onto certain
institutions of modernity that leads us to believe we are improving society.
Humanity seems to continue to reinforce the social stratification of society
even into a post-apocalyptic world. In the
Time
Machine,
the Time Traveler brings to life this point by writing, “The Upper-world people
might once have been the favoured aristocracy, and the Morlocks their mechanical
servants” (52). This suggests that even in the year 800,013, there are members
of society that operate under a specific role. The Time Traveler also comments
on the Eloi and how he shares the disgust they have for the Morlocks. In doing
so, the Time Traveler also puts himself above the Eloi since they are human-like
and not altogether human. Even after all humans have been killed off, the TT
maintains on the top of food-chain as a sign of his dominance in this Darwinian
society. The novel, The Time Machine, is in agreement with a declining
evolution. Humans have been brought to become the frail and ignorant Eloi. An
apocalypse of the human race brings about a certain bias that the TT shows in
order to categorize himself as more advanced than living things in the future.
Not all hope is lost in humanity because certain truths in literature are
read in order to combat insanity by gaining knowledge of the future that give
people the advantage to overcome obstacles. For the grandmother in
Bears
Discover Fire,
her perspective on the future was not a grim and desolate picture. The media
announced often that the bears were advancing in their abilities that were
uncommon before. For the most part, people were frightened to realize that bears
discovered fire and that meant that they could possibly organize to start a war
against humans, or some other strange conspiracy. The grandmother simply left
her retirement home and found refuge with the bears. This symbolizes her
acceptance with evolution and the way it was headed. Really it is all about
perspective for her to eat with the bears by the fire and not feel threatened
for her life. It connects humans with nature as did Genesis with Revelation.
Adam and Eve had peace living among the animals and John wrote that God will
bring about a day where the lion will lay down beside the lamb in harmony. One
will not feast on the other. This allows for time to be considered cyclical:
bringing about the retribution of a chaotic world by a nostalgic full-circle
back to the beginning.
Future narratives are compatible to one another in respect to evolution
and the changing of time as a cyclical and cleaning device. Lauren spent her
early life believing that she could change the framework of society by creating
a new community apart from hate and war. John focuses much on the making of the
pure innocent once again by the burning of the present world into a new world.
Along with several more narratives, an overarching theme of regeneration becomes
apparent. Humans in these narratives were trying to survive in each setting by
coming at a post-apocalyptic world with different lenses.
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