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(2016
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2016 (Index) Essay 2: Personal / professional topic |
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Rebecca Dyda
Science fiction through time
Throughout my childhood I have been intrigued by science fiction.
Zombies, vampires, time travel, alternate universes, and other apocalyptic
themed science fiction have piqued my interest since I was a little kid. Science
fiction has changed throughout time, and it certainly is a lot different now
than it was when I was a child, and this change is certainly seen in our texts.
As we read some of our older novels such as our scriptural texts and the time
machine, and our newer texts such as Parable and somebody up there likes me, you
can definitely see where the text lands on the timeline of science fiction, and
how each texts have developed the same ideas overtime.
As we
have grown up, the first apocalyptic book that we were introduced to was the
bible. The bible is one of the first apocalyptic texts that we are introduced to
as children, and also one of the first apocalyptic texts to be written. One of
the features that sets this text apart from the rest is that the text is the
source where most of the ideas from science fiction comes from. This is why it
can be seen throughout our other later texts in the class that there are many
similarities between them and the scriptural texts.
For instance, in our scriptural texts
there are many stories and symbols that are seen again and again throughout
future texts, including the ones read in class. For example, in the book of
genesis, the story of the Garden of Eden tells the story of Adam and Eve who are
let into the Garden of Eden by God. They are let into the garden on the
condition that they couldn’t eat from the tree of knowledge. The two characters
do not listen to God, but instead listen to the serpent who tells them to eat
from the tree of knowledge. They are then kicked out and are never to be allowed
to return again. This same concept is practiced in the story Parable of the
Sower; Lauren, acknowledging the fact that she has the ability to think for
herself, in some ways “eats off of the tree of knowledge” by creating her own
views, and thoughts about the world around her. After, Laurens once sturdy
community is then ambushed and falls apart, leaving Lauren to leave this once
known “Garden of Eden” and to go out on her own to fend for herself.
Another known parallel from our scriptural texts is the parallel between
them and the time machine. In the scriptural texts it is explained in
revelations that God would eventually end all of human kind, and the time
machine seems to back this up. In the end of the time machine, the time traveler
describes his last time travel in which he travels far into the future. He
explains that the human race ceases to exist, and the only living creatures in
sight are frightening crab looking creatures. He also goes into detail about how
unbearable the living conditions are in this future world. Ultimately these
conditions, along with the lack of other human life forms, in some ways attempts
to prove the theory of the end of human life described in the book of
revelations.
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