Cover Letter First and foremost, I am really frustrated with Weebly right now, because I cannot for the life of me get the spacing right for this essay page. I attached the actual file to the page, which can be found at the bottom button titled "Essay in Document Form." I must admit, this has been one of the easiest and hardest papers I have ever written-- it was almost leuisurely because I enjoy the topic so much I was able, for the first time ever, to just sit down and write about what interests me. At the same time, I am nervous it isn't my best work, because it hasn't had as much editing as I would've liked, and I took some pretty big risks, too. In my concluding paragraph, I made the decision to include personal pronouns and rhetorical questions, because it invites the reader to really think about the implications of my argument as well as Milton and Shelley's. One of my goals this year for my writing is to develop a more casual voice, because I find it hard after taking AP Lang not to write like a robot. The conclusion puts the little sprinkle of Bridget in the essay that I believe my writing desperately needs. All in all, I feel like my essay could definitely use some work (espiecially in my concluding paragraph), but I genuniely enjoyed the writing process and documenting my thought process in a formal setting.
Essay Bridget Nabors Dr. Holt AP Literature 12-7 11 January 2017
The Pursuit of Knowledge Knowledge is the most empowering asset in today’s post-modern world; without knowledge, finding work and being financially stable is next to impossible, and as society’s emphasis on education grows, the number of individuals earning high-level degrees is increasing exponentially. Virtually the only consequence of actively seeking an education is the potential for some student debt; today knowledge is power, and those who seek it are readily commended. Seldom, though, do we pause to ponder the repercussions of our insatiable quest for answers. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and John Milton’s Paradise Lost explore humanity’s longing for the pursuit of knowledge, and the consequences it entails. Paradise Lost places a different spin on Genesis by giving the reader an intricate backstory to God’s creations. Milton’s epic has the same characters as Genesis as well. In the Garden of Eden, there are a series of interactions between Raphael and Adam that indicate the pursuit of knowledge is not encouraged under God's reign. When Adam asks about earthly, ordinary things, Raphael answers happily, but when he asks of the divine powers, Raphael is hesitant. Christianity teaches its followers not to question faith, and in doing so they forbid seeking information beyond what the divine provides. The King James Version (KJV) of Genesis warns Adam and Eve, God’s first human creations, that, “The fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat it, neither shall ye touch it, ye die,” (Genesis. 3.3). The serpent assured Eve that, “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil,” (Genesis. 3.5). Despite God’s warning, both Adam and Eve could not resist temptation and ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge—and they suffered the consequences. Eve branded all women with the burden of child bearing, and Adam’s life would no longer be one of ease. They were banished from the Garden of Eden, and tainted the human race with sin. By acting on their intellectual desires that were prohibited, Adam and Eve, as well as humanity iteself, bears the repercussions. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, embarks on an intellectual mission to master the formula to create human life. Through years of tireless study, Frankenstein is finally able to craft a living creature out of dead flesh. At first, he admires his creation, saying, “[He] selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!—Great God!” and “his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth a pearly whiteness,” (Shelley 35). Shortly after he swoons over his work, he realizes “he is ugly […] a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived,” (Shelley 36). Frankenstein feels deep remorse and regret after making what he calls the “monster.” In fact, he essentially disowns his creation all together. Like his creator, the monster yearns for answers, and is shockingly proficient in reading. He discovers Paradise Lost, and after reading it realizes that his creator wronged him—though if the monster had not sought out knowledge, then he would live in peaceful ignorance rather than bitter hatred. The monster makes it his mission to impose the misery he endured on his creator, which manifests into the murder of Frankenstein’s loved ones. In the end, both Frankenstein and his creation suffer as a result of their pursuit of knowledge. Unlike the attitudes broached in Paradise Lost and Frankenstein, today’s society encourages pursuing answers to even the most convoluted questions. Such yearning for knowledge has been present since the beginning of time, as made evident by the texts Paradise Lost and KJV Genesis, but there are consequences to suffer in the end regardless. Many say the greatest inventions of the modern world took place in the 20th century-- the automobile, plastic, and the power grid. After years of studying all their complex components, humans were able to produce creations that are now necessities in the modern world. It is the pursuit of knowledge that allowed the inventions to take form, and the entire human race is seemingly benefitting from them. However, as Milton and Shelley argue, answers always come with repercussions beyond what the creators could imagine. The automobile’s need to burn fossil fuel is heating up the Earth’s atmosphere, and causing species extinction, crop failure, storm intensity, flooding, and more. Plastics, while useful, have no reentry into the environment. The overwhelming amount of trash that cannot be properly disposed of is slowly beginning to take up more and more of Earth’s surface. Power grids require burning coal, which is polluting the air every human breathes and needs to survive. If humans were content with what was, there would be no pursuit of knowledge, and therefore no creations tainting the environment and jeopardizing our ability to live. So, reader, I leave you with this: is ignorance bliss? Is the pursuit of knowledge, which, according to KJV Genesis, the original sin? Perhaps in writing this very essay and engaging in the thinking it took to convey my thoughts is defying God’s wish for contained curiosity. In the eyes of Mary Shelley and John Milton, my actions will likely transpire into consequences. Writing an essay hardly seems like a disturbance, but Shelley and Milton were definitely onto something. With the rise of technology today, being aware of the ramifications is more important than ever, because more often than not, we do not realize the implications of creations until it is too late.
Bibliography Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Hanover, NH: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1996-2016. The John Milton Reading Room. Thomas H. Luxon, Mar. 2015. Web. Oct. 2016. < http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton>. Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Charles Martin. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print. Rogers, John. The Matter of Revolution: Science, Poetry, and Politics in the Age of Milton. Ithaca, NY: Cornell U Press, 1996. Print. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. 2nd ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. Print. The King James Version. Biblica, 2011. Biblegateway.com, https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=Genesis&qs_version=KJV