Analysis Of The Wonderful Mistake By Thomas Lewis

One aspect that defines humanity is our quest for power and control. “Although we are far from omnipotent, we [human beings] have extraordinary powers, unique among the earth’s creatures, to shape our environment and even ourselves according to our wills.” (Kass 3) Having successfully bent plants, animals, and environments to our will, humans moved on to bending other humans in addition to the human form as a whole. Knowledge plays a key role in this mighty goal. After all, knowledge is power and, eventually, flesh will yield like clay.

In “The Wonderful Mistake,” Thomas Lewis asserts that life as we know it would not exist if the DNA of the first cell was designed by humans. How can one learn from their mistakes if they never make any? Be

Nations of people fight and die for land, pride, imagined aggressions, or decade-old grudges. The natural history of mankind is defined by our conflicts. Take Archimedes and his engines in Plutarch’s “The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.” Archimedes sought knowledge for the sake of knowledge, to the point where his mind and spirit were able to transcend his physical form. However, even people who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge can have their arms twisted until they make something of use. King Hiero and the people of Syracuse could not understand the worth of Archimedes knowledge until they were shown a practical application of it. The King Hiero’s reaction after demonstration is quite telling of human nature. “The king, …convinced of the power of the art, prevailed upon Archimedes to make him engines accommodated to all purposes, offensive and defensive, of a siege.” (Plutarch 77) Once the king was shown the power of a simple application of Archimedes’ beloved geometry, his first thought was how further applications may aid Syracuse in battle. The demonstration consisted of Archimedes launching a heavy ship with very little effort, which would have endless commercial potential during that time period. However, King Hiero’s first thought was how to use this new technology to gain an advantage during

More often than not, they are either fueled by a need for achievement or lured into the lucrative career by the high income.

Dr. Michaels, the surgeon who saved Aparna’s life after life-threatening complications during her C-section in “What The Body Knows” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, even admits this much. “’The other surgeons,’ he says, talking in the clipped tones of a man who’s grown used to being always busy, ‘didn’t want to operate on you. They thought you’d die on the table. But I took it as a challenge.’” (Divakaruni 185) He did not do the surgery to save her life, but to prove to his colleagues that he could do what they could not. If Aparna did not survive the procedure, he would likely shrug it off as an impossible task. Some doctors, such as the resident that Klass worked under, abuse this power over their patients. They make cruel jokes about their clients behind their way, using the information they were told confidentially as an ice-breaker whenever they told about the case with another physician. However, one can argue that this is disconnect to necessary for doctors and surgeons. They cannot care about their patients since they are just problems to be solved. Although sympathizers claim this mentality requires physicians to act inhumanely, in fact these professional men and women are just doing what comes naturally to them as human being in positions