Chris McCandless and Thoreau had a lot in common. Both men had the same intelligent and wise thought and actions. Transcendentalism means to assert the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that empirical. Its scientific reality and is knowable through intuition: (quote- Webster’s Dictionary Online). We all can see that Chris and Thoreau share the same beliefs of individualism, self-wisdom, and self- confidence.
These scholars’ arguments contribute to the story, “The Birth-Mark”, Nathanial Hawthorne expresses the common personal issue that individuals possess. The Birth-Mark was about a man named Aylmer and his obsession of science and the birth mark on his wife’s face. The birth
Education, a life-altering event that involves the development of being more open- minded. When one’s horizons expand they begin to have a shift of perception. The process of becoming knowledgeable through education can differ from the individual or situation. It can also have one acquire gratitude for their change of insight. Two passages, “Learning to Read” by Malcom X and “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, each contain an individual who goes through the path of gaining wisdom.
In the stories “The Birthmark” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, both explore the wonders of science. “The Birthmark” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” explore science in similar ways, like the future. But there are some differences, like who’s future. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, Dr. Heidegger uses science to create and “magic water” to let people go back to when they were young, this let people change their future for the better.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Birthmark, tragically displays that the quest for knowledge or perfection can sometimes result in man’s detriment rather than man’s enhancement or success. Aylmer’s constant obsession to make his wife, Georgiana, perfect showcases his concern for his own selfish, unattainable needs to triumph over Nature. Aylmer’s decision to dominate the powers of Nature, illustrates the limits of not only man, but perfection itself. From the onset, Hawthorne portrays Aylmer as a man so involved in his experimental projects, that his love for his own wife never equaled his love for science. Despite her efforts to win her husband’s true affection, Georgiana realized that she could not compete with Aylmer’s
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s,”The Birthmark,” Alymer, the scientist, knew all along that his science would kill his wife because he himself is imperfect. Sometimes, scientists become so involved in their work that they forget about others. Alymer’s forgetting about his wife and their future was what happened when he decided that his science was more important to him than she was. His obsession with her looks, and his obsession with performing experimental surgery caused him to lose the most important person in his life. First, Alymer knew from the beginning that he was not a good scientist.
Such as how Aylmer was trying to perfect Georgiana and this led to her death. In both stories knowledge wrapped up the two scientists and isolated them from the outside world. Such as in Frankenstein when Victor went to Ingolstadt and obsessed over his work. The birthmark added to my thinking about Frankenstein greatly because the themes expressed in both texts
Thoreau’s use of compare and contrast in his text has an extraordinary impact. Thoreau compares and contrast children “who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly” to men “who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure”. Children understand the meaning of actually living, thus allowing them to be content with life. Adults on the other hand don’t actually live life but seem to have the delusion of living life and being ultimately happy. Thoreau uses compare and contrast to demonstrate and put emphasis on the concept of children understanding what the outcome of life should be unlike the adults, who are expected to know, that fabricated the idea of life being about success
Civil Disobedience In the dictionary civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest, but Thoreau and Martin Luther King have their own beliefs to civil disobedience. In Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” he writes about the need to prioritize one’s conscience over the dictates of laws. Martin Luther King uses civil disobedience as something that effectuates change in the government. Both Thoreau and Martin Luther King has similar yet different perspectives on civil disobedience.
2. Thoreau refers to civil disobedience not merely as a right but as a duty to emphasize the need for individual to have the capability to defend their honest thoughts. As it states, “I think we should be men first, and subjects afterwards” (Thoreau 941). Thoreau wishes for the individuals in society to be able to preach their truth, even if it means to display non-conformity to the government expressing unjust laws. 4.
Henry David Thoreau suggested, “People rest six days and work only on the seventh” (“Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862”). He proposed this in his commencement essay which means this quote was not his wish but his theory with his view. Henry David Thoreau that is one of American’s most famous authors is known as the writer of Walden and Civil Disobedience, a friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a transcendentalist. Most commonly, many people associate Thoreau with his books, Walden and Civil Disobedience. In these books, he claimed self-sufficiency and self-government (“Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862”).
The search for knowledge is arduous, to utilize knowledge wisely can be blessings, but
“We never noticed the beauty of nature because we were too busy trying to recreate it” (Unknown). Nature is apart from physical science and philosophy, in that it is beyond measurability; it is beyond man. No man can or should dwell beyond mortality. The evolution of man and its creation is perfect in its own nature and in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”, we see Aylmer a philosophical scientist, attempting to step beyond man into waters no mortal should tread, causing the death of his wife, Georgiana. Aylmer’s arrogant white male nature, in his demands, over-determination and over-protective behavior leads him to play God with an uncanny devotion to science.
Through “The Birthmark” Hawthorne gives warning to those who are utterly devout to science or religion. Hawthorne does so by writing himself into the story as the narrator and utilizing sinister foreshadowing, symbolism, and allegory. Aylmer is clearly a man of science, but is so captivated by the subject he has lost his sense of morals. Aylmer feels that science has granted him the ability to alter nature, contributing to his attitude of feeling as powerful as God himself. Aylmer believed he could “lay his hand on the secret of creative force and perhaps make new worlds for himself.”
The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne is centered around Aylmer, a mad scientist, and the birthmark on his wife’s, Georgiana, face. His obsession with perfection drives him to create an elixir that ends up serving its purpose and more. However, this story is actually about Aylmers attempt to use science to create the perfect human being, one lacking sin. Hawthorne implies this throughout the story by hinting towards the ideas that the birthmark on Georgiana’s face is really the embodiment of human sin and that Georgiana is, in reality, an angel. “No Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect shocks me (Hawthorne, 765).
