I hope that your understanding of Pope’s “Essay on Man” was deepened and enriched by our class on Wednesday, September 21st. In a comment on this post, please share your most important “takeaways” from our exploration of the poem together. What idea made the strongest impression on you? What lingering questions are you left with? What did you learn? How did your view of the work change as a result of our discussion? (These questions are just suggestions. It’s up to you to decide what direction you’d like your response to take.). Please share your thoughts at any point after our class discussion on Wed., Sept. 21st, but no later than Friday, September 23rd.
Alexander Pope, “Essay on Man”
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The idea that made the strongest impression on me was when Pope was implying that a man shouldn’t question the ways of god because everything happens for a reason. To me this thought has a lot of significance because it’s true. I agree with Pope that we as humans can’t comprehend why things happen , only time is able to tell why everything is set in stone the way it is.
Yes, this is perhaps Pope’s most central concept.
An idea that stood out to me the most was idea that we weren’t meant to do something because we were not built for it. When pope mentioned that we do not have microscopic eyes because we are not flies so we shouldn’t go looking at smaller things such as atoms. Sure we weren’t made to look at smaller things or to look further into the night sky but we are also creatures of reason and free will maybe meant to explore such things unlike sheep.
You make an excellent point, Donovan!
One takeaway I can talk about regarding our conversation yesterday on “An Essay on Man” and on my designated reading part of the poem would be that humans aren’t perfect but that god designated us to be, in order to suit his plan. For example, one of the lines that stood out to me was “In human works, through laboured on with pain, a thousand movements scarce on purpose gain;…” I feel like in section 2 we see a lot where Pope talks about a humans purpose, then relating it to religion/god and how he is the center of it all. Something along those lines. So, knowing that that Alexander Pope was catholic and even that catholicism was one of the oppressed groups in those times, I feel like i can end this post with saying that they always connected their lives to god.
Yes, I think Pope would say that our imperfections are actually “perfect” in the sense that we are exactly as God intends us to be.
One takeaway from the claas, was the idea that we can’t comprehend what God can. God only allowed for us to have so much information and we shouldn’t be greedy. “Knowledge is power”, is a well-known phrase and so what happens when that power falls in the wrong hands? When the pope called us “pride”, I totally agree with him, we as humans have too much pride. We are imperfect because of this, because we are prideful and greedy unlike God. So, by having too much knowledge, it would mean that everything else in nature will fall, because of our actions. So far, with the knowledge we have now, we as humans already made it quite difficult for other living things to thrive, and I think it will get worse as we gain more knowledge. Innovation and such are meant to make human lives more convenient, not taking nature into consideration. When we do care for nature is when it has some sort of impact on us.
Interesting – is there such a thing as “too much knowledge”?
After our discussion class one takeaway, I had was that humans are the way we are because we were made like this. If we were meant to be flies with tiny eyes then we would be in the world to see the tiny things that we humans cannot see. Therefore we do we use microscopes to see tiny things. This blew my mind since it shows that humans go above and beyond to be able to see something even if we cannot physically see it.
Yes, what does Pope think about this? Do you agree with him?
One idea that stood out to me was that Pope believes that it’s better for humans to not know everything, unlike god. When humans start questioning the things around them and start knowing and understanding everything would start making us greedy for knowledge. In addition we shouldn’t question god because god has a plan for us and it was set that way. For example, the metaphor by comparing the world to the maze showed us that through trial and error we will find our way through and understand. In addition since the maze is made unlike wilderness, it means god has a plan for us.
Interesting. Do you agree with Pope that we shouldn’t question the way things are in our world?
It was interesting to me when Pope conveyed that if god wanted us to see more than we could with our eyes, he would’ve given us that type of vision, that of a fly. I don’t agree with this statement because using a microscope to study more about ourselves and the world around us, is not a bad thing. If anything, we’ve been able to help the world by finding disease-causing bacteria and preventing those diseases from spreading. However, I do agree when Pope explains that with all the knowledge that we humans have, pride gets in the way. A big example would be the way we treat our planet. We’ve discovered and invented things that are useful to us but not ethical for the environment. We are currently facing the consequences of our actions, with climate change on the rise. People are taking action, but I think because of pride, we failed to react sooner than later.
Navya, You are linking two important ideas here. How do we continue to expand or knowledge and capacity without becoming “prideful”?
Following our class discussion on Pope’s “Essay on Man,” I was able to further comprehend his argument on God and religion. Pope mentioned how humans shouldn’t be able to judge God’s decisions and that we should be pleased with what he choses for us. I also understood that he emphasizes on how humans want to know everything but the reason we are happy is because of the lack of knowledge towards the future and is better that way. Furthermore, I realized how this poem would have stood out during the time as it was very contradicting of enlightenment thinking and that’s why he published this work anonymously first.
Yes, many of his ideas seem be opposed to Enlightenment values, and yet his goal here is to convince his readers that it is RATIONAL to believe in God.
The idea that God has given us the kindness of not knowing what our future holds made the strongest impression on me. Some people might assume that this isn’t an act of kindness, but instead see it as God withholding important knowledge. After our discussion in class, I realized that God doesn’t want us to be in a constant state of anxiety and allowed us to be free of this knowledge because we would become overwhelmed by what we find out. I think it’s better this way if we don’t know what’s going to happen in our lives.
Yes, the example of the lamb he uses here is quite powerful.
I think that the reference is made to mankind. This is evident when the poet talks about to wanting the strength of bulls and fur of bears. The poet here is critisizing the unreasonable demands that the human nature makes. Upon reading the section, it felt like a complaint as in that the humans are complaning against God. The reason why I said God is because it is evident from the first two lines that the poem is narrated by somebody who is confused and upset about human nature. Also, at thesame time, humans think the God is good; and that He is loving and giving.
In the second stanza of the section, we could assume that humans are thinking of acting like Gods and God is questioning that humans shouldn’t act above mankind. I am assuming that the rest of that paragraph is talking about if mankind possesses the knowledge of God than he would be miserable. It is just putting emphasis onj the speaker’s point of view.
Interesting. What do you think the poem’s speaker is confused about?
There is a phrase or a lifestyle I always use to help humble myself or life myself up when I’m down. It goes along the lines of everything always happens for a reason. I truly live for this entire statement. Alexander Pope does an excellent job of saying all of the success by man is all because of God. I, a believer in God feel how important it is for humans to realize how they are not control of everything and everything is not just how it seems.
Yes, I think this idea that human beings are not in charge is a central message of the poem.
While first reading Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man, I got the impression that Pope was trying to express the way that science and faith don’t have yo contradict. During a time where everyone was moving away from faith because of science, Pope was trying to bring these two things together. It makes sense to me that all the complex and perfect systems in our universe had to come from some complex and perfect higher power, which is part of what Pope is trying to communicate. Therefore, the improvement of science doesn’t deny the existence of God, but rather supports it. I believe that Pope expressed this point very well for the time in which he was living.
Well put!
At first, I went back to the first part of the text to try and understand the meaning of each section, it helped. However, throughout the rest it was understood that Alexander Pope tried to convey that even though science was revolutionizing how everything was seen, there is still someone in power of everything who created the things and has a purpose for everything. This was discussed in our class time and how Pope is stating that God wants people to live life instead of knowing everything because it will make their lives boring if everything is known.
I don’ t think it’s just that life would be boring if we knew what would happen in the future. Not knowing what lies ahead is part of what allows us to remain hopeful about the future and to enjoy the present moment.
One of the biggest takeaways I got from the reading and the deeper analysis during class was how Pope said that God made humans sort of perfectly imperfect for the plans he had made for them. Another one of the points Pope made that grasped my attention was when he implied that people shouldn’t be looking for answers for things that they cannot explain when he talked about humans not having the same eyesight as flies.
A concept that stood out to me was when the Pope was essentially saying that we shouldn’t question the actions of god because everything happens for a reason. I strongly stand against this point of view because we are beings of reason. Blindly believing anything is how we lose our way. I can’t stand for something that doesn’t encourage thinking or growth.