John Locke, in his “Essay concerning Human Understanding,” states that knowledge is founded from experience (Locke 2), an observation that is later reiterated and affirmed by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein, in which the monster learns merely from experience, lacking any innate ideas. The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, which could sometimes turn to be not only useful, but dangerous as well. Although the monster searches for an “education” through trying to find his “father,” he soon realizes that he does not need a teacher or an education – he is able to learn all the skills that he requires on his own, through his experiences and observations. In psychology, nature is your genetics, while nurture is defined by your experiences. If the monster had received this education from his creator, he would have simply taken on the doctor’s worldviews and learned through “nurture” rather than nature. He would have become a product of the doctor’s thoughts, instead of learning on his own. However, in the end, he was not “nurtured” by anybody. He nurtured himself.

According to Emile: or A Treatise on Education by Jean Jacques Rousseau, a child’s emotions develop as he experiences it, “It needs knowledge he has not yet acquired, feelings he has not yet experienced” (15). Like a child, the beast from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, learns the ropes of society through his experiences. Rousseau’s theory of education by man (society and tradition), things (experience), and nature is reflected in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” through the beast Frankenstein creates; this beast is impacted mostly by society and tradition, which is reflected through his development of human emotions. These emotions evolve throughout the novel, as the beast matures, which explain how different circumstances in one’s life have an effect on their emotional health. I will be discussing the initial development of the beast’s emotions from his time after he leaves Frankenstein’s apartment, his first subtle sensations turning into basic emotions. Next, I will examine the event in which the beast was chased out of a village and how that treatment led him to go into hiding, where he then develops a sense of resentment and loneliness. Then, I will take into account what he learns through watching the De Lacey family, essentially learning how to speak and express his emotions. Finally, I will elaborate on his hatred for Frankenstein after he fails to create another monster for the beast to have a companion in his life of loneliness, which eventually leads to Frankenstein’s death and the beast’s subsequent misery.

Frederick Douglass has spent his entire life of misery in search for one thing, happiness, or enlightenment. Douglass knew that reaching enlightenment was not an easy task for colored people like him in the mid 1800s, but that did not discourage him. Douglass’s realizations for how to reach enlightenment were in correlation to Immanuel Kant’s philosophies on enlightenment. Kant once advised those seeking enlightenment to, “have courage to make use of your own understanding! is thus the motto of enlightenment”(Kant 1). What he is saying is that in order to reach enlightenment, one much think for themselves and find their own way to enlightenment, without being influenced by traditional societal perceptions. Douglass followed this motto and took the initiative to learn how to read and write in order to become educated. After becoming educated, a train that was not very common amongst colored people in the mid 1800s, Douglass soon realized what his own self-worth was. He then realized that his life, as well as the lives of all the other colored people, was not to be subjective to other people. Thus began his journey in spreading the message and helping lead other people into enlightenment, by educating people and teaching them how to think for themselves.

Frederick Douglass writes: “Brothers and sisters we were by blood; but slavery had made us strangers… slavery had robbed these terms of their true meaning (My Bondage and My Freedom CH. 2).” Slave children would never learn what it would mean to have a brother or a sister and would never be able to feel the embrace of their mother. The separation of children from their mother and family was the most inhumane act in the practice of slavery and the most effective in creating a sense of inequality between blacks and whites . The writings from Frederick Douglass in My Bondage and My Freedom along with those of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Emile will help establish why family is an essential part of human nature and how its distortion creates inequality among all of us if done through forceful means.

Anntia

Alana

Robert

Jenny

Jessica

Douglass spends his entire life of slavery searching for his enlightenment. Through continual reading and writing, Douglass gradually develops his own thought and reasoning. For the first time, Douglass realizes his life is not subject to anybody else. Besides, knowledge gives him courage to do what other people can’t do. He starts to have rebellious thoughts and think according to his own understanding, without anyone telling him to do so. Eventually, Douglass finds his enlightenment, which is alternately his freedom. Just like Kant states in his essay, “have courage to make use of your own understanding! is thus the motto of enlightenment”(Kant 1). Enlightenment is not a one step process. People must be brave enough to think differently from the people in the past and then act for themselves. In other word, Enlightenment is an ongoing process that one must have courage to abandon immaturity to development his/her personal understanding in order to be an enlightened individual.

If it is now asked whether we are presently living in an enlightened  age, the answer is No but we do live in an age of enlightenment. Frederick Douglass lives in an age of enlightenment because he is on the path of self-awareness and educating others in an attempt to achieve an enlightened age. Despite him being under very extreme conditions and being forced to stay uneducated and trapped he found ways to educate himself in a journey to become a more intelligent and enlightened person. He acquired knowledge through one of his masters Mrs. Auld, and the white street boys he encountered. We will see his life unveil from his childhood to his adulthood and how theses changes impacted his life.

From a historical standpoint, philosophical thinking has always been the fundamental prospect that has shaped society’s sense of ethics and morality. Accordingly, philosophical thinking has resulted in the acknowledgment of a series of new ideologies that has hinted upon the concepts of the ideal man and having a general understanding of things. As such, Immanuel Kant’s, “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment” emphasizes on the importance of utilizing one’s own understanding and communicating it to the world at large. Nonetheless, enlightenment is often hindered because of the fears and horrors that often arise from a person’s ability to think and reason on their own. However, similar to the process of walking, enlightenment is the first and fundamental step to independence, perceptiveness, and self-reliance. The text compares enlightenment to walking, to explain the importance of being independent. Both walking and reasoning are necessary for independence. This analogy helps us understand how difficult it would be to survive in the society without being able to think independently. A man that can’t walk is disabled; a man that can’t think on his own is just a follower.