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Bookworms: What We Truly Are

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s commencement speech at Harvard University, he regarded books as “noble” and an important resource for any scholar. Books reveal the truth of the past, according to Emerson, which he claims is greatly influential to the mind of the scholar. However, when abused and relied upon to open up the misconception of the sole pathway to success, books become “noxious” and the people reading them only become bookworms (Emerson). Books should be used to inspire and influence but not dictate our unobstructed souls. In traditional education settings, books act as a restriction to the aspiration and dreams of scholars. It undoubtedly “pin[s]… [them] down” (Emerson). To Emerson, schools shouldn’t be this way. Instead, Emerson believes that nature best influences the mind as “they are the law of spirit” and that “nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part.”

Descartes in “Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences” also perceived books, or other forms of literature, a similar way to Emerson. Seeking for instruction, Descartes turned to letters as his way of acquiring “a clear and certain knowledge of all that is useful in life” (Descartes 2). Soon after he realized that his study focused on books wasn’t getting him any further in his educational career, he came to value personal experience (Descartes 1). He began traveling and visiting wherever “fortune threw [him]” to “collect… varied experience” and bring improvement upon himself (Descartes 1).

Conversely, Rousseau didn’t find books to be an influence for the mind and soul but instead a nuisance that can cause the pupil to “lose his head” instead of seeing what is truly before his eyes (Rousseau 5). Therefore, Rousseau emphasized his pupil’s education with nature particularly more than the education with men and the education with things. Because nature and things are the two modes of education beyond our control, it is important to go along with nature, as opposed to against, and use it as a guide (Rousseau 1).

Locke believed that knowledge isn’t innate and therefore one’s education is ultimately their experience. To acquire experience, one’s interaction with nature is essential and, as I have mentioned in previous posts, Locke states in “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” that it is through experience that “all our knowledge is founded, and from there it ultimately derives itself” (Locke 4).

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Importance of Nature

In “The American Scholar”  by Ralph Waldo Emerson, this particular quote stood out to me: “The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature” (Emerson 2). In this quote, Emerson places a strong emphasis on nature, and how it shapes our thoughts.  He states that the problem is that people only try to understand the world through theories, history, and studies. Emerson further states, “Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. Hence, the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution, but as making a sort of Third Estate with the world and the soul” (4). Emerson is not devaluing the importance of books, rather, books are “nothing but to inspire” (Emerson 4). Emerson offers a solution to this problem by suggesting direct contact with nature as the best option to gain better insight for the present day world.

Personally, I agree with Emerson’s thoughts on nature and how our energy is subdued because of our reliance on facts, theories, and histories, rather than observing nature.  Consequently, Emerson states, “The hour is too precious to be wasted in other men’s transcripts of their readings” (5). Rather than reading other people’s ideas and thoughts, people should gain inspiration from nature and then, they can eventually write their own book as well.

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Influenced Thinking

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“In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.” (Emerson)

This statement is very interesting because it reminds me of Rousseau’s idea of children being born innocent without knowledge, but are influenced by the teachings of the people around them. He was saying that kids are taught what the elders teach them and what they see is what they think is right. So that can be related to this statement made my Emerson because he says a person can be influenced so much by society that he doesn’t even think anymore instead he thinks what the society thinks and he doesn’t have his own ideas or thinking anymore. When kids are born they don’t know anything, but as they grow they learn from people, what they see and their own experiences, but then again their thinking is highly influenced by their society so they really aren’t even really “thinking”. This also can be related to back to Bach’s idea because he says school isn’t important or necessary because of the system as it’s not able to measure the smartness of one person. The students who want to drop out are influenced by a society that has established that school is very important. So they thinking is influenced by society making them stay back in school and they are controlled in a way that they will only think how the schools or society wants them to think because of a very strong influence.

 

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After reading John Locke’s”experience “Rene Descartes’s”book of the world” and Jean Jacques Rousseau”book of nature”. I found that they were all disagree with school system.

Rene Descartes stated that school isn’t the only way of learning education, people should always get out of what can only see, go outside of school, have the freedom of gaining education of what they really need. Descartes believed that everything has an answer, but in order for him to believe the answer is to prove the answer by himself. And that is the reason Descartes didn’t believed in school systems, he did not like the way of school educate students, which is giving out an answer without proving it. Which i found it is similar to John Locke’s “experience”, John Locke believed everything that we learned from life are from experience. He states that, “children and idiots have not the least apprehension (Locke, page 2)” proving that knowledge isn’t something you’re born with. Locke also questions, “Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge?” and answers this stating, “in one word, from experience (Locke, page 5).”

On the other hand Rousseau more focus on nature and education, he believe that people can also learn education by teaching themselves, because as we growing up, we are learning little by little, from our parents, from our neighbor, from anyone that are around us, and eventually from ourselves.

According to their points of view, we should all stay home, teach ourselves, study on our own, go travel, learning things that only interested us, and don’t cares about grades, we don’t need school. But question, without grades, how can school determinant whether you are qualified for the certification or not? And without a certification how can look for a job? And now it comes to without a job how can you survive? How can the society be balance, if no one is willing to go to school and only learn what they interest? So in order to be succeed in the society today, maybe school isn’t the only of learning education, but definitely the best way of learning education.

Brainstorming Exercise #1

Brainstorm

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Describe it.

After seeing the grotesque monster, Victor Frankenstein kicked his creation out. This creature was left all alone in the wilderness with no food, no guardian and no idea about its surroundings. The creature had to slowly learn things on its own such as cooking, speaking, and walking but was harmed during the process. The lack of knowledge on life made the creature get burned by fire and scare away many, leaving the creature alone and depressed.

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Victor Frankenstein created a monster very differently than a human creates a child but we see many similarities in terms of education. Victor’s science obsession led him to this creation of which he completely abandoned. The creature was left to live on its own; no one to teach right from wrong, no one to care for, and no one to educate. The creature learned an extreme amount on his own such as how to walk, talk cook and most importantly survive. But unfortunately society didn’t accept this creature, which the creature blames on its creator.

Map it

This miserable unfolding of events has one positivity which is that the creature became educated through the education method described by Locke in “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” Locke stresses that one is born with a blank slate, no innate principles. All that is known was only from experiences through sensation and reflection. We see this in Frankenstein. The creature was born with no innate principles or knowledge, and all that it knows by the end of the novel is through personal experiences.

 

**The viewpoints seen in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein concur with the viewpoints articulated by John Locke**

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Response to the “Monster’s White Paper”

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In response to “Monster’s White Paper”, I agree with the connection made to John Locke’s theory of “white paper”, tabula.  “void of all characters without any ideas”(Locke 2) Frankenstein’s monster had no idea who he was or what he was. He learned through sensations and self reflection. “on a sensation of cold, I had covered myself with some clothes…” (Shelley 92) He didn’t understand why but he felt horrible and he was in pain so he started to cry. All of a sudden he sees the moon and he says “and gave me a sensation of pleasure”(Shelley 92) He’s learning about his emotions by naturally feeling and observing what is happening around him. Over time he learned how to distinguish hunger, thirst, sound, and images. All of this made him reflect and create his own ideas. Now he doesn’t learn about history, happiness and love until he starts to observe the family in the hut. This is when he really starts to think about himself and his life. “God in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblence. Satan had his companions…but I am solitary and abhorred.” (Shelley116)  When he was in solitude in the woods he didn’t even know what it meant to be “alone”.  Sadly, he came to an understanding that he was hideous as well.  After all the lessons that came from his experiences he comes a to a conclusion on what he wants. He goes on a search for Frankenstein with a goal in mind. He wants him to create another monster so he can have a friend. Someone to spend the rest of his life with. Frankenstein’s monster wants an equal. “Our observation, employed either about external sensible objects, or about the internal operations of our minds, perceived and reflected on by ourselves is that which supplies our understandings with all the materials of thinking. These two are the fountains of knowledge, from whence all the ideas we have, or can naturally have, do spring.” (Locke 2)

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Transformed Baby Brain

Overall, I agree with what Ariane wrote in her post (https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/rethinkeducation/?p=1722).

The monster in Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, had the brain of a baby. He was innocent, helpless, and clueless. The monster was “a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept” (Shelley 11). The monster learned the essentials to living through sensations and reflections. Adding onto Ariane’s examples of sensation was when the monster first arose, he felt a sense of coldness. Due to the coldness, the monster “on a sensation of cold, I had covered myself with some clothes, but these were insufficient to secure me from the dews of night” (Shelley 11). The monster was “delighted at the warmth” provided by the fire and sun (Shelley 11). and After spending days in the forest, the monster’s “sensations had by this time become distinct, and my mind received every day additional ideas” (Shelley 11). Another example was when the monster was observing Felix, Agatha, and Safie in their cottage. From observing how they communicate, the monster could match words with feelings and senses, “the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers” (Shelley 12). The monster further learned the senses of happiness, sadness, and other through his neighbors. The monster stated that, “when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys” (Shelley 12). With Locke’s sensations and reflections, the monster had transformed his baby mind into a mind full of knowledge.

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The Monster’s “White Paper”

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Mary Shelley’s character, Frankenstein’s monster, is built around allusions made to John Locke’s theory of “white paper” or “tabula rasa” found in Book II, Chapter I of his “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” (Locke 5). According to Locke, the mind is a blank sheet waiting to be decorated with ideas formed from either sensations or reflections. This is exactly how Shelley portrays Frankenstein’s monster, who narrates to Victor his first memories after his creation: “’I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing…No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was confused’” (122). The monster bears a resemblance to a newborn infant: innocent, lost, and without thoughts or ideas. Like Locke hypothesizes, sensations play a part to ideas entering the mind – the monster only has his senses to help educate him, having been abandoned by his creator. Shelley implies sensations’ big role in the monster’s education through his narration: “’My sensations had by this time become distinct, and my mind received every day additional ideas. My eyes became accustomed to the light and to perceive objects in their right forms’” (123).

These sensations work together with what Locke calls “the operations of our minds” or the “reflections” (6). Through the monster’s continuous experiences in life, from seeing the moon, to touching fire and feeling pain, his understanding grows, even learning how to cook using fire. Another example of the monster’s sensations and reflections working together is seen through his observations of the family in the hut. As he watches Felix, Agatha, Safie, and the old man interact, he also hears them. Through this hearing, his mind works to perceive and understand the concept of communication, eventually learning the verbal language, and therefore granting him access to literacy skills as well. Using these newfound communication skills, he becomes a very well-informed being, learning about “’the strange system of human society…the division of property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty, of rank, descent, and noble blood’” (Shelley 144). Through these lessons and those provided to him from the novels he reads, his formerly blank room of a mind becomes a fully furnished place of existence.

Locke says that this notion of sensations and reflections furnishing the white paper that is the human mind is observable in children, that the senses will “force an entrance [of tangible qualities] to the mind…[and] will be granted easily” (7). This is very evident in Frankenstein’s monster, who, even though he knows nothing immediately after his creation, learns the ways of existing as a human being very quickly with the help of his sensations and reflections.

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