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jforde's picture

life and death

The life and death theme was really interesting throughout the novel. Although they are polar opposites, one cannot exist without the other. This theme kept reoccurring and showed a ying yang like relationship between the two. Once Frankenstein discovered the secret to creating life, other parts of his life began to die such as family members and loved ones. While the monster was gaining more control and accustomed to the new world, Frankenstein’s life was deteriorating to the point where he began to change. This made me think about how technology disrupts the ecosystem. Global warming has been fueled by technology from automobiles.

Reading this novel made me think about cloning. Today scientists are pursuing technology such as stem cell research and cloning animals with the hopes of cloning body parts of humans. In addition, computer scientists are pursuing artificial intelligence with the hopes of creating robots that can help and coexist with humans. However, similar to how George Orwell foresaw communism, is Mary Shelley predicting an era of humans and cloned beings inhabiting the earth? If so, will the result of clones and AI be the same as that of Frankenstein’s creation?

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