The Nature of Man

     “What is the nature of man?”  The question  has stumped many men from
the earliest of times. It is the question that every single existing worldview
attempts to answer. Although, of all worldviews only one can truly be correct.
Throughout the course of history man has expressed his opinion on this subject in
many different ways. One of which - through literature. Two of many examples,
both considered magnificent art, are Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, and Robert Lewis
Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both Shelly and
Stevenson expressed their completely opposite worldviews in these books, whether
they knew it or not. As it is, both books include hideous monsters; monsters that
resemble the nature of man.
    In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, the nature of man is explained through the
personality of “The Monster”. The monster is basically artificial life. A genius
doctor has created it out of the sheer desire to create it. Terrified, the doctor
abandons his creation and leaves him to walk the earth unattended. As the monster
travels he learns to communicate, as well as learn the characteristics of human
beings. His first desire is to be good, but because of his appearance people
want nothing to do with him. He then decides to commit crimes in order to curse man -
specifically the doctor. It is through these happenings that Shelly reveals her
worldview of man through this monster. First, that man is basically good. When the
monster was created, his first desire and nature was to help and do good to others.
Although, because of the how he is treated, he turns to evil ways. This tells us that
society is responsible for evil acts. Shelly’s last and most important view seen in
this book is that man can save himself. As quoted by the monster, “Make me happy,
and I shall again be virtuous.” (Frankenstein, Mary Shelly, pp. 96) These are all
views of the nature of man given in Shelly’s famous novel, and many agree with
these views. Although, the Bible disagrees with all of them.
    Robert Lewis Stevenson, on the other hand, gives us a completely different
view on this subject. In the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr, Hyde, a reasonably “good” man
named Dr. Jekyll has created a potion to bring out his “bad” side. After drinking
the potion his bad side is revealed by transforming into a hideous monster named
Mr. Hyde.  As Mr. Hyde, he participates in evil doing but later murders a friend. At
first, the doctor switches from Jekyll to Hyde whenever he pleases,  soon the
potion takes over and he is changing between the two figures whenever the potion
pleases. He eventually gets stuck as Mr. Hyde, and in order to keep himself from
doing any more evil, he kills himself. Stevenson’s worldview is extremely different
than Shelly’s. As Jekyll turns to Mr. Hyde Stevenson is telling us that man is
inherently sinful. Like Jekyll, man was started good, but by his own doings fell.
Romans 7:14 states this as Paul writes, “For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I
am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” It is said even more clearly in Luke 18:19, “no
one is good - except God alone.” Another view Stevenson expresses is that the
individual man is responsible. Paul says in Galatians 6:5, “For each will have to bear
his own load.” Finally, when Jekyll is trapped as Mr. Hyde, Stevenson is revealing
that man does nothing to save himself. Matthew 4:4 says, “Jesus answered, man
cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
    As seen, Stevenson happens to have the biblical worldview in this case. The
nature of man can be summed up to one word: bad. From Adam every man has
inherited sin, and cannot save himself. It is man’s nature to do evil, even if he
desires good. Romans 7:15 says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to
do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” It is only through the blood of Christ Jesus
that man can turn from his sinful ways, and accept righteousness.
  

The Avengers

     The Avengers, released on April 25, 2012, is an action-packed movie where superheroes from across the 20th century unite for a comeback against an attempt to conquer the world as big as they come. Making over $80,517,000 on opening night, it was obviously a well anticipated event. Expertly guiding the cast, staff, and spectacular special effects, Director Joseph Whedon, born June 23, 1964, finished his 7th popular movie, and the first one worth watching at it's release.
     The returning characters involved in The Avengers are your classic 1900’s superheroes gone wild. In the movie “Iron Man”, “Hulk”, “Thor”, and forever-loved “Captain America”, not to mention a few others only known by superhero fanatics return to the stage once again. As only to be expected from anything containing superheroes, the majority of the movie takes place in and just outside of New York. Desperately attempting to conquer earth in order to gain control of the most powerful army in the universe, and to finally prove himself in front of his famous brother Thor, Loki, known across galaxies as a ruthless and cruel villain who claims to be a god, sets out for his destiny of universal control. He’s terrifying, he’s merciless, and he wears a really big obnoxious hat-like thing. Having one of their close friends and associates killed by Loki, the heroes unite in an effort to overthrow the powerful enemy and restore earth to it’s natural being.
     Although, before they save the world, their is another problem. The Avengers must learn to operate together to use their powers for the good of the team. No, that doesn’t sound familiar at all. When not “The Hulk”, reserved Dr. Bruce Banner would much rather be back curing his foreign patients. Tony Stark, also known as “Iron Man”, simply desires to return to his billionaire lifestyle as the CEO and Founder of Stark Industries, a leading energy providing corporation. After being found hiding undercover, Captain America is just about the only one who is willing to fight, and has to spend almost all of his time trying to pull the Avengers together. Through all of this Loki is continually on the move, casually killing cowardly innocents as he waits for his army to arrive. His army arrives. Suddenly, the Avengers are stuck having to take on an entire intergalactic army themselves.
     As the team pulls together, their victory slowly closes down upon the enemy. Loki is captured, and under the supervision of Thor, is returned to his home planet. The movie ends with New York covered in dead aliens and disabled robots from the other side of space. Nobody knows where the Avengers disappeared to after the battle, or who in the world plans to clean up the mess left behind.
     The majority of this movie is filled to the brim with explosions, fights, shooting, and basically anything else violent one could think of. The special effects are as real as New York itself. The stand out part of the movie took place just after Loki had captured and forced a large group of civilians to bow down to him. Trying to convince them that they were “created for slavery”, he specifically notices one different mortal in the back of the crowd who captures his attention. When an elderly man stands and tells Loki to his face that he would never bow down to a man like him, Loki amusingly retorts that there are no men like him. To this the man replies, “There are always men like you.” Seeing this kind of scene in a modern movie is quite shocking and gives the movie a more pronounced effect on viewers. The Avengers is an action-packed film certainly worth a watch.

The Wreck of Herperus

     The wreck of Hesperus is an enchanting 19th century poem written by a man who never experienced anything out of the ordinary during his childhood. More or less. While Henry Wadsworth Longfellow grew up in an 1800’s fishing town, he was no ordinary fisherman. Remembering a story from his early years of a ship that had recently wrecked due to a hurricane, Longfellow withdrew expertly composed lyrics to his poem “The Wreck of Hesperus”. Still today Longfellow is widely known for his famous poems.  
     The characters involved in this story are the Skipper, and his beautiful daughter of whom the story is primarily focused. The image Longfellow portrays the skipper as is the veteran. He’s been through so many wars and sailed so many ships and has so many stories it’s not even funny. He seems quite proud and never turns back from an adventure. While his daughter, on the other hand, is the cute little girl all grown up who has obviously never been on a trip across the ocean and probably has never even stepped foot on a boat since - ever. Spending days, weeks, months waiting for her father to return from his most recent voyage was probably how she spent her childhood. Meanwhile, her mother always profited from her husband’s trade and made sure that her precious daughter had everything a 19th century girl could dream of. Dolls, dresses, and dances were provided all throughout her early years. Dashingly beautiful, this girl was the prize of the small town and the pride and joy of her parents. Finally, the tough skipper decided that his daughter aught to come along with him on the next short voyage. This was unusual. Unsure, the daughter agrees to travel with him on the adventure, shouts a loving farewell to her mother, and sets off to Take Your Daughter To Work Day.
     After casually traveling for a few days, the crew is getting ready to return home. “How have you enjoyed the trip?” the skipper asks his daughter. The daughter replies that she has liked the trip fondly and that she is proud of all the hard work he has done to provide for his family all these years. Suddenly, a sailor shouts something from the crow’s nest. Fearing there is a hurricane in the distance, he pleads with the skipper to turn to the nearest dock, where they might rest and wait out the huge storm. Prompted by the presence of his daughter, and wanting to prove his skill out at the open sea in front of his audience of one, the skipper decides to continue through the storm. At this,
the daughter begins to worry. She too questions her father if he is making the right decision. "Of course," he replies, "I've sailed through many a storm greater than this puny sprinkler system.” Although the skipper is sure the storm is no problem, it eventually reaches them, causing the ship to raise and drop like a roller coaster. The daughter, who is now terrified, is scrambling from one side of the ship to the other, trying desperately to keep her balance, tumbling too and fro across the deck all the while dodging objects on the soaked wooden floor. Seeing that the storm is much more brutal than he expected, our skipper begins to panic. Assuring his baby girl that everything will be fine, he binds her to the mast to keep her from sliding off the edge of the boat. Then disaster strikes.
     Through the wind and the waves the skipper plummets to the bottom of deep ocean, never to be seen again, and leaving his daughter defenselessly tied to a mast. Desperately, hour after hour, the daughter yells for someone to untie her, but no one notices her in the dark, cold, isolated weather conditions. One by one, sailor after sailor, the ocean, which is not cooperating anytime soon, claims more lives. Soon, the daughter is out on the open ocean, alone, and stuck to a giant post, hoping that Jesus would calm the storm as He did at the Sea of Galilee, but the waters continue to pound against the boat. As one last enormous wave towers over the ship, the daughter closes her eyes, and feels the cool liquids captivate her. The following morning, as a fisherman walks his everyday path to the docks, he spots a wrecked ship on the rocky shore. Racing to reach any possible survivors, he finds no one on the boat. As he steps off onto the shore, something catches his eye. He runs to the mast. A woman. A young woman. Tied to the mast in an effort to save her life. A beautiful girl, with water still frozen onto her pale face.
     Obviously, this was not meant to be a heart-warming, family friendly, poem of the year. Never the less, Longfellow undoubtedly proves his power of paper all throughout the lines. Despite the tragic ending, this was written from a true story, and absolutely had no option otherwise when it came to resolutions. Had Longfellow changed the ending, the story would be gone. Stylistically speaking, the language is captivating, the story is intriguing, and the characters lost are loved as they fall.