Friday, September 10, 2010

assignment #1

"One person by himself is not a complete human being" (p.6)


I agree with Northrop Frye. I don't think someone can be a complete person all by them self. What he means by this statement, is that it takes more than just the knowledge and abilities your born with to be complete. It takes the influences of other people around you, because everyone we meet, see or hear about, whether positive or negative, impacts us. If you took a person and kept them secluded for their entire life they would not be considered, by today's standards, a normal, functioning human being. They would have developed ways of living, but with no human interaction, they would be lacking all social capabilities. We as humans learn by example, therefore with no interaction, we would be unable to understand social cues.

In David McCullough's commencement speech he said, "In writing or trying to understand history one may have all manner of "data", and miss the point." This applies to Northrop Frye's statement because, as Mr. McCullough said a person could have all the "data", the ability and knowledge of how to function, but not actually be able to function in life outside of their own solitary world.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting connection to McCullough's comment. Great job.

    ReplyDelete

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G. K. Chesterton

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