The Burden of the Humanities

I really enjoyed reading Wilfred M. McClay’s article The Burden of the Humanities. There were a few ideas in particular I really found interesting. I really enjoyed McClay’s comparison of humanities and sciences. Science is concrete. There are right answers in science. However, humanities are broad and indeterminate. “The humanities are imprecise by their very nature. But that does not mean they are a form of intellectual finger-painting” (pg. 36). Although imprecise, humanities deal with the world around us, how we see it. Sciences explain the world in a robotic manner, without reference to human meaning. I also really enjoyed the joking story McClay used to explain the American attitude towards the past. The man in the story did not want to pay for the story, but only pay for the bronze statue. Even after all the rats followed him and he saw the power of the statue, he still did not want to know the story behind it. He just asked to be sold, “a bronze statue of a lawyer?” (pg. 39). As a reader of this story, I too did not really care about the story behind the statue. I was too entertained by the punch line. My telling this story, McClay effectively motivates the reader to learn about our culture’s past. In order to appreciate our country, one must learn and have a general knowledge of our past. You can’t appreciate what one has today, “unless you pay the price of learning the stories” (pg. 39). The third idea that I really enjoyed was McClay’s analysis of humanities in the past in order to predict the definition of humanities in the future. In the past, humanities have been understood as humans opposed to animals, the divine, or the rational mechanical. Humanities have been defined as opposition to what humans are not. McClay then argues that, “what we call ‘the humanities’ will survive and thrive, however we choose to define them” (pg. 41). Whatever the humanities is used to oppose next, it will thrive since it has thrived to oppose many different ideas in the past. McClay then goes on to explain that he thinks that humanities will be defined to oppose the recent problems and prospects of biotechnology and medicine. Cloning, artificial wombs, species melding, etc. will force us to call into question our limitations and what it means to be human. I think McClay is right on his prediction of the future. It will be interesting to see how people use humanities to support or oppose new advances in biotechnology and medicine in the future.

The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid wants many different things in this story. I cannot choose a single thing she longs for because it changes throughout the story. The Little Mermaid is the youngest of six sisters. When a mermaid turns fifteen, she is allowed to swim to the water’s surface to watch the world above. Each year, an older sister swims to the surface and then tells the Little Mermaid what she has seen. At this point in the story, the Little Mermaid is longing for her turn to swim to the surface. She wants to see the world above her and wants to see humans.

Once the Little Mermaid turns fifteen, she ventures to the water’s surface. She sees the ship with the handsome prince and falls in love with him. At this point in the story, the Little Mermaid wants love. As a result, she saves the prince from the storm. However, she is not seen by the prince and has to leave him to the young girl from the temple. The interaction with the prince leads the Little Mermaid to ask her grandmother about humans. She learns that humans have eternal souls. At this point, the Little Mermaid wants to be human and have an eternal soul.

In order to get an eternal soul, the Little Mermaid exchanges her tongue and goes through much pain. She is also risking dying brokenhearted and being turned into sea foam if the prince does not love her. The Little Mermaid is unsuccessful in her mission to obtain the prince’s love as the prince marries the girl from the temple.

Despite how many things the Little Mermaid longs for throughout the story, she is never selfish. This is proven in the Little Mermaid’s final decision not to slay the prince. The Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the prince, even though it would allow her to live out her full life as a mermaid. As a result of her selflessness, she turns into some kind of spirit. She will earn her own soul by doing good deeds for others.

There are some life lessons that one can learn from this story. First lesson is to recognize what you want, and do as much as you possibly can to obtain it. However, you cannot try to reach your goals at the expense of others. This idea leads to the lesson of selflessness. Look out for others as well as yourself.