My Dear Readers,
I bring forth, once again, another interesting literary piece pertaining to mankind’s inevitable demise--Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. This novel touches on so many major themes such as abortion, government control, oppression of the Native American population, identity crisis, women’s rights, and so much more. The one big overlapping themes of the book that piqued my interest the most is this idea of “de-evolution” or the process of returning to a more primitive state as a species. Future Home of the Living God is set in a widespread apocalypse brought on by disease and how Cedar, a pregnant woman, is trying to survive in a time where fertile and pregnant women are being captured in order to protect humanity. As the end of the world settles in, Cedar and the people around her notice how animals of many species seem to be de-evolving to a wild state. The “reports are coming in of experiments hastily conducted on fruit flies, DNA experts who say on the molecular level it is like skipping around in time, and that small-celled creatures and plants have been shuffling through random adaptations for months now. And hasn’t anyone noticed that dogs, cats, horses, pigs, etc. have stopped breeding true?” (44). I think that evolution is something that we believe we understand, but in reality, it is a lot bigger than we expect. Our DNA and molecular makeup are extremely complex, yet who’s to say that we won’t mutate tomorrow? The whole theory behind devolving is still argued today by many biologists. The article found here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/10/reverse-evolution-explained-hagfish-penguins-snakes-science/ seems to contain some striking evidence of it happening in many animal species, yet scientists seem to believe that humans are too good for such a degrading feat. The Future Home of the Living God goes on to state that “we do not have a true fossil record of human evolution… or any other species for that matter… We might actually see chaos. We might roll back adaptation through adaptation, the way canines will revert to type left on their own until they reach a wild dog/wolflike status” (55). I think the notion that humans cannot devolve is selfish and self-centered. At the end of the day, we are just like other mammals. Of course, we have evolved and dominated much of the animal kingdom, but are we really the ones in control? Maybe even “turning around to the beginning. Maybe that’s not the same as going backwards” (208). While humans are not the evil, selfish creatures that I am making them out to be, they do always seem to be “superfluous troublemakers” (226). At the end of the day, I am glad I no longer have a little tail or webbed fingers. I plan to keep the scientific world on it’s toes and hope to gain a less human-centered view on the world. Source for image: https://www.uv.es/jgpausas/he.htm
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorJosephine Graft is a passionate student who believes in the power of the human mind. Anything is achievable when you put your mind to it! Archives
April 2021
Categories |