Losing Our Innocence
Evaluating Milton’s Theodicy as an Answer for Evil
Knowledge is something that we as human strive to conquer. It it is the beginning to everything, and consequently becomes a very powerful entity of life. The beginning of the human desire for knowledge came in the Garden of Eden, with Eve and the serpent. Adam and Eve had not realized their desire for knowledge until Satan came in and put the idea into Eve’s mind. Unfortunately, this began the inability for humans to withstand their desires. There comes a point in life where you abandon your morals and beliefs and let your inclinations take over. Over time, beginning with the fall of mankind, the tendency for humans to relinquish their responsibilities has become more
The idea of being “innocent” has lost its credibility throughout the years, to a point where now there is little to no desire to maintain innocence. Whether this is with moral choices, or the amount of knowledge one has, there is no limit to what we continue to desire as humans. The idea of maintaining innocence in the gathering of knowledge is something that most do not even consider. This was only an idea in the time of Adam and Eve, and truly they didn’t ever think of it before the Fall, it was just something that was a part of their lives. Once a person loses their innocence, no matter what situation it may be in, there is no way to get it back. For example, once you gain knowledge about some certain subject, you cannot just act as if you never heard the information; it will forever be in your mind. Same with participating in something that you may not believe is in line with your morals. You can’t take it back after it’s been done. Like Adam and Eve, they couldn’t just decide that they wanted to take back eating from the apple after they realized what happened to mankind because of it. From Book 12, lines 646-649, "The world was all before them, where to choose their place of rest, and providence their guide: they hand in hand with wand 'ring steps and slow, through Eden took their solitary way." They knew what they had done was wrong, but there was nothing
The many evils that came with the Fall still live on today, and there are explanations and examples of all the things that came along with Adam and Eve’s poor decisions. Although Adam and Eve become more like God after they ate from the apple, that is not what He intended. It causes more pain to not be innocent; to know what everyone else knows, and more. Eating from the Tree did give Adam and Eve more knowledge, but in the long run it just ended up being a failure. Their actions were sinful, and consequently gave sinful nature to every person to come after
When wisdom is mixed with disobedience it opens the door for evil to abound. Although Eve was the first to take of the fruit and Adam the second, both shared responsibility in the transgression as Arnold describes it. (62;67,
Adam was the first man that God created and was created to be the image of God himself. God planted the beautiful Garden of Eden in which there was no sin and the trees were filled with delicious fruits, everything a person would need to eat. In the middle of the garden was the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” One day, a serpent came into the garden and convinced Eve to eat an apple from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The fruit did not make Adam and Eve any better than they already were. Instead, the jealousy, the desire to eat what was forbidden—and then the physical eating of the fruit that was forbidden—allowed sin to enter humanity. God punished Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, by making their lives hard. Likewise, in the novel, peace and innocence left the Devon school and Gene and Finny's friendship, and after the winter session, discipline and hard work began. Eve eating the apple can be paralleled to Gene jostling the limb of the tree while Phineas was standing on the edge of it for in that second, both of their lives ch...
But before I go on, I believe that I should first clarify what I mean by "a return to innocence." First, there is some confusion between innocence and ignorance. They are often used interchangeably. Because a person is innocent, it does not mean that he or she is unaware of reality. Innocence is almost like a different type of view. A child and an adult may interpret a single thing entirely differently, but this does not mean that the adult knows more about that thing. Innocence is open ...
Mary Shelley brings about both the positive and negative aspects of knowledge through her characters in Frankenstein. The use of knowledge usually has many benefits, but here Shelley illustrates how seeking knowledge beyond its limits takes away from the natural pleasures of known knowledge. She suggests that knowledge without mortality and uncontrolled passions will lead to destruction. Victor and his monster experience this destruction following their desires and losing self control. Walton, on the other hand, becomes of aware of the consequences and is able to turn back before it’s too late. Shelley also suggests that without enjoying the natural pleasures of life, pursuing knowledge is limited, but how can knowledge be limited if it is infinite?
While writing my common ground paper, many resources were helpful to my writing process. Including the essays I read in the book. “Lost Innocence” by Jeremy Bernard and “Laying Claim to a Higher Morality” by Melissa Mae were the main two influential essays that I referred to.
“Paradise Found and Lost” from Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Discoverers, embodies Columbus’ emotions, ideas, and hopes. Boorstin, a former Librarian of Congress, leads the reader through one man’s struggles as he tries to find a Western Passage to the wealth of the East. After reading “Paradise Found and Lost,” I was enlightened about Columbus’ tenacious spirit as he repeatedly fails to find the passage to Asia. Boorstin title of this essay is quite apropos because Columbus discovers a paradise but is unable to see what is before him for his vision is too jaded by his ambition.
Once they partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil,
Innocence is usually associated with youth and ignorance. The loss of one’s innocence is associated with the evils of the world. However, the term “innocence” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Similarly, the loss of one’s innocence can be interpreted in more than one way, and, depending on the interpretation, it may happen numerous times. The loss of innocence is culture specific and involves something that society holds sacrosanct. It is also bounded by different religious beliefs. Still, no matter which culture or religion is at hand, there is always more than one way to lose one’s innocence, and every member of that particular culture or religion experiences a loss of innocence at least once in their lives. In addition, the individual’s loss of innocence will impair him or her emotionally and/or physically.
Kristiana Kahakauwila's, a local Hawaiian brought up in California, perspective view of Hawaii is not the one we visually outwardly recognize and perceive in a tourist brochure, but paints a vivid picture of a modern, cutting edge Hawai`i. The short story "This Is Paradise", the ironically titled debut story accumulation, by Kahakauwila, tell the story of a group narrative that enacts a bit like a Greek ensemble of voices: the local working class women of Waikiki, who proximately observe and verbally meddle and confront a careless, puerile youthful tourist, named Susan, who is attracted to the more foreboding side of the city's nightlife. In this designation story, Susan is quieted into innocent separated by her paradisiacal circumventions, lulled into poor, unsafe naïve culls. Kahakauwila closes her story on a dismal somber note, where the chorus, do to little too late of what would have been ideal, to the impairment of all. Stereotype, territorial, acceptance, and unity, delineates and depicts the circadian lives of Hawaiian native locals, and the relationships with the neglectful, candid tourists, all while investigating and exploring the pressure tension intrinsically in racial and class division, and the wide hole in recognition between the battle between the traditional Hawaiian societal culture and the cutting edge modern world infringing on its shores.
Within the Garden of Eden God placed two exquisite trees. Each quite different in its purpose, however both proved to play an integral role in the tale of man?s beginning. Perhaps the better known of the two, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, was the only one, which God imposed a contingency upon. ?You many freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of if you shall die.? Is this to imply that knowledge is perhaps more important and therefore more closely guarded than life?
The theological aspects that arise in the excerpt are original sin, grace, atonement, and the resurrection of Christ. Lines 203 through 209 speak about man’s wrong doing to God. “But yet all is not done; Man disobeying, Disloyal breaks his fealty, and sins Against the high Supremacy of Heav’n,…” Milton puts emphasis on the fact that all men must die “He with his whole posterity must die.” These lines introduce the concept of original sin in the excerpt. The doctrine of original sin is that because of Adam’s fall in the garden and their disobedience to God in eating the forbidden fruit, men are held accountable for their sin because of Adam’s disobedience men take on a sin nature.
The pursuit of knowledge can lead to a humans destruction and awareness. The pursuit of
There is much to be said about innocence. If one is with innocence than one can do no wrong. But that is not all to be said. Innocence is not always a good thing. It could make one naive or blind to certain evils. Like in the case of Billy Budd. Billy was innocent from evil and therefore could not see the evil of John Claggart approaching him, out to destroy him.
So to say, knowledge can either make or break a person. It can act as a benefit, for power, or loss, for ignorance. “Do not take for granted what you know. Ask yourself how you know what you know; ask yourself whom it benefits, whom it hurts and why.” (Blackboard: Knowledge is Power)
Knowledge is the cornerstone of Paradise Lost . Adam and Eve must not eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan pinpoints Adam and Eve’s vulnerability in their ignorance of evil. Adam worries that he may seek knowledge that displeases God. Raphael praises Adam’s thirst for knowledge and warns him about obsessively seeking knowledge that is useless. Eve eats the fruit because she wants to know how ...