Island Of Dr Moreau example essay topic

The Mutilation of Society No matter how we perceive ourselves, human beings are still animals. However the difference between us and the animals that walk on all four, is that we have laws that don't allow us to go back to the days when we struggled everyday for survival. The Island of Dr. Moreau can be compared with Lord of the Flies to answer the question, are humans generally good or bad? After the death of Dr. Moreau, the creatures' retrogression represents man's savagery as they take part in the survival of the fittest. Finally Dr. Moreau represents what happens to humans when they have too much power; his obvious god complex makes him feel justified in the fact that he is mutilating animals that have existed for longer than humans have. The Island of Dr. Moreau, in my opinion uses the beasts to show that human nature truly is evil.

As in Lord of the Flies, when civil rule is taken away from humans we go back to our animal instincts. Humans since their existence have been unable to rule themselves. As far back as the pharaohs of Egypt it was necessary to have written law that you will have to pay consequences if you kill another human being. Today the world struggles with the existence of terrorism threatening to kill off millions of its people. In some cultures this is accepted as good and even rewarded to perform these horrendous acts.

In Lord of the Rings William Golding writes, .".. Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy" (242). This is the same feeling that Prendick had when he ends his writing with, "There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope" (Wells, 104). Both Ralph and Prendick realize that life for them will not be the same. They have been exposed to the evil that is inside of man. In response to these realizations, Ralph weeps and Prendick removes himself from society.

The way both the beast and the young men turn on each other when rule and society is taken away is true to what happens in our world now. In Africa warlords fight to control countries as the governments fall. In more developed countries we riot for reasons as stupid as sporting events and would continue doing so if we didn't not have the authorities to come and break them up. The beasts, as well as the children, directly resemble what we could become. For the later part of the 21st century, the former USSR was one of, if not the, most powerful nations ever. Today the former communist bloc are in deep economic, social, and political turmoil.

As the government falls apart in these blocs who is there to take the place? The Russian Mafia. As reported on BBC online, "In 1994 Russia's then interior minister, Mikhail Yegorov, said the number of organised crime groups in the former Soviet Union had grown from 785 during Gorbachev's reign to 5,691" (Russian Mafia). It was during Gorbachev's reign that the USSR fell and since organized crime has risen 700%.

It is necessary to keep civil rule in order to stop society from falling apart. This was seen on the island also as Prendick frantically explained to the beasts that Moreau was still alive. They asked him and Montgomery, "Is there a Law now? Is it still to be this and that? Is he dead indeed?" (Wells 80). As long as Moreau is alive he represents the law and civility on the island.

Prendick understands that the island will fall into anarchy without the beasts believing in the reprisal of Moreau's whip. Much of this is echoed through the former soviet blocs today as former KGB members offer allegiance to the bosses of organized crime in order to provide for themselves and their families. Power, money, and sex: the three greatest corrupter's of the world. While all three can be a good thing, too much of one of them can be the tragic flaw of man. Dr. Moreau's tragic flaw was power.

You can tell he sees himself as the creator on his island by the way he explains his actions to Prendick, .".. just after I make them [the creatures], they seem to be indisputable human beings" (Wells 58). Then he goes so far to suggest that he is better than god when creating his beings by saying, "After all, what is ten years? Man has been a hundred thousand in the making" (59). This god complex that Moreau has developed, like so many leaders of our time, leads to his downfall.

It is only appropriate that Wells had the puma kill Dr. Moreau. The puma represented Moreau's work and was going to be his greatest accomplishment; in the end the puma defeats him. If you look at the history of our world when men like Moreau have came to power little good has came out of it. Napoleon Bonaparte killed millions of people in his conquest of Europe, just as Hitler and Stalin did in their reign of power. Scientifically these leaders conducted awful experiments on their own people in the areas of medical procedures, poisonous gases, and mental anguish. They felt justified to torture, mutilate, and humiliate the people whom they ruled, in the name of science.

Although they most likely had twisted views before they had the power, it was the power that allows people like Moreau and Stalin to carry out there plans. I was surprised when I read The Island of Dr. Moreau because H.G. Wells is so synonymous with science fiction. Even though this book fits in the genre of science fiction I believe that Wells was trying to say something about human nature. Often we like to think ourselves as caring, loving, and compassionate people, but the truth of the matter is that we would probably revert to our animal instincts if our social structure was to break down and we were forced to try and survive on our own.

Reading this book made me appreciate what we have today and realize why it is important to keep fighting against people who welcome the decline of society.

Bibliography

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962".
The rise and rise of the Russian mafia". BBC Online Network. 21 Nov. 1998.
web report/1998/03/98/russian mafia/70095.
s tm (18 Feb 2003).
Wells, H.G. The Island of Dr. Moreau. New York: Dover, 1996.