Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Human Impurity

In the three assigned readings the general theme deals directly with human imperfection, how others look upon these flaws, and how it is dealt with. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet the speaker reflections his not so perfect mistress, yet for all these imperfections makes his love for her even stronger. Next in John Milton’s “When I Consider How My Light is Spent”, the speaker tells of his loyalty to serve God even though he is afraid he cannot fulfill His demands due to his blindness. Lastly Stacy Schiff writes about the human flaw of biases and unfounded claims in the feeble attempt to create the ultimate database of knowledge. Human imperfection is seen in all three literary pieces, working as the underlying topic in each.
When discussing John Milton’s poem it is evident that the subject matter deals directly with the thought of imperfection. The author uses a nervous tone to show his insecurities of his misfortune and pleads for acceptance from his Holiness. Similarly, in Shakespeare’s sonnet, the speaker depicts through vivid imagery an unattractive mistress who, even with all those defects, he is deeply involved with and describes the “love as rare”. The imperfections of her “reeking” breath or her “black wires” that grow from her head only strengthen this bond of love. These deficiencies can also been seen and criticized in our world today, accurately described through Stacy Schiff’s article on Wikipedia. The realization of a perfect encyclopedia is an unachievable task due to the fact that each entry can include strong bias or groundless “facts”. Wikipedia is described as an “ambitious vanity press” one that seeks perfection yet is riddled with errors. Evidently, impurities of our world whether they be in one’s self, another, or a literary document are seen everywhere in our world today and are accurately described in each point of view or “POV” in the assigned literature.

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