The following essay is called "Education of Amphibians." The causes, of course, rather disappear into the past. But what is said is still happening now, and the ways that we think about what intelligent behavior is have not by any means been cleaned up. It's still the same old mess, but we happen to be closer to doing something about it. In any case, it is in no way obsolete.
"So much that outside the laboratory is spoken and written about the importance of education rests upon a fundamental confusion of thought." These are the first words of a statement by one of the most distinguished biologists of our time. The distinguished biologist holds several chairs and the only direction he could go, to get a better job, would be either sideways into academic administration or else down. But he obviously does not care much about this secret dirtiness or even bother to disguise it, because the statement is followed immediately by these: "True enlightenment, uplifting of consciousness, radical changes of conduct do, of course, occur; but it may be seriously doubted that they are initiated by any formal educational process beyond early childhood. The primary function of higher education is the transmission of the tested subtleties of specialized know-how. The rest is decoration or camouflaging, pretty or disguising; and unless these subtleties have been tried out and proved effective over the centuries, our present discussion might not have occurred."
Use of Metaphors and Allegories
In this essay, the use of a number of expressions may need explanation. Discuss the use of any five such expressions, indicating their significance or appropriateness to the context. As many of these expressions have nothing to do with actual knowledge of amphibians or their education as children, they need to be justified in terms of their effectiveness in communication. Thus, the following represent possible answers for this question:
Use of Metaphors and Allegories: The metaphors and allegories used are rather vivid, often jocular, and crude. The current image is used with good effect in a way that is incapable of using more conventional or more profound expressions. By selecting unconventional and slightly unsavory images, especially bodily fluids and excreta as symbols, a domestic connotation is associated with biological conditions. In so doing, a connection is made between the physical and the psychological and also enhances the evocativeness of warnings against man's oblivion to factors that may be his undoing. By doing so, the essay becomes more lively and able to touch our emotions and our basic self-preservation instincts.
Tone and Voice in the Essay
Analyzing the essay 'Education of Amphibians.' The tone of an essay is the attitude of the writer towards his subject, and there become established forms of address in any sort of scholarly writing. These take the form of matters to which a writer always refers in a specific way. Ph.D.s are always called Dr. in print. Important editors are always referred to as noted scholars, the President of the College always states as much, the Governor of the State is always His Excellency, and all his friendly towns may be spoken of with lowered voices. The respectful distance which is assumed in the printed word is most infectious, and we often find that the junior faculty takes himself with grave dignity in the undergraduate classroom. The tone of Aldous Huxley's essay is casual, even at its funniest. Even when the narrator directly addresses the reader, it is easy to remain casual. Yet there is something about this essay itself which requires the reader to be casual; it does not seek overt points on which everyone can duly scratch an opinion. It is sly and cunning, and refuses to be pinned in any sort of argument.
It creeps, fugal, sinuous, akin perhaps to prose poems; we laugh to ourselves and enjoy, but miss part of the point when we rush to share. Perhaps as much as his tone, though, it is the way in which Huxley projects his own opinion in the dexterously handled stream of ideas, which first reveals his argument and then never lets us forget it until the uncomfortable moment of our own conviction. He tells a story about a comic scenario of Froebel's 'The Education of Man' and extracts from it a series of sad implications that dig ever deeper into his reader's consciousness until we are left wordless. When we learn that the essay was written as a response to Froebelism in England, we realize that Huxley's tone is indeed objectified, as well as distancing, which characterizes a general difference in the approach to writing while comparing the argument of the 'Education of Man' essays with those of his other essays.
No comments:
Post a Comment