Final

Over the course of the semester, Humanities 12 has divided the class into five units that highlight different aspects of the human experience. Each unit contained numerous pieces of text from novels to films, that helped to truly understand each aspect. The five different units covered this semester were the ‘Introductory Unit that covered storytelling, language, brain functions, and time’, ‘Humans, Nature, and Sacred Space’, ‘Love, Beauty, and Art’, ‘Law, Ethics, and Human Frailty’, and ‘The Inner Journey and the Meaning of Human Reality’.

‘The Introductory Unit’ contributed to our knowledge of the human experience by providing us with the beginning of storytelling as it is known today, and connecting it to functions of the human brain. David Abram’s  Left Brain/Right Brain  reading exposed both sides of the brain and the functions that each specialized in. This is where we learned that thing that were more creative and artistic like music and metaphor occurred in the right brain, while more mechanical structured things like mathematics occurred in the left brain. Things like oral storytelling or writing stories use both parts of the brain because the creative aspect of them utilize the right brain while the physical actions of writing or speaking involve the left. The Australia’s Aborigines documentary talks about the importance of storytelling to indigenous people, reflecting the importance of oral storytelling before modern literature existed. To the Aborigines, storytelling in a way of life that helps them survive. It’s the one method of passing on and keeping their entire history as a people alive. Without oral storytelling, their culture would not only die out, but customs needed in their everyday survival would be forgotten. Karen Armstrong’s What is a myth? Talks about the importance of myths and oral storytelling in the development of humanity as a civilization. According to her, without myths society would never develop a set of morals or rules to follow within civilization, and as a result society would have never evolved to what it is today.

‘Humans, Nature, and Sacred Space’ brought the three aforementioned topics together, talking about how humans have sacred spaces for religious or personal reasons, and that these spaces are oftentimes found in nature. The best text covered in this unit was without a doubt Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, (my personal favorite), a documentary chronicling the life of the late grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell and whether or not he went too far in living with the bears. This film shows Timothy’s belief that his place as a human being was in nature with the grizzlies, essentially as his sacred space. This belief, mixed with Herzog’s opposing viewpoint that nature is in fact scary and dangerous, and should be separate from humanity, provided a relatively unbiased look at both sides of an argument centered around the relationship between nature and humanity. I was absent alot in this unit but I’m pretty sure Montague’s Of Cannibals was here, so that’s my next text. Of Cannibals recognizes a strong rift between humanity and nature, but not in the way that most would assume. He recognizes the indigenous cultures left in the world, those that are still within nature, to be the ones that are truly human and/or humane, while those who are civilized and religious and recognized as dignified members of society are actually the savages. This implies that those who fall under strict rules of civilization, quickly lose the sense of humanity that they’re trying to control. Nigel Spivey’s Second Nature talks about nature itself acting as a sacred space. As a result of nature being picturesque and beautiful, it has naturally calming aspects, making it a good place for religious worship and personal reflection as well as the subject of much art.

‘Love, Beauty, and Art’  used art to not only recognize the social constructs of love and beauty, but also to recognize that there are no set requirements that make something beautiful. In this unit, we read Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, a story about a young man whose obsession with eternal youth and beauty led him on a downward spiral into moral depravity. We learn that even though Dorian is beautiful, his outward beauty comes at the cost of his soul, instead allowing any age that comes his way to be represented in a once-beautiful self portrait of him. Like The Picture of Dorian Gray, the greek love poems we read also recognize the importance of eternal youth while addressing both the complications and meaning of love. One of the myths, Aphrodite and Anchises, tells us of the beautiful and immortal Aphrodite who falls in love with the handsome human Anchises. Similar to Dorian, Aphrodite manipulates Anchises to get him to sleep with her, only to essentially ruin his life by making him feel as if he’ll be unable to love for the rest of his life. This myth provides us with the idea that beauty does ot always equal love, and that those who are beautiful on the outside oftentimes can face tragedy when love is involved. Pablo Picasso’s Les demoiselles d’avignon  continues the idea of beauty by providing us with a piece that is considered to be a beautiful piece of art despite the grotesque appearances of the figures depicted in it. This piece teaches us that beautiful or not, the piece is still art, and because it’s art that means there is at least some beautiful aspect to it.

‘Law, Ethics, and Human Frailty’ made us think harder than most of us probably wanted to do this late in  the school year. It pointed out how fragile the human psyche really is, and made us ask alot of questions about the morality of humanity. Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors told the story of a successful doctor who gets away with murdering his mistress, and a nerdy documentary filmmaker who falls in love with a woman other than his wife. While both are presented with morally unjust situations, the doctor decides to abandon morals while Woody Allen decides to do what is morally sound even though it doesn’t work out for him. This brings up the argument over whether or not there really are consequences to living an immoral life as well as questioning the total existence of God. The 10 Commandments introduce us to a set of moral rules we’re expected to live by, some of which make sense while others just reflect religion as a method of controlling society. By making it seem as if you need to keep God happy in order to go to Heaven, you’re instilling a fear of God as well as the likelihood of obedience in those that follow the commandments. The Buddhist principles provided a comforting opposite to the 10 Commandments.  Instead of scaring the reader that they’ll be sentenced to eternal damnation if they sin, Buddhism promotes a series of beliefs that will essentially help you become a better person on your journey to the next life, while bringing no damage to the lives of others. Most of these beliefs are rooted in a more accepting manner, bringing a more comforting approach to human ethics.

‘The Inner Journey and the Meaning of Human Reality’ made us question not only what it really means to be a human, but what this means in the grander scale of things when our lives on this Earth are over. It also introduced us to the hero’s journey to focus on humanity’s natural desire for something within them. Whether it be Enlightenment like for Siddhartha, fame and recognition for Gilgamesh, or honor for Hamlet, we learned that there is a driving force behind the way life is lived within everyone. By reading Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, we’re given a first-hand look at the inner journey as we follow Siddhartha on his journey to reach Nirvana. Through this journey, we learn the importance of suffering and self-awareness in reaching an almost-unattainable level of self content. Siddhartha’s suffering at the hands of the Samanas, his son, and death prove that suffering is an inevitable part of the human existence, one that we can’t avoid and should instead use to grow as people. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet takes those same ideas of suffering and the hero’s focus, but looks at them from a completely different perspective. Unlike Siddhartha, Hamlet views life as the cause of all suffering. As a result of this, the only reason he doesn’t commit suicide is because of the discomfort associated with not knowing what comes after life/happens in death. This brings up a strong point about human reality, pointing out that realistically, the universe is so broad with so many parts unknown, that humanity actually only makes up a very small portion of it. Hamlet also provides a desire driving the hero’s journey that is completely different from the hero’s journey in Siddhartha. Instead of Enlightenment being the driving force, Hamlet is driven by grief and the need to avenge his father’s death at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. The idea of death played a relatively big role in this unit, coming up again in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the first “superhero” story of a demigod set out to make a name for himself and learn the secret of eternal life. Following the death of Gilgamesh’s friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh is deeply troubled by the concept of death and the unknowing associated with it, so he starts on a quest to gain eternal life. Through the story of Gilgamesh, a valid point is also brought up where no matter what role you hold in life, in death none of that matters, especially if you’re in Hell.

Throughout the semester, the understanding I had of the human experience as a whole, shaped itself and shifted more than I initially expected. Each unit added another piece to the reality of our existence as human being. From the first unit on brain functions and oral storytelling, to love and beauty, to bringing it all full circle with the final unit on the reality of humanity’s place in the universe and the place of ourselves within our soul, the human experience shaped humanities drastically.