Verified Document

Galapagos The Dangers Of A Self-Aware, Big, Essay

¶ … Galapagos The Dangers of a Self-Aware, Big, Human Brains in Galapagos

Kurt Vonnegut is always concerned with humanity's satisfaction with itself. Many of Vonnegut's books center around how humans believe they are the most divine creations in the universe and act from that presumption as well. The arrogance is crippling. This is a main theme in his novel, Galapagos. Yes, the end of the world may be an event that is out of humanity's control, but more than likely, humans are going to contribute to their own destruction and have no one to blame but themselves. He values humility, compassion, and what it is to be humane, to have humane thoughts, and perform humane actions. Kurt Vonnegut writes to tell us that if humans do not become less selfish and more selfless as a species, it will be their doom. This is true for the novel Galapagos. People who lack self-awareness have big egos and no humility. Self-awareness makes one aware of oneself, of course, but also it makes one aware that others are self-aware. This is the beginning of empathy. Empathy leads to selflessness. Selflessness breeds humility and extinguishes excess pride. Lack of pride and abundance of humility do not exist without self-awareness. This is what the narrative demonstrates through various characters and the plot. The paper will reference Galapagos with Vonnegut's repetition, trademark tone and technique to communicate to readers to be self-aware and to let that self-awareness lead humanity away from pride.

Kurt Vonnegut repeats the phrase "big brain" when referring to the human brain in a sarcastic manner. Science tells the world that the human brain has thus grown in size and weight over time. In Vonnegut's novel, over time the size of the human brain has diminished. He attributes having a big brain to inviting trouble. Vonnegut states that

"Like so many other pathological personalities in positions of power a million years ago, he might do almost anything on impulse, feeling nothing much. The logical explanations for his actions, invented at leisure, always came...

And let that sort of behavior back in the era of the big brains be taken as a capsule history of the war I had the honor to fight in, which was the Vietnam War." (Vonnegut, Galapagos, Page 103)
He uses this turn of phrase on the first page of the novel: "Human beings had much bigger brains back then than they do today, and so they could be beguiled by mysteries." (Vonnegut, Page 3) Brains size is relative to evolutionary development for Vonnegut, not only on a physical level, but also on a spiritual level. The self-awareness of the humans in the novel is limited. They are aware of the size and weight of their brains, but they are using their brains for ill-will:

"It is hard to believe nowadays that people could ever have been as brilliantly duplicitous as James Wait -- until I remind myself that just about every adult human being back then had a brain weighing about three kilograms! There was no end to the evil schemes that a thought machine that oversized couldn't imagine and execute." (Vonnegut, Page 8)

The brains of the characters in the book are to blame for their wretched thoughts, horrid actions, and ugly emotions. For Vonnegut there is a separation between a person's brain and the person. When the person does wrong, it is the brain's fault and not the person's.

Kurt Vonnegut repeats the phrase "big brain" in Galapagos to generate self-awareness in the reader. He wants the reader to be almost over-aware of the physical dimensions of his/her brain and how brain size is directly related to the amount of damage human beings can potentially create. He writes: "About that mystifying enthusiasm a million years ago for turning over as many human activities as possible to machinery: What could that haven but yet another acknowledgement by people that their brains were no damn good?" (Vonnegut, Page 38) Big brains cannot be trusted, are unreliable, and make poor decisions. Vonnegut's use of the phrase "big brain" generates self-awareness in the reader about his/her own brain, but also generates self-awareness in the reader…

Sources used in this document:
References:

Vonnegut, Kurt. Galapagos. Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, NY, NY, 1985.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Self-Awareness and Self-Development in HRM Leadership, As
Words: 1541 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Self-Awareness and Self-Development in HRM Leadership, as it manifests in companies today, has evolved greatly from a century ago. Indeed, with the development of sciences such as psychology and sociology, business people have begun to recognize the importance of the human element not only in office relationships, but also in the specific arena of leadership. From the industrial era, in which leadership was essentially brutal work, bordering on slave driver, this

Self-Awareness There Are Many Traits of Great
Words: 867 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Self-Awareness There are many traits of great importance to the midwife in order to accomplish a successful job and a positive experience by the patient, and self-awareness is perhaps one of the most essential. Self-awareness consists in part of understanding one's motives and motivations -- knowing why certain actions are seen as desirable -- and in a more philosophical sense can be understood as a recognition of the set of experiences

Self-Awareness Self-Analysis Know That I
Words: 1777 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

It will be important for me to make sure that the work that I take is work that I can perform without over tasking myself - this will only hurt the client and me. Learning how to say no, without fear will be a challenge but something I think will be good for me. I will also need to learn how to ask for help, especially in my early

Self-Awareness: How Do You Relate
Words: 2442 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

His academic advisor is an engineering professor who is in better position than I to put this problem into perspective. Interpersonal Conflict: Problem Statement In my apartment complex, the rear area of the building is an unused open lot that the property owner has agreed to allow tenants to use for parking their vehicles for no charge, but at their own risk. Access to the rear area is by a narrow passage

Self-Awareness the Psychological Issue of
Words: 577 Length: 2 Document Type: Thesis

In human beings, both James and the authors of the text consider this the ultimate act of "morality," asserting that this morality underlies all of our decisions (Schwartz & Begley 2002). The robots that exhibit self-aware behavior and develop their own intentions must possess the same basic morality, then. This morality is more explicitly linked to immediate rewards, however; the walking robot, for instance, was not given any instruction or

Management - Self-Awareness Deception in
Words: 1039 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Proposal

Frustrations of this nature only grow worse with time (Myers & Spencer, 2004) and resentments magnify by virtue of internalizing them instead of finding a way of expressing them appropriately (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2003). In many respects, the anger that eventually erupts is more reflective of the additional psychological energy required to repress genuine feelings about coworkers and working situations than it is appropriate to the actual situation

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now