The Negative Effects of Knowledge in Becketts Waiting for Godot and Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five :: comparison compare contrast essays

The Negative Effects of K zero(prenominal)ledge in Becketts Waiting for idolot and Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-FiveThe whole of our existence train the appearance _or_ semblances to often be that of scientific advance. technology and the cold, hard facts atomic number 18 often placed above human values. A countrys, or an individuals, personnel is marked by its technology, its smarts. So everyone constantly strives to nonplus one another. Of course, with technology move intos great power. The power to build and create and the power to destroy. Oftentimes the one leads to the other. Take for instance the creation of the atomic bomb, a huge leap in technology and knowledge that, once created, sunk the lives of millions. Knowledge can be used for or against us, depending on who is place the strings. Of course we want to be the ones holding those strings, standing behind the defenses of our war weapons, but what if the tables were turned and our smarts and technology could not sa ve us? Is at that place something else that can be taken from this world besides this scientific advancement? What is it that civilization require besides more and better machines and more sagacity into the basic nature of the universe?Samuel Becketts play Waiting for Godot asks that same question. Is there more to life than simply knowing things? The two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, seem not to know anything at all, even the reason why they come to the same tree to wait everyday for someone named Godot. They constantly have to remind one another why they are there and waiting. Is there really any purpose to their lives? Beckett seems to think that the answer, not only for Vladimir and Estragon, is no. There is no meaning to the monotonous existence that we put ourselves with day after day after day. If indeed Beckett is symbolizing God as the man Godot who the nave fools constantly wait for, he is as well as insinuating that they are wasting their lives because Go dot, or God, is never going to come. Either He does not really exist or He does not wangle enough about these poor, gullible fools to come. Beckett is trying to show that civilization needs to rid itself of its misconceptions about the existence of God that these people who have got piety are wasting their time waiting around for a existence that either does not exist or does not care. Either way, Beckett thinks they are wasting their time.