Zhanye Zhu
11/09/2015
People in today’s society are selfish and solitary. We only care about self-achievement that we struggle to make and forget to appreciate those people who have help us before. Lewis Thomas illustrates this human behavior by compared with Iks’s behavior, and the result turns out similarly to humans. In the essay “The Iks”, first he mentioned that Iks have experienced two disastrously things: they were compelled to move out of valleys because the government decided to build a national park, and they were visited for two years by an anthropologist who wrote a book to detested them. The book shows how Iks behaved disagreeable, selfish, and solitary in their society. They seems to live together apparently, but they are actually unrelated individuals. They use the children to forage foods as long as they are able to walk, such a coldblooded society. However, Thomas argues that they are just simple examples of the common essence of humanity, and we all behaved the similar ways as Iks behaved to their society. We shouted insults to neighbors in a loud voice, and took joy in the bad luck of others, we have all the Ik characteristics. However, Thomas couldn’t accept this truth, and he concluded a theory to find out why human and Iks are behaved so isolated. The main idea of theory illustrates the fact by used an example, “The solitary lk, isolated in the ruins of an exploded culture, has built a new defense for himself.” They have to act solitarily in order to survive in their society, and this is similar to our society, from committees to nations. We crashed a country by killed innocent children, it is cruel and realistic. I think Thomas’s idea is true that humanity is behaving more selfish than before, we intrigue against each other for own greed and cruelty actions.
Government seems to play an justice role in China and...