An existentialist reading of the human dilemma in Ted Hughes's 'Lumb Chimneys'

Academic Paper from the year 2014 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2.0, Free University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: Human species has come into being through nature. Its existence and emergence through evolutionary processes is glorified as the miracle of nature, for its most crucial characteristic and distinctiveness compared to other species on planet earth consists in its intelligence and its creativity. However, these characteristics of human beings have led to an ongoing process of rebellion by humans against nature. The driving forces for this development can amongst others be found in the industrial, agricultural, scientific and technological revolution taken place as of 19th century (Emmott 2013). These events have resulted in the dominance of human over other species and in the rapid reproduction of the human species all over the world. Around 1800 there were roughly one billion human beings existing, whereas today the numbers have increased to over seven billion and are still increasing per hour (Emmott 2013). Scientists have even predicted that the amount of inhabitants on earth will increase to nine billion in 2050 (Emmott 2013). This depicts a severe strain on earth and nature since the more human beings there are the more resources in form of energy and food are needed to keep them alive and the more energy is used the higher is the amount of by-products like plastic, radioactive waste, vehicle emissions and toxic gases the earth cannot be disposed of. Furthermore, resources like drinkable water will run short. In this sense, human being - as a product of nature- has begun a combat against his own designer, enslaved it and has shaped it according to his own imagination in a very short period of time.