Water, especially the sea, is a gift for the creatures on the earth. The fish and other marine animals live in the ocean freely, while human can get all kinds of resources from it. However, people need to face danger when exploring, for example, the unknown huge creatures, or the sudden storm that can take away our lives and treasures. ‘The Horror at Martin’s Beach’ is telling this kind of story that Capt. James P. Orne and his crew killed an infant monster and exhibits its body on a boat, and were finally killed by the revenge of another monster horribly.
What is the cause of this creepy and miserable story? Maybe some will think that people should never underestimate or underrate the sea which has a huge amount of unknown mysteries. I agree with this, and from my perspective, I have different ideas. As written in the article ‘wonder kept them at their task, and they hauled with a grim determination to uncover the mystery’ I believe that people should not have that kind of mad curiosity that can ignore the uncanny phenomenon and forget about the potential risk. Moreover, I think that human should not hurt or even kill another creature just because of our curiosity, and should respect other creatures. ‘Amidst a blinding glare of descending fire the voice of heaven resounded with the blasphemies of hell,’ is the prof by the writer that there will be a bad result.
Ada, I agree that from your passage, the happening of the story could be rooted from the people’s unknown to the power of sea and the curiosity that loads too much on people to gain the knowledge to a natural object. As you said in the passage, the sea could be a sufficient resource for people to utilize, but it can be dangerous on the other side that danger, like the marine monster which killed the captain and his team, might exist to harm the people. It is often that people ignore the dangerous side of an object, because they focus on utilizing the good part of the object, and that good part brings much benefits which could set people a mind without recognition of potential danger. The passage mentioned ‘These spectators .. joined the beach group before the horror progressed far’, is a clip of unworked status of people’s potential recognition.
To extend the discussion, we could get into a new question that what can we do if we could prevent the happening of such event? In the story, it is clear that Capt. Orne and his team shows out the curiosity to any natural object could be the power to push scientific researches, which fills people’s knowledge, but it is also possible that ‘with judicious carpentry he prepared what amounted to an excellent marine museum’ (Paragraph 6 of the passage), the curiosity could change to greed of seizing benefits from anything. In case, if we limit our pursuit which might be potential to go to the other side, we could achieve a balance between searching for the truth as well as understanding to the place where we live in.
In conclusion, I agree that the events like the horror happened near Martin’s Beach is caused by the overloaded scientific thinking of people, and the author is satirical to us by telling us the story, in order to express that we should respect creatures that surround us to prevent the happening of similar events.
Hi Ada, I really like the opening of about the concept of water. Not only it captures its mystery but also how complex it is. For example, you said it is a gift which means a positive thing about the water. However, you continue saying that it gets dangerous when exploring the ‘unknown’ of the body of water. Even though there is a contrast, I think it sets up a good idea of how water is perceived.
I would like to ask: Are humans are evil or to a certain extent? Humans have the tendency of being curious and would do anything for their greediness and pride. This is something we saw in the beginning in ‘The Horror at Martin’s Beach’ where the baby creature was ripped from its habitat and became its predator’s award. It is because of the quick action of lifeguards(which was not the right choice for that night), I believe that humans are evil to a certain extent and this is a general claim about them. In para 13, we learn that two lifeguards responded immediately to a faint cry of someone drowning. Their actions tell me those lifeguards, as humans, want to save lives even though it is their duty. This distinguishes them from those men who killed the baby creature. I find it very interesting that even the innocence became the victim of the water. For me, it got me curious and I don’t know whether there would be a right answer as to why the lifeguards had to get dragged along with Captain Orne’s men.