Critique of the Article on Werewolves - Essay Example

Focus In the essay, “Where Have All the Werewolves gone? Did The Arrival of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Put Paidto a Widespread Belief in Half-Human Creatures?” Regal explores the history behind the half-man, half-wolf lycanthrope that reigned supreme. The creature most feared by the travellers of the time has been associated with many legendary stories surrounding different accounts of people. By comparing the reality and the myths surrounding these legends, he explores various possibilities that could have contributed to its loss from the face of the earth. The werewolf has been compared to the sea mermaids and other funny creatures that have thought to be in existence. Though stories about these creatures have been told time and again, few people choose to believe in them. Currently, they have been used in the movies to tell the stories, though in an imaginary way. Regal is observant that rarely do people believe in these tales about the werewolves, but rather are sceptical about the whole issue. In a bid to prove their existence, he looks at the various possibilities that could have contributed to their extinct nature. By linking the legends to the scientific evolution theory of Darwin, Regal explores on the various possibilities that could have wiped these funny and scary creatures from the world. The essay has stuck to the concept and reviewed the facts about the whole issue of the werewolves. Successfully, he explores the various factors that could have had contributed to this phenomenon. Although at some instances he veers off the line of thinking in his analysis, the essay maintains an informative flow of ideas. Logic Logically, the author’s reasoning is consistent with the topic of discussion. in answering the question as to the possible causal factors that led to the loss of these creatures, Regal uses logical reasoning backed by facts about major theories and facts by other scholars. The use of the Darwin’s theory of evolution in his analysis and reasoning solidifies his opinion and makes them factual to the reader. Though he does not evidentially prove that the theory of evolution was the reason behind this phenomenon, he analogises the eventualities that may have caused these creatures to vanish from the earth. Organization The introduction of the essay is eye catching to the reader as the author makes a sounding impact with the first statement. Clearly, the reader can tell the intentions of the author from the introductory statement. As Regal introduces his essay, “For most of recorded history, the half-man, half-wolf lycanthrope reigned supreme as the creature travellers most feared encountering in the woods and along dark roads at night” (Regal 1). The statement points out to the reader that the topic in discussion is in the past. Though he is referring to these creatures at present, they are part of history which he talks about. The body explains the major points covering the topic of discussion to support his reasoning. Adequately, he explores the possibilities that could have led to the vanishing status of these creatures from the earth. In a candid way, Regal articulates historical and scientific possibilities that could have been the resultant factors to this condition. Conclusively, he has pulled all the major points together to summarize his work. In the conclusion part of the essay, the writer manages to conclude that Darwin’s theory of evolution could have been the biggest contributing factor to the loss of these creatures from the world. However, he fails to incorporate the historical beliefs ideologies to the conclusion part despite having focused on them in the body of the paper. Despite this though, the main points in the body of the paper have not been repeated but highlighted to give a summary. Support In the essay, the use of the Darwin theory backs the author’s ideas and opinions, making his arguments concrete and real. The assumption that a number of factors could have caused the loss of the werewolves in the world sounds vague if plainly put. Moreover, the belief that these creatures ever existed would subsequently sound sarcastic to any reader as they would be baseless however, the use of a generally accepted theory and real examples makes the whole idea that a person could have waved as untrue to reconsider their decision and stand. The support given by this theory is so immense that the author manages to convince the reader that these creatures could have been in existence and later became extinct as they could not be as aggressive as the other animals. Critique of the Essay In the essay, “Where Have All the Werewolves gone? Did The Arrival of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Put Paid to a Widespread Belief in Half-Human Creatures?” Regal explores the various possibilities that could have contributed to the vanishing of the creature from the earth. Basically, the idea according to the author was to prove that certain factors have contributed to this eventuality. Although the animals are believed to have been in existence for quite a long time, close to 20,000 B.C., as the author points out, this reasoning rather sounds weak. In the past, people created all sorts of pictures and images for different reasons. The author has backed on this historical information and stories by the people of this time to draw a conclusion that these creatures actually existed. However, any type of information could have cropped up as a result of beliefs and practices by different people and societies. Regal (2) claims that these creatures were believed to have been as a result of witchcraft and black magic. This cannot scientifically be proven especially in a world that relies on science and evidence to prove various events and occurrences as well as phenomena. The author chose to take the claims by the people who existed in these times, legends and the film creativity as a fact, therefore drawing conclusion that these creatures were in existence. Personally, I feel that this was a wrong move, as history can hardly prove that these creatures ever existed. Any form of scientific evidence to prove that these creatures ever existed could have given the author solid bargaining grounds. However, the use of a scientific theory successfully proves that somehow these creatures were in existence and vanished through the evolution process. According to Regal (5), the same forces of nature that led to the extinction of creatures like dinosaurs were responsible for the extinction of the Werewolves. In the essay, the author believes that these creatures were in existence in the world, and were a menace to the people especially the travellers. Therefore, he tries to find an explanation of the factors that could have contributed to their loss. Adequately though, he manages to attribute this extinction to the law of evolution that was proposed by Charles Darwin in the year 1859. Works Cited Regal, Brian. Where Have All the Werewolves gone? Did The Arrival of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Put Paid to a Widespread Belief in Half-Human Creatures? Fortean Times, 18 June 2013 Read More