Henry Adams :: essays research papers

The Education of the Henry Adams reviews Adams&8217s and the United States&8217s education and growth during the 19th century. Adams was an old man who had puritan beliefs about sex and religion. In this autobiography, Adams voices his skepticism about man&8217s newfound power to control the direction of history, in particular, the exploding world of science and technology, where only certainties of the future have vanished (anb.org, 1).Adams grew up in the United Stated where he was a Puritan. Puritans believed that sex (women especially) was just a form of fertility and reproduction other than &8220sex was a sin (Adams, 384). &8220American art, like the American language and American education, was as cold as possible sexless (Adams, 385). The only sculptures and paintings of women that Adams viewed with understanding were those like the sodding(a) Mary, who was always seen as non-sexual. For example, &8220America was ashamed of her&8230have strewn fig-leaves so profusely all everyplace her (Adams, 384). However, during this time of the technology revolution, women were beginning to be viewed differently, especially in Europe. Women were viewed as beautiful and mortal beings. People such as Rodin were representing women in paintings and sculptures sexually. Sex was becoming something more than just a means of reproduction. Suddenly Adams was far, far away from his Puritan custom-bound life.People were no longer motivated by religion, being saved by God, and going to heaven science, technology, money, and power had taken over the drives of man. Religion (a common &8220scale of the past) had taken the backseat to science, technology, money, power, and the new ideas and art of sex (all new &8220scales of the present and the future). &8220In opposition to the medieval Virgin, Adams saw a new cleric&8212the dynamo&8212symbol of the modern history&8217s anarchic energies (anova.org, 1). Adams desperately wanted to learn about the new world of technology, the &8220dynamos, yet he felt baffled to find this new knowledge and to comprehend it.Adams was overwhelmed by the technology of the dynamos. When Adams saw the dynamo, it became a symbol of the future, of infinity (Adams, 380).