X: Science and Different Criticisms Essay Example

No matter how hard we try, we will always be criticized, evaluated, judged. There are rules, trends, theories even rubrics that clearly indicate what we believe is to be right, wrong, acceptable, and what is frowned upon. Yet it is a combination of these criticisms to which the world generally adapts to. Lois Gould’s short story “X” combines all of these aspects, by portraying various criticism such as psychoanalytical, cultural, and Marxist, through a scientific machine called the Superpsychiamedicosocioculturometer. Difficult to pronounce, this wondrous and well-trusted scientific machine is able to unmask the truth and the faults of any individual. When examined, the tremendously long name of the machine can be divided up into sections, such as “psychia”, “socio”, and “culturo”. It is my belief that Gould was creating a metaphor for all of the things in our world that we use to determine what is right. “Psycia” symbolizes psychoanalysis, the mental aspect. It is dealing with our thoughts, feelings and impulses that we are not aware of. “Socio” represents social and Marxist points of view, which means we are dealing with the different social classes and the economical point of view. Finally the “culturo” clearly means cultural. Much of the stereotyping in the story comes from our popular culture, and what was acceptable in that current time. Throughout the novel each one of these criticisms play an important role in the experiment of baby X’s life. Whilst the baby is raised, we the readers can see how much the different criticisms affect ours lives, even at such a young age. At the end of the story, practically the entire community wanted X to be examined. So the scientists use this super-meter machine to determine what is wrong with X and come to a conclusion that by studying X, using the different criticisms, that it is perfect. After this analysis of X, all of the previously angry parents accepted X. This puts emphasis on the special machine, and the fact