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Dahlia Bulleigh

Professor Johnson

Composition II 1213 001

20 April 2024

In Eileen A. Simmons article, Frankenstein for the Twenty-First Century: An Exploration

of Contemporary Issues, Simmons finds that Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a very profound

book for her students to study and apply to the twenty-first century because modern sciences

and issues have to do with preserving life and the worth of a living creature. Simmons starts by

describing the learning environment that was created by the diverse range of opinions of her

students because “My students have representatives of, in about equal numbers, Christian

fundamentalists and those who have no religious background” (Simmons 30). Simmons found

that her students really struggled with coming forward with ethical and moral questions

because the religious students had religious texts they could fall back on and the nonreligious

felt uncomfortable bringing up the topics because it normally ended in debates that had both

parties not believing in the other parties' texts. Simmons prepared her students by having them

read materials such as, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Stephen Hawkings Brief History of Time,

Beowulf, and Canterbury Tales. She then assigned her students to identify a social issue within

Frankenstein and then to read four magazine articles to find describing similar issues in the

modern age. After reading her students' material, Simmons finds that most of each group of

students that picked different topics all came to similar conclusions no matter their cultural

background. Simmons describes that students then went to the library to research and find
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articles on all aspects of social issues found within Frankenstein and modern-day society.

Simmons finishes by finding points and conclusions her students came up with that surprised

her like how many anti-abortion students ended up finding that aborted children could be used

for some good, or how students who studied their ethnicities history found that they don’t

have much of a history in American literature, not because their ethnicities didn’t play a role

but because powerful Americans erased it.

Eileen A. Simmons wrote an effective article about how important Frankenstein is for

modern day comparison by detailing why it was important to her students, by demonstrating

many issues found today and in Frankenstein, and by showing the impact of these comparisons

on her students in her article, Frankenstein for the Twenty-First Century: An Exploration of

Contemporary Issues. Simmons first details why it is important for her students to compare

Frankenstein to their modern lives because “Students must learn to evaluate, judge, and make

decisions about issues that seem deceptively simple but quickly become complicated”

(Simmons 30). Basically, saying that she wants to teach her students how to think for

themselves regardless of background so that her students can reach their full potential

academically. Simmons then describes the assignment for the reader to conduct it if they

choose. This way the reader can really understand the objective of the assignment and see how

it will impact a student's mindset. Simmons demonstrates the impact on the students by citing

circumstances of students minds change; “several students, firmly anti-abortion when they

begin the project, document their attitude change when they write that, although abortion is

wrong and they would never choose it for themselves, they think that if a woman chooses to
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have an abortion, the fetal tissue should be used for medical research” (Simmons 32). These

demonstrations of her experiences and how this understanding of Franlenstein has impacted

her students for the better.