The weapon by Frederic Brown

“The weapon” written by Frederic Brown is a story that makes us think about the misuse of science to make weapons that destroys mankind. Frederic Brown is an American writer who wrote stories that make us think a lot. The story is about a scientist Dr. James Graham Who is the key Scientist of a very important project to make a weapon. Dr. James has a son Harry who is mentally arrested. Another character is Niemand who tries his best to make Dr. James understand the weapon he is inventing can wipe out the entire human race. This story mainly focuses on the universe because it affects every one of us and makes us think about the misuse of science in the field of war and weapons. This story is relevant to twenty-first century audience because it demonstrates how science can be misused and lead to the destruction of humankind.

Science is very useful in our day to day life. Without the scientific inventions the world we see today will never exist. But the growth of science is not only giving advantages but also disadvantages. The use of science in the field of war is an example. The growth of science in the field of war ‘gifted’ us improved and more destructive weapons that could easily take a lot of lives within no time. The biggest example is the atomic energy. The atomic energy can be used in the field of electricity production or energy production. With a small amount of atomic power we could light up an entire city. But the same amount of atomic energy can burn an entire city into ashes. That happened in Japan, when an atom bomb was dropped it killed a hundred thousand people within a factor of time and still a lot are suffering from it. After this incident Albert Einstein the main scientist in the invention of atom bomb said “I made one great mistake in my life –when I signed to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs must be made”

Thus the most useful scientific invention becomes the most destructive weapon that destroys the mankind. The use of other weapons like guns, missiles, bombs and rockets affects people badly. The money and energy used for the manufacturing of weapons can be used for many good deeds. Once Dwight D Eisenhower said “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed”.  But stills millions of money are spent on weapons and millions are dead by weapons.

            There are wars happening in twenty-first century all along the globe. The civil wars that happened in Egypt, Libya and the civil war happening in Syria is the most recent among the wars. The war happening in Afghanistan cannot be excluded. A lot of people are dying there daily. These wars are mostly caused by the misuse of power, border problems and terrorists. If one among them wins also both the countries will have people lose.

            In this twenty-first century the rate in the growth and production of weapons is high. . Every one can easily get a weapon with a less amount of money. Every day there are a lot of people killed using these weapons. And there are a lot of new inventions which upgrades those weapons with more destructive capacity. Mahatma Gandhi one of the most influenced leaders of the world argued that fighting a war with weapons takes less courage than nonviolent resistance. He strongly resisted and hated weapons and he believed in nonviolence.

            At the last part of the story we can see Dr. James saying “a madman would give a loaded revolver to an idiot!” by this statement the author is actually pointing the leaders or governments who give the weapons to wage wars.  This short story has still a lesson to make us remember in the present century that science has a negative side though it makes life easier and comfortable. So we can conclude that the story written by Frederic Brown is relevant in twenty-first century.