Lewis Thomas, an American physician, poet, and etymologist, writes on man’s misguided views of himself as being distinct from nature, and his misguided views of nature as some fragile, tenuous construction that man might easily crush. He reveals to the reader his views that man, while sitting at the top of the world's ecosystem, is still one cog in the vast mechanism that is life on Earth. Lewis organizes his essay into a series of items, similar to subheadings, each conveying a unique idea. The first of these is used to discuss Thomas' idea that humans, in their role as the planet's dominant organism, aren't even organisms at all.
Instead, Lewis proposes that we humans are little more than collections of prokaryotic "tiny animals" (359) that invaded a much earlier ancestor of ours, and stayed there permanently. As these evolved, they came to form organisms, including us. It is Thomas' belief that this means we humans are in fact little more than vessels for these very small invaders. He uses this as a way to substantiate his belief that man does not sit above other animals, as we act as an unwilling carrier for billions of other "tiny animals," (359) that we cannot exist without. He then goes on to outline his belief that Earth is, in and of itself an organism.
From this, he formulates his deeper belief that the Earth is most similar to a cell, and that man, in all of his complexity and superiority to the other animals of the planet, is little more than one of the "tiny animals"(359) that he discussed as being a part of us in his first item. Lewis studied medicine and biology at both Princeton and Harvard Universities. The accreditation he receives from these institutes means that he is a credible source to write on biological topics. In considering he context of the essay, I can only say that it is scant. It isn't written in any sort of a linear sense, and it doesn't follow a traditional format. At best, the context of the essay is simply Thomas' desire to convey his observations on man's role in nature to the medical community. Thomas' purpose in writing this essay is to convey his beliefs and observations on man's evolving role in nature, and his unusual belief that man isn't necessarily above the rest of the animal kingdom, given the relationship between our cells and us, and our shared evolution with the rest of the Earth's species, as shown in the graph above.
Given that this essay was originally published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the audience is clearly the medical and scientific communities. Thomas makes use of an extremely unique format in The Lives of a Cell, and this technique suits the essay well. Instead of organizing his essay into the traditional literary format, with transitions, an introduction and conclusion, and other trappings of most literary works, Thomas simply organizes his thoughts into various "items," each conveying a distinct idea in support of his main message. The use of these items helps him to achieve his purpose by allowing him to most efficiently lay out his beliefs and observations without having to concern himself with grammatical flow. It also allows the reader to draw their own ideas and opinions regarding the relationships between the authors various points, instead of having the author merely spell them out for the reader. Thomas' unique essay format suits his topic and his writing style extremely well. Overall, the lack of transitions between topics allows the reader to draw conclusions regarding the connections between Thomas' ideas for themselves, and the conclusion of the essay provides a thought-provoking final remark for the reader to contemplate, and arrive at further conclusions independently. All of these characteristics are the trappings of a good scientific paper, as they provoke further thought and research.
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