Within Elie Wiesel’s novel, The Gates of the Forest, there are many depictions of evil. This is not surprising, as it is following Gregor, a Hungarian Jew and only survivor of his family, who escapes the Holocaust by hiding in a village forest. Contained in the numerous examples of evil given in this boy’s tale, there are two that are embodiments of both Zimbardo’s definition of evil and one of Neiman’s definition of sadistic evil. These two definitions may have the same fundamentals of humanity’s understanding of evil, but there is a difference between them that makes the clarification of them as two separate definitions necessary.
Whether working with a co-worker, learning with a classmate or hanging out with a friend, the thought of any of them having the potential to be evil does not cross the mind. Everyday people are not typically evil beings, but if people are not evil beings then why do they commit actions like torture, killing and genocide? Could it be that the certain people committing the acts are just monsters deep inside, or could the actions be mere products of circumstance? In his article "The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror", Crispin Sartwell, a journalist and philosopher, advises his audience to take a look at the heinous acts people have committed throughout history as a way to show us how anyone could commit evil acts, including ourselves. Marianne Szegedy-Maszak,
I believe good is intrinsic, while evil is extrinsic. Intrinsic means essential. Extrinsic means not part of the essential nature of someone or something. Everyone is born with a friendly soul but they have the ability to learn to become evil. Some people in life may seem along the lines of evil since they were born. The reason to that is, something in their life could've happened to them to make them that way or certain people, in general, make them like that. There is good in everyone sometimes you just have to look deep to see it.
People, for the most part, are inherently good. It is life that makes them evil, people are affected by events, influences, and circumstances. For the most part, there is an explanation for every “evil” person 's behavior. I will focus on the impact that conditions have on people, as well as the cases of inherently evil people.
Good vs. evil. Reason vs. instinct. Civilization vs. savagery. These are all examples of internal battles that occur within oneself and which can lead to horrifying consequences. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys find themselves stranded on an island, after a plane crash. Without any adult supervision or guidance, the boys are forced to systematically establish a firm set of rules and duties, in order to coexist on the island. At first everyone, is glad to be assigned their tasks and fulfill the needed requirements to survive. However, things soon turn for the worst, when one by one the boys begin to succumb to the evil within them. With the quick deterioration of societal rules, the boys turn on one another and participate in
Throughout history, both ancient and modern, archetypes can be found scattered all across literature. They act as a basis of stereotypes for all humanity, and that is why people have placed such an important emphasis on them (whether consciously or not). An early example of a literature like this can be traced all the way back to Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve, where obvious archetypes can be seen, like the Devil Figure, the Battle of Good and Evil, the Wise Man, and so on. Modern literature, however, still show these ideas. An example of this can be found in, “contemporary classics” like the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling because texts like the creation story in Genesis have greatly
Through out history evil has been best depicted as the absence of goodness and goodness as the absence of evil. With goodness being comprehended as the direct opposite of evil. It is under speculation that maybe there can 't exist only one general meaning of good vs. evil. I trust this, in light of the fact that any one individual 's perception of good or evil is without a doubt directed by one 's social comprehension of certain qualities and ethics within their culture, i.e. the power of social conformity (Muncaster-Social Psychology Lecture, 2016). Yes, there can be cases of evil that is seen as malevolent all over the world but due to the ethnocentric component of the perception of cultural morals and values, one is unable to categorize another individual as evil or good based upon their own cultural understanding of this notion. As they have been socially and culturally influenced to believe contrary to the fact.
1.Society as a whole believes serial killer are evil because that is how the media portrays them. We subconsciously let the media control our thoughts by believing it what they tell us. The media knows the power they have over us when we listen to the news, watching a movie or even reading the newspaper. In the way they report news on serial killers , it promotes fear and anxiety to their viewers. Movies even have more effect than we realize as well . We watch movies all the time about crimes , which plants a seed of fear for people. Society will start to believe that serial killers live among them and that no place is safe.We start to think about how this can happen to us or even our family. Most people have a belief in what is good and evil. When it comes to good , we categorize it has innocent holy , pure. Evil on the other hand it is seen as something associated with the devil. Serial killers take away and harm the innocent of our community .To see them as anything but evil will be nonsense. When we see interviews about serial killers ,we see how they had no remorse or feelings towards what they did. It confirms even more to us as a
Good and evil is present everywhere. In many shapes and forms, good and evil manifest. It is always around us and always within us. Good is that which is morally right. Someone who is good does the right thing regardless of whether or not anyone will know. People of virtue go out of their way to put others first and think about how they can help others and the world around them. Conversely, evil is understood to be morally repugnant behavior or acts which intentionally cause harm to others. Someone who is bad only thinks about themselves and how they can use others to their own benefit.
Are humans evil and do good to make up for their evilness or are they good and just make bad judgment calls? It is obvious through reading “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, and “The Black Cat’’ by Edgar Allen Poe that people are really good but make bad judgment calls.
People can be defined as neither good nor evil because many factors lead to us being a mixture of both. One of these factors is that we only have one perspective of life and the actions they do. This means we don 't have all the information to be able to form an opinion on them. Another factor is that we are unable to measure how good or bad an action is. This means that we can not say if the good actions they did outweigh the bad actions that they did in their life. These factors mean that we are unable to judge people and say whether they are good or bad.
In Man’s Nature Is Good and Man’s Nature Is Evil, Mencius and Hsun Tzu argue about the true meaning of human nature. Mencius believed that humans are inherently good and Hsun Tzu believed that humans are naturally evil. Is it possible humans can be both good and evil? When it comes to whether human nature is good or evil, most people will choose one or the other. However, can’t it be both? Both Mencius and Hsun Tzu can be right, there are millions of people in the world and some are good and some are evil,“If you plant the seeds carefully at the same time and in the same place, they’ll all sprout and grow ripe by summer solstice. If they don’t grow the same it 's because of inequities in richness of soil, amounts of rainfall, or the care given them by farmers” (Mencius 81). Some may be evil but react to what they’ve done and changed to good. Others may be good but have been hurt and chose to be evil. There are even those who can be both at the same time, they are good to their loved ones and evil towards their enemies. There are many different cases and it will never really come down to one explanation.
In the 18th century, Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau influenced the French Revolution through his ideas and principals. In his book, The Social Contract, Rousseau said that every man is born good until corrupted by society. Rousseau was correct in saying that people were born good, people were naturally born with a pure heart because God made us that way. However, one could argue that man is born evil based off of the perspective of society’s moral laws, which Rousseau may not have considered. Man is born evil because every human being is born with a desire for possession and a hunger for power.
Evil is a simple word that we learn at a young age and that we understand is bad. However, our youth and innocence prevents us from knowing the weight the word holds. As our understanding of evil develops, we begin to see evil all around us. Although we hold common societal definitions of evil, each person is bound to view evil slightly different from others. Someone might consider alcoholism evil, while others consider it normal: someone might believe racism is evil, while others believe it is natural. Evil is unique to each individual, how people were raised and what they were exposed to will alter their definition of evil. However, people generally agree that homicide, rape, torture, genocide, and terrorism are all evil. Causing agony or suffering is considered evil. Manipulating the weak or manipulating children, in any way, is considered evil. Despite our societal understanding that these acts are evil and that evil is bad, we witness evil nearly every day. This unconformity, these people knowing what is evil yet still doing the evil, cannot be explained simply.
Anyone can be capable of good or evil, and in this case, Macbeth was shown as becoming potentially evil towards the beginning of the play. This is introduced when the witches first told Macbeth the good fortunes that were going to come to him. In the first spell they cast they chanted, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” (1.1.12). This quote is nearly foreshadowing the rest of the play. This reveals how situations that may appear to be good in reality could be very evil, or vice versa. This is also present when Macbeth is