Evil And Its Control Essay, Research Paper

Not all people are evil. Many of us are upstanding citizens that contribute positively to society. Yet, we are shown how normal, average people are put into position where lying and chicanery are in order to save their own life (A Good Man is Hard to Find). Seemingly, innocent people have the capability to commit murder their best friend such as George in Of Mice and Men. While others, whom seem to be quite well educated or devoted to God, seduce total strangers for kicks (Good Country People). In The Postman Always Rings Twice, our protagonists attempt and, eventually, successfully murder an innocent bystander.

Deep down people, whether it is voluntary or not, have the ability to commit heinous crimes when the situation calls for it. These stories have many similarities to them. All take place in America, they all have unfortunate incidents that occur that changes their paths in life, and in three stories somebody ends up being killed.

In Good Country People, badness and evil seems to have cursed Hulga s life. Starting from an accident when she was still Joy, Hulga s life has been quite miserably and negative, although she has attained a Ph.D. in philosophy. Yet, she lives at home and gets harassed, according to Hulga, by her over-bearing mother. One kind of harassment Hulga faces from her mother is the one that surrounds her name. Hulga s original name was Joy. Something she felt that was destroyed when her leg got blown off. She feels that there is a void of joyfulness in her life. She had her name changed to Hulga because it was a transition stated on p. 172, She considered her name a personal affair. She had arrived at it first purely on the basis of its ugly sound and then the full genius of its fitness struck her. One of her major triumphs was that her mother had not been able to turn her dust into Joy, but the greater one was that she had been able to turn herself into Hulga . Hulga became the antithesis of her previous moniker. What is the opposite of Joy? Despair, misery, anguish, these words come to mind. Evil also comes to play. Where is the misery with out the sadness and evil that caused it? The despair does not occur when good event occur. Something bad, something inherently evil causes the despair.

Hulga, in this loneliness, is left to do nothing but sulk and read all day (p. 175). It was in this hopelessness when Hulga was introduced to Manley Pointer, the Bible Salesman. Now, Hulga dreams that she seduces him because of the fact that he is a good Christian. She wants to be evil in the sense of breaking this young man s beliefs and stomping them into the ground. He wants this seemingly innocent boy feel the way she did when her innocence was taken from her. She felt that this was the chance to show someone, anyone, how she has been feeling since the accident. She thinks she is going to change the Bible salesman s perspective in life. She wants to shatter the beliefs and values of this boy. Little does Hulga know, but the Salesman, Pointer, is not what he appears to be.

When Hulga realizes the dark nature of Pointer, she exclaims, You re a fine Christian! You re just like them all say one thing and do another. You re a perfect Christian, you re She realizes that Pointer is actually turning the tables on her. She wanted to seduce the apparently pure Christian and destroy his values and morals. She wanted to break him and humiliate him. But she was the victim of her own evil desires.

In Of Mice and Men, George kills his best friend in order to save him from the wrath of Curley. Lennie kills Curley s wife, purely by accident, since Lennie does not know any better. One could believe that George killed Lennie because he was sick and tired of putting up with Lennie s mistakes, which in turn, were very costly ones. George could have let Curley killed Lennie, but if one was in George s position, would they have let someone as angry and angst-ridden (perhaps related to his shortness) as Curley kill their best friend? Perhaps, George s act was one of mercy. Since George is the only one who realizes that the things that Lennie does are not on purpose, it is his position to punish him whenever he does something wrong. Is Lennie s death by George excusable? In the sense that it is evil and amoral, no. But, was it necessary for it to happen? Yes.

In Flannery O Connor s A Good Man is Hard to Find, the fact that the Misfit does not believe in inherit good or evil means that he should not feel remorse for anything looked upon as being evil? So, in the mind of the Misfit, the Misfit looks reprehensible crimes such as theft and murder as we would view jaywalking. This dark and shocking story deals with how morals and values can be thrown away in a moment s notice. It is an evocation of the psychotic mind. Essentially, the grandma is at fault for getting the family killed. She told them to go on the trip. She told them of the non-existent house. She realized that they were in the wrong state. She stiffened up and made the cat jump. She caused the car crash. She identified the Misfit. It was all her fault that her family died. It was her fault because if the Misfit feels that there is neither good nor bad in society, he is not at fault for their deaths, even though he made his cronies shoot the family.

The issue of what is good also comes up in the story. The grandma believes that children at that time were disrespectful. She believed that her grandchildren are very disrespectful to their state and to their parents. Yet, it is quite obvious that Grandma is very materialistic (the reference to the Coca-Cola man) and racist (her pickaninny comment). Her view of good is quite different from what someone from this time would think. She even refers to the Misfit as having good blood (p. 20). She does not know this man personally, only from what she has read from the newspapers. Yet, she is in a position to say almost anything that might stop the Misfit, whom she thinks, is nice people (p. 20), from killing her. She felt that the Misfit had a scholarly look , thus was a good person. She called him this despite all the badness and evil he committed. The grandma was the only one to recognize him, yet she is the first to tell him that he is good person with proper morals and values because he was a part of the church when he was a child. The Misfit s going to church during childhood can relate to Grandma s statement about how children do not have any respect or manners. The Grandma may believe that the Misfit actually has those manners and respect within him. All he has to do is re-accept Christ and God into his life. If it were that simple. Of course, the grandma may have thought of this when she stated that you re one of my babies (p. 21)