Comparing Evil In Good Country People, And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Far too often in history, a person’s negative or evil views have influenced others to commit terrible atrocities. In the 1930s, Adolph Hitler hated the Jews and blamed them for the declining economy, high unemployment rate, and other ills in the world. Because he was a master orator, he easily convinced the German citizens to agree with his views, including the belief that Jewish people should be punished, causing their mass execution during World War II. In recent years, leaders of various terrorist cells have used similar tactics of vengeance, brotherhood, and patriotism, recruiting impressionable young adults, promising eternal salvation as a reward for torture, murder, and even suicide. Closer to home, in massachusetts during

The common belief of the human race is that all people are inherently good. In the short stories “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Veldt”, and “Good Country People” this belief is questioned. These stories prove that there is a switch to every light, as people are overcome by strong feelings and turned to the dark side. Taking the leg off of an amputee in “Good Country People”, murdering a colleague in “The Cask of Amontillado”, and killing their own parents in “The Veldt” are examples of exactly that. The dark side of human nature in these instances is fueled by hunger for power, anger, and the need to retaliate.

Edmund Burke once stated, "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." As long as society exists the concept of good and evil will always be a central conflict. However, it is dangerous to simply believe that some people are innately good or bad. When talking about good and evil, good is the idea that people have the ability to empathize with other people, to feel compassion for them, and to put other people 's needs before their owns. In contrast, evil takes over when a good person is no longer able to empathize or care about another human being.

Manisha Shrestha M. Aranda PHIL-1301-73056 3/1/2018 FRIVOLITY OF EVIL “Frivolity of evil” 2004 city journal article written by Theodore Dalrymple, he has become successful in describing and expressing his thoughts about the decline of quality of life in his city, Great Britain and he mourns that declivity of quality of life is not the person fault. The person is not responsible for their problem and not responsible for committing the evil, it is the cowardice of intellectual and political elites that had continued the social disaster. Also, he has described the evolution of evil and its reason. And finally, he explained to the viewer why people commit the evil. This article is in narration view and every event that happened, the writer

“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is a very suspenseful, yet very shocking short story. This story is set in a small village, on a hot summers day in June. Flowers are blooming, and the towns people are gathering for the lottery, which is a tradition the town does every year. As the reader reads the first paragraph they think this is a happy story. The title also says, “The Lottery” which is a word often used for winning something or receiving a prize.

A person is truly evil when they have a lack of morals, or morals unbelievably skewed from the rest of society. Hosseini presents

In 1953, Arthur Miller Wrote “The Crucible”. There are many major themes throughout “The Crucible”. One of the themes is the struggle between good and evil. Good and evil can be seen as animals, fed by ones actions. Everyone feeds evil through lying, jealously, and assumption.

Hannah Arendt believes that evil is irrational and can spread from one person to another very easily. Arendt believes that evil can only be extreme. Although evil can be very extreme such as owning slaves, it may only seem evil to those who oppose it. Evil actions are those to be considered inhumane by many peoples perspectives. Many events in history can be looked back upon as evil.

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). John Steinbeck’s work, East of Eden, is the one he considered to be his greatest, with all novels before leading up to it. Indeed, it grandly recounts the stories of the human race as told by the Bible, including Adam and Eve, but most prominently that of Cain and Abel. It touches upon both Steinbeck’s own family and a fictional family in a depiction of “man 's capacity for both good and evil” (Fontenrose). Joseph Fontenrose, however, criticizes Steinbeck’s message as contradictory and convoluted, with no clear relationship between good and evil.

Every person is innately evil in some way. People may seem perfectly sane on the outside but on the inside they could be one of the most evil people. Whether it be a child, teen or adult everyone at any age can be innately evil. The idea of people being innately evil shows throughout many short stories such as The Lottery, The Most Dangerous Game and Tell-Tale Heart. In the three short stories the theme of evil is relevant in each.

Those who commit wicked acts because they can not see what is truly good have a skewed point of view for a reason.  Their character is tainted by vice because they have habitually committed vicious acts in the past.  Since they originally had a conscience, they must have willingly committed wrongdoing to warp their perception of what is good.   Therefore, those who pursue an apparent good but commit wrong acts, due to a skewed appearance of what is good, are still responsible for their

The logical problem of evil is a problem between theists and atheist. Theists say that God is all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and wholly good (morally perfect), while atheists say that there is a disagreement between the fact of evil and the idea that God is perfect and good. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing and wholly good, then why He doesn’t stop the evil from doing all bad things in this world? As a result, evil exist in this world, while God doesn’t exist. There is a difference between moral and natural evil.

Human beings are naturally evil, throughout our lives we learn or pick up the non-civil actions through other people, books, movies, or tv shows. In “why boys become vicious”, by William Golding, he wrote about a time when he was stationed in “Russia after the first world war” when he saw “gangs of children who had their parents” abandon them or were killed during the war roam the countryside “attacking and killing” others either out of boredom or pure cruelty.

The battle between good and evil is one of the oldest, most universal human stories. From the battle between evil gods and good gods, to our modern day stories of superheroes saving the day and villains seeking to ruin it; this story has been reiterated multiple times in virtually every culture. This battle between good and evil could be external or internal, cosmic or earthly. In the Persian epic the Shah-nama, the battle between dark and good forces is played out on the battlefield during a war. In the Egyptian poem Dialogue of a man with his soul the internal struggle between good or evil and who wins out will determine your life in the afterlife.. As Margaret Atwood once said, "Myths lay out pretty clearly what is on the human smorgasbord: what we want, what we fear, what we would like to have, what we would very much not like to have.

The deviation from purity to impurity in religion shows how it is more common in life to innately start as a good person to an evil