Many individuals have proclaimed and expressed their opinion on how in today’s society the human kind exists in a broken world, with broken people, and broken ideas. From a young age, humans are not taught how to be a bully, how to attack someone, or how to be evil. Instead humans are taught how to control themselves and how to act politely. This only happens because inside of humans and nature is evil. Humans are taught how to be good to control the evil that dominantly exists inside. As seen in Moby Dick, Herman Melville conveys the idea of innate evilness within humans and nature through Ishmael looking for remedies to evil, through the wicked behavior seen in actions taken by nature, and through referencing Ahab’s actions to Satan. As …show more content…
Ishmael was intrigued by the flames on the ship and he thought they were soothing to his soul. Ironically, the fire was not acting as a remedy to his cause, but instead just amplified the flame of evilness inside of him to a greater degree. Ishmael would express how it is important to, “Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! Turn not thy back to the compass; accept the first hint to the hitching tiller; believe not the artificial fire, when its redness makes makes all things look ghastly” (492). Ishmael almost capsized the boat because his first thought tempted him into the fire. Even on the sea, Ishmael’s scene to get away from the evil spirit that lives inside of him, it still dwells. Again Melville shows that humans are innately evil, Ishmael's instinct was to turn towards the fire which set him into a dream state, but then he resumed guiding the boat. Ishmael, and at a larger reference of humans, need to be entertained, need something to occupy their time and energy to prevent them from turning to evil. Ishmael needed to fulfill his craving of the sea to stay in the right state of mind, and not dwell to far in the state of evilness. Without the sea one could conclude Melville tried to illustrate Ishmael would of been driven to darkness. Nature, like man, also contains principles of innate evilness, which is displayed through the actions of nature that Melville describes, including those of sharks and of Moby Dick.
Throughout the first chapter of Moby-Dick, a theme of inevitability is brought up time and time again. In a contest of free will and fate, it seems that fate has – and always will – win; this lack of control, though interestingly not viewed by Ishmael as distressing, sets the stage for future events.
Literature for many years has described human nature as being evil once they fear something or are in a chaotic situation. In William Golding?s novel ?Lord of the Flies? which describes horrific exploits of a group of young boys who make a transition from civilized to barbaric. Golding
At the end of the novel Ishmael is no longer the naïve man he once was, as he informs the reader, "a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard"#. The beliefs he possesses at the point of his rescue by "The Rachel" seem reminiscent of transcendentalism, an idea that was prominent in 1836 and one that inspired not only Melville himself but also Henry Thoreau.
The debate of whether man is born entirely good or evil is a universal discussion that never seems to resolve. Even though a human is a complex individual who cannot be defined by a simple assessment, the people of today are convinced that there is a straightforward explanation as to why acts of wickedness exist. Some believe negative influences taint the naturally innocent heart of man, while others suppose evil men are born with an unavoidable capacity for darkness. This however, suggests that the wicked are created from birth without morals or the ability to be considered righteous. Despite the theories that exist, good and evil are not always separate. Man typically is neither solely good or bad, but a combination of the both. In the
It is a very arguable subject on whether or not people are born with good intentions, and therefore taught by others the ‘evil’ side of their personality. Whether it is the absence of ethical conduct in human nature, or just the way one perceives a situation, evil seems to be prominent in our everyday lives. Humans seem to have a moral code that follows them with every decision they make, yet despite the laws of morality and society, people of this world still seem to behave inhumanely because of the act of self-preservation, human interest, and who exactly the authority figure is at the time.
Even though the human nature is evil, but human has the good plasticity, that’s why we need the teachers to guide us, to lead us into a good way. Like we have the nature of the fondness for profit, so we need to know how to get a profit, but not do the things illegal or hurt others’ profit; and we learn to respect the ugly thins even though we don’t like it; and we learn to control our emotions, we learn to restrain, and express in a right way. As a baby, we don’t know what is the respect and what is the courtesy and humility, after we learn, those are all the things that we developed from our nature evil, like the article said: “Now it is the nature of man that when he is hungry he will desire to rest. This is his emotional nature...And yet a man, although he is hungry, will not dare to be the first to eat if he is in the presence of his elders, because he knows that he should yield to them, and although he is weary, he will not dare to demand rest because he knows that he should relieve others of the burden of
Thousands upon thousands of years ago, human beings fought in catastrophic wars, tortured prisoners, raped, and murdered. Sure enough, just turn on any news channel, and the headline will display a very similar horrific event that has happened. This generation and past generations live in a time where people open fire in crowded places, riots occur, and helpless teens are shot down by the police. Taking a good look at the world around us, it would be demented to every believe that people are naturally good. Although humanity has come along way from being complete savages, humans are naturally evil and To Kill a Mockingbird is an excellent example of the true nature of humans.
Throughout history, philosophers have wondered what essentially drives people to do certain actions. It is not clear whether these actions occur because humans are intrinsically good or bad. Nevertheless, the novel Lord of the Flies and several historical examples provide some insight into why human beings may be fundamentally bad.
Mankind is taught evil by society. Throughout society, you see acts of evil that a child could not even fathom. In this essay, I will compare mankind and Lord of the flies in terms of violence,lack of trust and authority.
Although humankind attempts its best at preventing evil actions, eventually evil rises above all else. While humans are living ordinary lives and living in ignorance, evil is always scheming and waiting to slide up behind the turned backs of society as depicted in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. One could argue that this is not the case and that good deeds always overshadow evil and that evil is just an occasional blip. However, what one’s opinion of society does not outshine the cold hard facts of humankind’s natural tendencies; specifically, how things are never as they seem, how easily humans can betray their emotions and how humans choose to ignore difficult situations in the search for an easy
All human beings, from birth to death, have an evil part of them used to survive hidden deep inside their mind. This is evident in babies who can seem innocent but really have a selfish attitude towards others since their only goal in life is to have their needs met. Evidence of this being true can be found in William Golding’s The Lord of The Flies and the film adaptation of The Hunger Games. Mankind is inherently evil but civilization changes us, we always go back to our evil side, and without a good government or set of rules we all become savages.
When the debate of whether humanity is fundamentally good-hearted or wicked is brought to attention, people tend to focus on the evil around them since there is an abundance of it, and throughout William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, and the literary elements of foreshadowing and internal conflict, he proves that humans are essentially evil.
Abraham Lincoln once said “human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed”. Human nature has not changed since the beginning of time. Ever since the first caveman walked on this earth, humans have been extremely selfish and self-preserving, sometimes driving them to commit acts of great evil. However, this does not mean that the human race is doomed. Instead, it could actually allow for our survival, as demonstrated in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, Loudon Wainwright’s article “The Dying Girl that No One Helped”, and 60 Minutes’ “The Bad Samaritan”. In all three, people’s evil acts of self-preservation and refusal to help others has allowed them to stay safe. Humans may be evil, but they are
Humans since the beginning of their existence on Earth have inherently been inclined to be good as opposed to being evil. This idea can be be loosely argued as devastation by humans swept the land in the past events leading up to the present, but also vice versa there has been kindhearted movements by civilizations of people that helped humanity. Created in the image and likeness of God, there has been some guiding lights and principles that have led humanity to its current stage in time. Every person has the tools inside of them to choose, in a given scenario, what is the right thing to do and what is not. Throughout this essay, the best and worst of human character will be discussed in the book All thee Light We Cannot See.
Herman Melville, in his renowned novel Moby-Dick, presents the tale of the determined and insanely stubborn Captain Ahab as he leads his crew, the men of the Pequod, in revenge against the white whale. A crew mixed in age and origin, and a young, logical narrator named Ishmael sail with Ahab. Cut off from the rest of society, Ahab attempts to make justice for his personal loss of a leg to Moby Dick on a previous voyage, and fights against the injustice he perceived in the overwhelming forces that surround him. Melville uses a series of gams, social interactions or simple exchanges of information between whaling ships at sea, in order to more clearly present man’s situation as he faces an existence whose meaning he cannot fully grasp.