Moby Dick, Sophie's World, East of Eden

The choices we decide to make build our path in life. If we make the right choices, then your life will be the life you want to live. I believe that we were all destined with some kind of purpose. However, the choices we make will determine whether we fulfill that purpose or not. Thus, our choices will ultimately decide our fate. Through the years, we have been taught about choices and their impact on our actions. We have free will in the sense that we can either go on one road or the other. We decide what we do on a daily basis, moment by moment, and we decide what path we want to go on. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag was a fireman who had his life entirely changed when he met a 17 year old girl named Clarisse, and an old woman who

Good v. Evil, it’s way more than just a concept, it’s more of a lifelong struggle inside of you. What more could you do when evil is shown all around you? Many of us may see the struggle between good and evil in the people we come across everyday. Flawed individuals may be perceived as good but are bad in the eyes of someone else; it all comes down to how you see it. The exposure to things and memories you make help impact the good in you. In order to further evaluate the argument of how good can come out of evil and good can show up even when it’s not right in front of you, can be shown in both William Golding’s novel Lord of the flies and the Anonymous Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf. This essay asserts that,

Good and evil have existed since the beginning of mankind. Good defends the righteous, as evil has been bent on destruction. In today’s society, many people believe that good will always triumph over evil. The murderer will eventually be caught by the police; the carjacker will one day meet his doom; the superhero will defeat the evil villain. Simply, in some circumstances, this is not entirely true. Good does not always prevail over evil. This is exceptionally true in the movie No Country for Old Men by the Coen brothers. The dominant theme in the Coen brother’s movie is evil.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, good vs. evil is the biggest theme. This story is seen as a metaphor about the good and evil in everyone, and the struggle of the two sides in everyone’s personality. Since Hyde starts to take over, I could argue that evil is stronger than good. But, Mr. Hyde ends up dying in the end of the story, so I could claim that the good of someone can overcome the evil in you. Overall, Stevenson is trying to communicate with the reader about the balance of good and evil in humans, also that your balance of good and evil has different results/effects in your life.

The two stories both pit the idea of good against evil to explain the contrasting mechanisms of

His survival is heavily influenced by every choice he makes, from ignoring the exhortations to escape impending danger to choosing to stay with his father in spite of difficulties. His experience with the Holocaust directly shapes his role as a frontline fighter for recognition of Holocaust victims. In moving to Canada, I also shaped my role in society. My skills, such as playing sports; hobbies, such as reading; and characteristics, such as persistence and studious attitude have all developed due to my moving to Canada. My exposure to a life so plentiful in opportunities has also caused me to take many things for granted. Events in people’s lives shape who they become. Some of these circumstances are brought about by the decisions of others, while the majority of occurrences are caused by deliberate choices. These decisions can shape destiny in a life-or-death situation or a can be like a small, yet equally profound, choice to smile at a stranger. While some decisions are out of one’s hands, a conscious effort to have a positive outlook on life can still influence destiny. Like a rudder, daily decisions made with a positive mentality can steer people to a prosperous life. It does not do well to dwell on what may have happened, but rather on how the life one creates can be consequential in further extending the development of

The concept of fate has touched many lives throughout the centuries, and over time it, along with its counterpart free will, has [been?] transcended into the form of literature. Its influence is evident in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, particularly in how Pip, and his object of affection, Estella, are repeatedly subjected to preordained events. Furthermore, free will, or the ability to determine our own destiny, also holds sway over the characters in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, specifically Romeo and Juliet themselves. Free will has a greater influence on the characters in Romeo and Juliet than fate, while in Great Expectations, it proves to be the opposite, with fate having more heavily impacted Pip, and his associates.

Fate determines each person’s will that believe it is meant to happen. In the book, In the

This is shown in The Lord of the Flies by watching the boys on the island transform from good boys to killers. Situations like this would rather be kept in the realm of fiction, but the Stanford Prison Experiment shows that good, normal people can become cruel. Throughout the whole book, a beast is mentioned, that turns out to be the evil inside every person. This beast shows the reader that no matter what, evil can never truly be escaped. Sadly, every single person that is living and breathing has an ability to do wrong, and hurt their brothers and sisters, but what is done with that capability determines the kind of person one strives to

An individual’s legacy, in many ways, is predetermined by the primordial “Fate.” A sort of judge and guide that some people have subscribed to for centuries. This guide develops a certain permutation for an individual’s life which is only influenced by one’s ability to compose judgements and decisions about obstacles which appear everyday. This decision making process is cyclical in that it always leads to another question to answer or problem to solve. One decision may edge the next until it yields to fate, the ultimate philosophical judge. Fate is a permanent path and one is stuck on its course. The same could be said for the Wes Moores’ of the work The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. Throughout the work, the Wes Moores’ made complicated

This is shown in the well-read book, lion the witch and the wardrobe written by C.S Lewis. The theme good versus evil is highly prevalent throughout the book which is shown through the character Edmund. He is initially a mischievous young boy, however his encounters with the ‘white Witch’ push him in an evil direction. “Don't you understand?” …” he’s gone to her, the White Witch. He's betrayed us all”. Edmund continues to abide by the Witch’s sinister motives throughout the story. It is only when he witnesses the true evil of the Witch that his ability to feel sympathy and pity is resurfaced. This results in his return to the ‘good side’. Edmund’s character transformation is easily comparable to the transition of Jen/Mary Sue in Pleasantville. Both Edmund and Jen experience inner journeys that result in a change of positive behaviour and beliefs.

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor explore the depths of evil and what makes an individual truly evil. They both question are understanding of evil and the different forms it may present itself in. These stories do an equally good job at getting the reader to see true evil first hand, even though they present evil in much different ways. As humans we can differentiate evil from good most of the time there is usually a clean cut line from a morally just action from one that is not.

Everyone must make choices in their lifetime or trust that fate will work in their favor. In John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, choices and the debate of if there is free will over fate and predestination is a major theme in the novel and motivates the characters’ actions. The first time this debate of free will vs. fate is mentioned in when Adam, Samuel Hamilton, and Lee are naming the twins. The men are searching in the bible when they come across Genesis 4:7, where God is speaking to Cain about his offering, and the issue that arises is that because “We are all children of Cain,” then we are destined to be sinful and do wrong.

The short stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O 'Connor and “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne both include characters who are greatly affected by the battle between good and evil. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells the story of a family 's seemingly normal car trip turning in a tragedy of blood shed after they come face to face with evil himself in the form of The Misfit, a violent killer who has escaped from prison. “Young Goodman Brown” tells us about a young man who has to face evil in himself and those close to him after he travels down an evil path while traveling through the forest. Both stories show how personal choices and chance encounters put people in the path of evil and can be life-changing and in some situations even life-ending.

Good vs. Evil In the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and in the Cherokee myth, there is a clear idea of duality between good and evil. For example, Dr. Henry Jekyll explains to Mr. Utterson that “man is not truly one, but truly two” (Stevenson 74). Also, in the Cherokee myth the grandfather informs his grandson that life “is a terrible fight between two wolves”. Both men are saying that every person is not all inherently good or all inherently evil.