Selfishness In Kenneth Grahame's Literature

“All human beings are commingled out of good & evil” was a quote once said by notable Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. This quotation discusses and supports William Golding’s, the author of Lord of the Flies, belief that all humans have a distinct character flaw that, when left unchecked by morals and laws of society, will eventually corrupt the individual. In Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, it’s shown how due to their environment and lack of supervision, the young boys slowly progress and evolve into barbaric, bloodthirsty individuals.

The memoir,”Night”, shows the perspective of Elie Wiesel, a young boy that was sent to a concentration camp alongside hundreds of other Jews, that lost their valuables , faith and family.The terror within the concentration camp slowly deteriorate the Jews ,physically and mentally.The jews had a choice to be selfish or selfless,given the jews’ situation it is best to do what was in their best interest. Throughout Elie Wiesel’s memoir, “Night”; many individuals had a hard time navigating the brutality within the concentration camps.Through these times of brutality, many people in the camp had to choose to either be selfish or altruistic. Given the jew’s situation, it is better to act selfish than to be altruistic.

Mankind is placed at the top of the animal kingdom because of man’s ability to think and reason. Despite this ability, mankind seems incapable of moving past negative emotions and the greatest atrocities: hate, anger, abuse, and murder. For these reasons, some humans question the true nature of mankind. Some argue that humanity is no better than any other vile species and conclude that mankind is only a “beast.” However, as Albert Camus demonstrates in his novel The Stranger, the situation is more complex. Camus utilizes his character Salamano and his dog to demonstrate that humans have to parts. Salamano represents the ideal of a human and his dog represents that bad -- the part that humanity hates about itself. The novel’s protagonist, Meursault

The self sustenance of "non-human" nature is an essential corrective to human egoism. Arrogance and apathy will further worsen the situation. Until now, William Cronan has been generally agreeable; however, his opposition to Bill McKibben's ideas in The End of Nature is quite puzzling.

The statement that can best be made about the purpose of The Lowest Animal by Mark Twain is that he believes that mankind is immoral, vulgar, wasteful, vengeful, discriminatory; cruel, greed, and obscene. This is because he has a moral sense and conscience despite this, doesn’t make our decisions right and properly. However, contrast with Mark Twain’s thesis; I think human beings are not that all bad and not the lowest animal, but perhaps not the highest animal either.

At its core, is mankind essentially good, or does it use law and order to mask its evil? Through his book The Lord of the Flies, William Golding causes questions concerning the ethicality of humanity to rise to the surface of the mind. The stripping away of distractions and structure he depicts in his all-too-real novel reveals society’s true nature. As a reader studies the settings, characters and plots of Lord of the Flies and how they relate to significant events in recent times, Golding’s message of the evil nature of humanity becomes increasingly clear and impactful.

Imagine being in a highly populated concentrated area with many people fighting to just get by each day. Would you try to help others for the sacrifice of your mental or physical health? Would you give up your food so that you can give it to someone who is in worse condition than you? Night shows Elie Wiesel’s experiences with the concentration camp called Auschwitz. Even if people would say that they would help others for sacrificing your health there is always a breaking point. If people think that life will be better in some sort of way in the long run, that is sometimes not true and if that is true as hopeful as they are that could be threatening to their lives. This mental and physical suffering that these people of Auschwitz endure could cause them to become senseless to tasks that would be unethical or immoral to them.

In our society, people are often cruel to one another in the want for personal gain, but this is restrained to mere social interactions and online in our industrial world. However, when we are separated from civilized society and the pressures that it places upon us, we are quick to turn to savage, cruel behavior to survive. Golding understood this idea, that we are only civilized when others are watching, and showed the possibility for even the purest to become affected by societal pressures in his novel, the Lord of the Flies. In order to show the role of cruelty in shaping the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses character archetypes, the idea of cosmic irony, and extended symbolism to highlight the inherent flaws of human nature and the potential for even the purest individuals to turn to cruel ways due to societal pressures.

Everyone likes to think of themselves as a “good” person. We believe by putting our change in the tip jar or letting someone cross the street, we have a decent sense of morals. But in reality, humans take pleasure in succumbing to their id, the primitive sense of desire and aggression in all of us. We satisfy our id by yelling at a sibling for trivial reasons or lusting for someone because of their attractive appearance. By tracking the condition of the boy's’ hair in William Golding’s allegory “Lord of the Flies,” Golding’s criticism of the civilized and savage manner is revealed.

By the definition, “Humanity,” that amounts to a tautology: humanity is that which makes humans human.” (Festa). The humanity of an individual is reflective of its personality. There are characters who are naturally benevolent; some learn through compassion and while others learn through misery. However, in general some are the opposite of benevolent. For instance, some individuals are indeed inconsiderate, arrogant, and most of

In the literature, topic author often has selfish characters. In the short story, The Lamp at Noon by Sinclair Ross introduces the problems happens in most of the families. In the short story, Paul is a character who does not listen to his wife. He lives with his own perspectives. The only thing he cares about is his land.

Humans have come a long way, being able to create advanced technology, many different ways to communicate with one another, and many different ways to live, and each human in the world has a role in the world. Each human is unique and have many different traits that define one another. For example, in Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, written by Frederick Douglass himself, is an autobiography of his life growing up around slavery and his path to freedom, and also how becoming literate changed his whole perspective on the way he lived. Another example would be in Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address, where he discusses the fact that the civil war was unnecessary and also how the country should end the war and that they should help each other rebuild the nation together. A final example would be in The Minister’s Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who writes about Mr. Hooper who wears a black veil, and the townspeople have no clue why he’s wearing it, and this scares the town and the people around him. This veil holds a heavy toll on him because it represents his sins that he needs to atone for. Although humans are naturally evil and make decisions that are based to benefit themselves, ultimately the trait of the human is to be cowardice, fearful, and optimistic, therefore we should not succumb to our greediness and instead become a better person.

Selfishness is defined as the act of being someone who lacks concern for others, only caring for personal gain. Often, people are selfish due to a lack of empathy, misinformation, or a lack of information. The ability of literature to have us experience different worlds through different perspectives is fairly useful for combating this. In fact, literature can shock us about the idea of selfishness and give us pause and new insights into it, if not necessarily cause us to realize our own lack of selflessness and shock us out of it.

People tend to consider that if a person is bad they are less human and if a person is good they are more. If a person goes around killing innocent bystanders, of course they are considered an awful person, but they are still a person. If a person goes around donating all of their money to charitable organizations, they are considered an inspiration, but they are still just a person. There is a difference between acting human and acting humane. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, one might assume that the boys are becoming less human as they are less humane, but William Golding’s whole stance was that human nature is this brutal, savage person.

Can literature shock us out of our selfishness? It is a question that is worth asking. We already know that people learn from their experiences and the information that they receive. We also know that the reason people tend to be selfish is due to a lack of empathy, misinformation or, lack of information. It is also a well known and well-documented fact that literature supplies us with information in the form of new perspectives and experiences, and reading itself is, in some ways, an experience. From all these, we can tell that literature could potentially scare us away from being selfish quite effectively. However, I believe that literature will actually be more likely to shock us about selfishness, and not necessarily shock us out of it.