Good vs. Evil in East of Eden
"God saw that all he had created was very good. You are part of gods creation, and he is pleased with how he made you. If at times you feel worthless or of little value, remember that god made you for a good reason. You are valuable to him." ( Genesis 1:31) I believe that all things created are at first good. The Bible gives pages upon pages of quotes and stories on the battle of good versus evil, but in the story East of Eden we are given what might be the greatest question of it all, and that is if the main character Cathy a.k.a. Kate was born good or evil.
Kate was born and brought up an only child. At first Kate was a normal child and no one thought anything of her. When she got a little bit older Kate began to do things other children wouldn't normally do. At one point she was caught in her Barn with two boys and her tied up. Her mother and father punished her for this and whipped her until she was good again. Kate was doing great things, she was doing things that made her look like a perfect child. One day though Kate made a plan to kill her parents by locking them in the house while she sets it on fire. Kate did this and immediately got out of town. This is when Kate made her and ended up with Adam Trask another main character.
Adam fell in love with Kate and ended up marring her and moving into a ranch with her. Kate the whole time stayed silent and not very sociable. She became pregnant gave birth to twin boys. Right after the boys were born she went on a mad rampage and shot Adam in the shoulder and ran off to be a whore. She told Adam she was Evil and didn't want anything to do with him or the boys.
Kate ran away to a whore house and there she tortured and blackmailed many important men in the community. These man could not stop coming back, as though she had some power over them. All the while Adam was home trying to deal with the heart break of Kate leaving and her almost killing him.
As time passed, she eventually was given small bursts of freedom and allowed outside for short increments of time. She began to look forward to this personal time, not considering running away. During the middle of the story, Annie became pregnant. During one of her increments of outside freedom one day, she went into labor. The house had a sense of wellness and almost normalcy as Annie did her best to care for the infant. One night she woke up to ‘the Freak’ holding the baby, dead in his arms which he had murdered as she slept..At this point in the novel, Annie realized she had been victimized long enough and decided to fight back. She became a determined, angry woman and killed him with an ax. She took flight from the cabin and wound up at the police station where she was able to obtain the help she needed. As she tried to resume her prior life she, she was again the victim of an attempted kidnapping while walking home and a robbery at her home. She lived in constant paranoia; finding it hard to make amends and rebuild trust with friends and
A decade has passed since the tradgic events that occured for survivor Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who has taken her life and turned it around in the best possible way she can. Currently with a new book 'Into the Darkness' a story of her events, has set her back home to Woodsboro on her book tour. Gail (Courtney Cox) who resides in Woodsboro along with her husband Dewey (David Arquette). Is a sheriffs wife who hasn't written anything out there since the events of Stab 3. Sidney at her book reading is give a summary of her book, bumping into Gail and Dewey chaos soon follows the 3, as a murder has taken place. Sidney in disbelief of what could be happening, stays with her Aunt (Mary McDowell) and her cousin Jill (Emma Roberts). When
Ralph’s main motivation is to go home. Everything that the boys do on the island is somehow directed at finally going home. They set up a system so that the fire is always burning in case a ship goes by. When the boys let the fire go out and a ship actually does go by Ralph is deeply affected. He vows to keep the fire going through the night from this point on to make sure that next time they will be rescued. When this happens a certain decline happens as well in the book. Jacks rise begins at this point. Jack is beginning to think that they will not be rescued. When Jack begins to break away from the group that Ralph leads. Ralph always optimistic that they will be rescued and Jack sees this as a sign of weakness hence Jack leaves the group. Ralph has many key attributes but optimism and courage are the things that stand out most.
Adam wakes up in a full bathtub and when he gets out of there he finds out that he is chained to a pipe in a large old bathroom. Gordon was chained up across the room to another pipe. In the center of the room lied a corpse, holding a pistol and a recorder. Not knowing what to do, Adam managed to get his hands on the recorder in hopes that it will tell them why are they located in an old bathroom chained to pipes. When Adam got his hands on the recorder, Gordon was instructed to kill Adam by six o'clock or his wife and daughter will die. Using a clue from the tape, Adam was able to find two handsaws, but unfortunately they were not meant to cut the chains. Instead they were meant to be used on their feats. That's when Gordon realised that they are dealing with Jigsaw, a known killer, because he was one of the main suspects. It was proved that Gordon did not have anything to do with the
Firstly, a notable trait that distinguishes Ralph from the other children on the island is his ability to think more rationally. As the boys become influenced by Jack’s rule, they regress into uncivilized savages that lack discipline. Whereas, Ralph is wisely able to keep the boys under order, which is particularly apparent through the meetings that he regularly holds. It is in those meetings that circumstances can be confronted with rationality and equanimity. For example, Ralph instructs the boys with, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking,” (Golding 36). By saying this, Ralph enforces his role of a leader by making rules for the boys on the island to
Ralph’s power at the beginning is secure but as the group succumbs to their savage instincts, Ralph’s influence declines as Jack’s rises. This is due mainly to the cruelty and violence that goes on in the story. This cruelty reveals that Ralph’s commitment to civilization and being rescued is so strong that he will not allow himself to change his morals and become cruel like the others. The cruelty in this novel also shows that Ralph is a very intelligent character. His intelligence can be proven because there was a point in the novel when he hunts a boar for the first time and he experiences the thrill of bloodlust. He also attends one of Jack’s feast where he is swept away by the frenzy and participates in the killing of Simon. This is a very tragic moment for Ralph because this is when he realizes the evil that lives within himself and every human being. It is the cruel acts that happen in this novel that reveals Ralph’s character of being intelligent and being able to think deeply about human experiences. He even weeps when getting saved because of his knowledge about the human capacity for
Ralph shows what the boys need by the way he handles the then. Jack considers the boys lower to him, meanwhile, Ralph treats...
...ectives by hunting down Ralph, and nearly catch him, until they come across the Navy ship which is there to rescue them (Golding 223-225). Both Ralph and Jack have objectives, which are completely opposite to each other’s which cause for much of the conflict throughout the story.
The Chicago World Fair brought about through the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in America has posed significant value and worth to the city of Chicago. Over a six-month period, more than 26 million visitors from all over the world would flock to the fairgrounds to experience the rebuilt and vibrant city of Chicago. The 600-acre fairground would have housed 200 buildings that showcased new food, art, technology, and entertainment. Chicago became known as the White City, a place of freedom, grandeur, and security. But unbeknownst to fairgoers, there was a serial killer among them. While Dr. H.H. Holmes lured his innocent victims to his “Castle”, just blocks away architect Daniel Burnham built up the dream city of Chicago. Both these men operated at the same time in history, simply blocks apart, both creating legacies that carry to this day. Burnham and Holmes are two side of the coin of human nature. In “The Devil in White City” Erik Larson’s juxtaposition of Burnham and Holmes, and the Black City and the White City, contributes to the understanding of human nature, that one cannot be good without having done evil, and that good and evil are viewed as complementary in their mutual dependence.
Edwin ended up entering a murder scene, he panicked and instead of calling the cops first, he ended up calling Alex. Edwin ended up dragging Alex ...
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
Ralph shows that he has a better understanding of the boys than Jack. He knows that the boys need some sort of order on the island in order for them to survive. He starts a simple form of government and sets a few rules for them. Even though they don’t last very long, the fact that he tried to help the group is what makes him a better leader. Ralph’s wisdom and ability to look toward the future also has an advantage over Jack. He has a sense to keep his focus on getting off the island. When the fire goes out, Ralph gets upset because the chance to be rescued was gone as well. Ralph enforces his role of leadership as he gives the boys a sense of stability of an authority figure. He keeps the boys in pretty good order at the meeting by making a rule that they can only speak if they have the conch. Ralph knows that the littleuns are afraid and they need shelter to feel more secure. They work together for a while, but as the time goes on the smaller boys want to go play. They slowly lose all their help until Simon and Ralph are the only ones left to work on them. Ralph knows that this is a necessity and keeps bringing it up at the meetings. Jack, on the other hand, is doing nothing but causing chaos.
East of Eden was a novel that explored the roots of evil in its most primal form. Through intricate plot lines and complex characters, John Steinbeck weaved a tale of brutality, cruelty, and isolation. One important character that helped to illustrate the presence of evil throughout the book was Cathy Ames, an intelligent woman who ruthlessly used other people to serve her own needs. When reflecting upon East of Eden, a debate that often surfaces is whether Cathy's evil was a result of nature or nurture. Arguments for and against both sides are in the book. At some times, Cathy is portrayed as a wicked fiend who's aggression stems from nowhere but her own empty heart. Other times, Cathy appears weak and afraid of people who aren't the least bit intimidating. Those are the moments in the book where one must question whether Cathy is truly evil, or just an impatient and self-centered individual.
Good and evil are central themes in Paradise Lost. Classic symbols of both extremes are in the book: God and Satan, good and evil personified, respectively. In spite of the seeming dichotomy of either pure evil or total goodness, for much of Paradise Lost the distinction between good and evil is not very clear. The goodness of Man overcome by sin and the fall of God’s holy angels to hell are examples of the overlap of both good and evil within characters. This inherent potential for evil in Adam, Eve and Lucifer ****. Further, the relationship between good and evil and their relative dependence on each other is brought into question by the roles they play in Paradise Lost.
Kate Brown is the typical middle class, attentive mother who dedicates her entire life to raising her children and being a supportive wife to her husband. She has been a mother for the vast majority of her life, and that is the only role she has known. “Her first child had been born at twenty-two. The last was born well before she was thirty” (Lessing, 18). This novel takes place when Kate is forty- five, so for 23 years, Kate has been a mother and a wife. This has been the basis of her existence. “Kate’s four children have structured her existence, as can be seen in her almost “maternal” responses to young people she encounters in her life” (Lee, 17). All Kate knows how to do is be a mother and take care of other people. This is apparent in her relationships with people at Global Food, (the place where she is hired to be a translator), and with both Jeffrey her younger lover) and Maureen, (her roommate). Her maternal instincts are extremely strong and at the beginning of the novel, it seems that is all that defines her. She comes to the realization that her younges...