The most differentiating factor between humans and other creatures on earth is humanity's insatiable desires and emotions that defy all evolutionary logic. Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery tells a story of a man driven by these desires and emotions to put his life at risk with one of the most daring crimes of his time. The man, known as Edward Pierce, has little insight to his mysterious character as he is often lacking of emotion and never straightforward with anyone else in the novel. However, there is enough evidence to deduce his primary motives behind the robbery. The Great Train Robbery, conveys its Pierce as an unfeeling sociopath, who is driven not by greed or a desire for fame, but by his extreme sense of self-pride. Crichton
It was Labor Day weekend, 1997, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and Holly Dunn's world seemed full of possibilities. She was a popular sorority sister, and the 20-year-old had a new boyfriend, a theater major named Chris Maier. That August night, the couple took a midnight stroll to the railroad tracks and kissed under the stars. Suddenly a man appeared; he was holding what looked like an ice pick. Terrified, Chris offered him money. "No, I don't want that," the man said as he tied up the couple. A moment later he picked up a rock and smashed it against Chris's skull, killing him; he then raped Holly and bludgeoned her with a wooden board, breaking her jaw and eye socket. "I was screaming in my head," Holly recalls. "Then I was unconscious—I don't know how long. I just remember appearing in someone's front yard."
Psychopathy; the trait that truly distinguishes humans from ¨machines¨, emotionful to emotionless. Within the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, one may logically assume that the protagonist, Patrick Bateman is indeed implied to be a psycho as the title suggests. However upon further analyzation, Bateman is revealed to be an unreliable narrator, he does not captivate the reader with all of his emotions verbally, for they are revealed through his actions. Bateman certainly does murder people, however, clinically murder doesn´t rule somebody to be a psychopath. Bateman feels no visible remorse for the victims he kills, because Bateman lives in an artificial hyperbole of a yuppie world where no love is shown, all relationships superficial.
These two men, both coming from different backgrounds, joined together and carried out a terrible choice that rendered consequences far worse than they imagined. Living under abuse, Perry Smith never obtained the necessary integrity to be able to pause and consider how his actions might affect other people. He matured into a man who acts before he thinks, all due to the suffering he endured as a child. Exposed to a violent father who did not instill basic teachings of life, Smith knew nothing but anger and misconduct as a means of responding to the world. He knew no other life. Without exposure to proper behavior or responsible conduct, he turned into a monster capable of killing an entire family without a blink of remorse. In the heat of the moment, Perry Smith slaughtered the Clutter family and barely stopped to take a breath. What could drive a man to do this in such cold blood? The answer lies within his upbringing, and how his childhood experiences shaped him to become the murderer of a small family in Holcomb, Kansas. ¨The hypothesis of unconscious motivation explains why the murderers perceived innocuous and relatively unknown victims as provocative and thereby suitable targets for aggression.¨ (Capote 191). ¨But it is Dr. Statten´s contention that only the first murder matters psychologically, and that when
In her book, Limerick describes the “idea of innocence” that permeated the American West (36). According to the author, the underlying motive for every action was pure (even when it really was not). According to Western American folklore, early settlers did intend to victimize Indians and trespass on their land, but instead came to America to pursue new opportunities and improve their lives (Limerick 36). The same ideological theory may be applied to the motivations of the sensationalized outlaws from the time. For example, in her book Limerick details the life of John Wesley Hardin, an outlaw, who began his violent life of crime at the age of fifteen (36). According to the story, Hardin shot and killed a black man (Limerick 36). However, idolized as the son of a preacher, Hardin hid his crimes behind the veils of “bravery” and “honor” (Limerick 36). He claimed that he actually shot the man --...
Simon, Robert I. "Serial Killers, Evil, And Us." National Forum 80.4 (2000): 23. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
In the story the “train switch dilemma” a single train car is rushing toward a group of five unknowing workers who cannot hear the train approaching. Another train worker, who we will call Alex is working at his summer job, he sees the train headed for the five unknowing workers. Alex notices a rail switch lever which if pulled will divert the train unto a different track, however, if Alex pulls the rail switch lever he sees that it will divert the train to a track with one lone worker surly killing the one standing alone. The rail switch lever presents the following dilemma, do nothing and the train continues on its path towards the five, or pull the rail switch lever and send the train towards the one person. In this essay I will show why Alex should not pull the rail switch lever and doing so would be morally wrong. Making a choice that results in the intentional killing of someone and ignoring his or her value would be
Americans were shocked to know that as they watched Jack the Ripper’s series of murders in London, someone with a much higher body count was operating quietly in their own country. The discovery of the Holmes Hotel made citizens of Chicago find a fear in themselves that they didn’t even know existed. Stereotypes of murderers tend to be that they look scary, dress in dirty clothes, and that they are antisocial. Holmes, on the other hand was a handsome man who charmed nearly everyone he came into contact with. This fact added to the fear factor. The friendly, normal seeming man working at the local drugstore may, in fact, be a serial killer behind closed
Conceptualize a world in which you have no conscience, no feelings of guilt or remorse -no matter what actions you take- no sense of empathy or concern of the well being of friends, loved ones, or even family members. This is the world of a sociopath. This is the world of Tom Ripley in Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Tom develops into an intelligent young man who eventually conjures a crime spree in Europe. His driving force behind this spree, though the spree may be sporadic, is freedom. His ability to be independent from a guilty conscience and the pleasure from concealing a false identity (characteristics of a sociopath) are his motives behind his acquisition for freedom.
¬The human condition fundamentally embodies the experience of what is essentially considered vital to ‘being a person’, including not only the physique of a human, but more specially their behaviour and mentality. Due to the immense number of perspectives and variations of ideologies texts can demonstrate, a responder’s comprehension of the human condition can be substantially developed to create a broader understanding of society. These traits are particularly established in Samuel Wagan Watson’s poems itinerant blue (2002) and the finder’s fee (2002), as well as Fyodor’s Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment which delve most into mortality, insight and uncertainty respectively. Thus, these texts predominantly examine the psychological aspect of the human condition and mark it as the most significant.
Throughout this novel, Michael Crichton explicitly explains the opportunity and means given to a man with a strange past in a way to give an explanation of the “crime of the century,” however it becomes at a loss to explain the motives behind Edward Pierce’s crime. It has been over a century in which “The train robbery of 1855” had taken place during the modern era, of Victorian England. The amount of damage that had been done to the people with only that much time and others that were involved behind Pierce in this crime was unbelievable. Crime during this time period still did not seem to have any motive from the people because, “Victorian England was the first urbanized, industrialized society on earth”. This in addition led to the idea
The novel The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris is said to fall under the genre of psychological horror. The stories that fall under the genre of horror include a few essential elements: a villain or one seen as evil to create an initial story line. The foil is the next element; a foil is a person who tries to stop the villain from going through with the evil plan or plot. These two elements naturally lead to conflict between the two persons or groups and then from this conflict -- suspense, the last element is added. Suspense is important to keep the reader interested and to keep the story line going. When psychology is added to a story, the definition of horror is changed completely. There are still those few essential elements above but there is also a few more added. The story now has something to do with the mind and how it works, and there is really no definition for that. The mind and it's workings are a mystery to us and that mystery of the mind adds to the suspense and therefore the idea of psychology and horror are able to go together and become one. This essay will prove that The Silence of the Lambs is indeed a psychological horror according to the five criteria above along with other sources. The first element to a psychological horror is a villain, and the villain is The Silence of the Lambs is Mr. Jame Gumb. He is a white male in his mid thirties, 'most serial killers are white male, unemployed, intelligent and experience financial difficulty.';(Bonata, 3) Gumb is all of these things, he is unemployed but a very skilled seamstress, and using these skills is making himself a second skin out of women who he is able to take control of and render them powerless. He is also very intelligent but is anable to interact with other people and therefore remains unemployed. He experienced financial difficulties until he was the recipient of a large sum of money from an inheritance. 'The unconscious fear of women goads some men with a compulsive urge to conquer, humiliate, hurt, or render powerless some available sample of womanhood.';
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
One of the basic assumptions underlying any detective novel is a sense of social order. The novelist assumes that the reader agrees that killing people is wrong; it does not matter if the victims are exemplary citizens or odious individuals, it is the mere act of snuffing out another’s life that is against the social order. In P.D. James’ A Mind To Murder, Nurse Marion Bolam’s murder of her stuffy and self-righteous cousin Enid illustrates a situation where the nurse and her invalid mother had suffered from her cousin’s stinginess; James gives us a clear look at the murderer’s fear that if Enid had been given time to change her will as she had threatened to do, the Marion and her mother would never get the money to which they considered themselves entitled. However, James urges us to understand, this does not matter. Murder, for whatever reason it is committed, is still murder, and it is always wrong.
Megan, K., & Courant, S. W. (2005, Mar 10). THE KILLERS (AND LIARS) IN OUR MIDST ; HOW DOES A SERIAL MURDERER LIVE UNDETECTED AMONG `NORMAL PEOPLE'? BY BEING A SOCIOPATH -- A PERSON WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE, WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO LOVE. Hartford Courant. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/256830354?accountid=10244
Fifty years ago, a person breaking the law would either be called crazy or a criminal. Today, the mental health community has much more specific diagnoses. However, the explanation of certain behaviors may be difficult because there is much overlap among mental conditions. In Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder. In both the book and film adaptation, Bateman’s actions can be understood more accurately when analyzed in light of modern psychology.