In Harry Mulisch’s novel The Assault, the author not only informs society of the variance in perception of good and evil, but also provides evidence on how important it is for an innocent person experiencing guilt to come to terms with their personal past. First, Mulisch uses the characters Takes, Coster, and Ploeg to express the differences in perspective on the night of the assault. Then he uses Anton to express how one cannot hide from the past because of their guilt. Both of these lessons are important to Mulisch and worth sharing with his readers. When Mulisch sends Anton to visit Takes and discuss what happened on the night of the assault, the reader learns that Cor Takes and Truus Coster risked their lives to assassinate Fake Ploeg because they thought it was the right thing to do. The two came to the conclusion that it was time to liquidate Ploeg because he had “killed God knows how many people, and sent many more to their deaths in Germany and Poland” (111). Anton also learns that Ploeg “had a whip with barbed wire braided into it that ripped the skin off your bare ass, which he then shoved against the blazing stove” as a form of punishment (111). Learning of Ploeg’s transgressions helps Anton understand why Coster felt the need to sacrifice her own life to eliminate some of the “Fascist gentlemen” that had brought turmoil to her country, and brings him to the realization that Takes’ motive for participating in the crime was revenge (113). Takes even suggests kidnapping children because “all the love and happiness and goodness in [the] world [cannot] outweigh the life of a single child” or the children of his enemies (113). Although their motivations were different, they worked together to eliminate Ploeg. They both kne... ... middle of paper ... ...ealization that he should live as an innocent, free from the evil burden of guilt, allow this novel to be called a morality tale. Not only good, but also evil are linked to the concept of morality. However, acts of good or evil doing depend on the views of the person making the decision. Understanding that each and every person does not have the same viewpoint is a valuable lesson that Mulisch presents in his novel. Another lesson is coming to the realization that there is no need to feel guilty for something that cannot be controlled. These two moral lessons, presented in the novel, suggest that people should live a prosperous life. Even though good and evil are opposing concepts, they are necessary to piece together the puzzle known as the universe. Work Cited Mulisch, Harry. The Assault. Trans. by Claire Nicolas White. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. Print.
Blood chilling screams, families torn apart, horrifying murders are all parts of the Holocaust. David Faber, a courageous, young man tortured in a Nazi concentration camp shares the horrors he was exposed to, including his brother Romek’s murder, in the book Because of Romek, by himself David Faber. When Nazis invaded his hometown in Poland during World War II, David remained brave throughout his father’s arrest and his struggle to stay alive in the concentration camp. David’s mother inspired him with courage.
In the short story “The Hunter” the author Richard Stark introduces Parker, the main character of this book. The main character is a rough man, he’s a criminal, a murderer, and even an escaped convict. He’s described as crude and rugged and though women are frightened by him, they want him. Parker is not the classic criminal, but rather he’s intelligent, hard, and cunning. In this story the author carefully appeals to his audience by making a loathsome criminal into a hero, or rather, an anti-hero. The author, Richard Stark uses ethical appeal to make his audience like Parker through the use of phronesis, arête, altruism and lastly the ethos of his audience.
If that does not occur to the reader as an issue than factoring in the main problem of the topic where innocent people die because of false accusation will. In addition, this book review will include a brief review of the qualifications of the authors, overview of the subject and the quality of the book, and as well as my own personal thoughts on the book. In the novel Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right authors Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, and Jim Dwyer expose the flaws of the criminal justice system through case histories where innocent men were put behind bars and even on death row because of the miscarriages of justice. Initially, the text promotes and galvanizes progressive change in the legal
These characters, however different they lie on the morality scale, all share the sinful trait of greed. They all ask, and take too much, ruining what the good that they had in their lives. Understanding their mistakes offers its useful readers a lesson, not to demand too much of the things we are offered. The characters struggle with their desires, each of them succombing to their passions.
Society, individuals, and governments all have their own definition of good. They vary a little, but they are still followed. However, when the definition of good is manipulated to fit someone’s own character, it loses its meaning. In the narrative, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the narrator creates a new definition of good; however, so do the characters. Eventually, the antagonist’s definition of good, which is just her values, along with her egotistical and manipulative nature, results in her downfall; the author employs biblical allusion and a series of plot twists to emphasize these tragic flaws.
At first it is seen as a story about man and the evils he can do, yet
As we immerse ourselves into Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, a powerful story of a man’s vengeance with “impunity”, we find that the narrator’s revenge was merely a materialization of his sinister, unrestricted human nature. The author vividly describes the resentment that the narrator feels towards the man who insulted him, and the lengths he goes to for revenge. Montressor, the narrator, swears retribution for Fortunato, whose “thousand injuries…[he] had borne as best [he] could, but when [Fortunato] ventured upon insult, [he] vowed revenge” (Poe). While the scheme sinuously progresses, Montressor thinks and acts with a certain lunacy that one cannot help but notice. Generally speaking, people wouldn’t resort to murder for simply a case of a rude, insolent offender, but the narrator has found himself looking deep inside, and what he finds is a malicious soul that wishes to harm those who have insulted him. He crafts a plan...
Our lives consist of luck and how we act upon the consequences, whether we like these consequences or not depends on how we move on forward. This is the point that Harry Mulisch, the author of THE ASSAULT, is trying to discretely make in a complex way. Anton Steenwijk is seen throughout the book to not have a say in his fate or what happens next in his life – particularly when he was younger. As seen in the book, the dice with which Anton and his family are playing with before the tragedy, reappear in various scenarios. The dice in the story, just like in a game, define chance. The author uses the dice to illustrate how Anton’s fate is similar to a game of chance and he cannot directly control or affect any of the consequences that occur. Through
With the typical mystery novel falling between the common outline of victims and an unknown criminal that is painted in a dull and consistent palette of predictability, every single character in this storyline is a criminal but also a victim of their own guilt. Rather than exploring the mere surface of leveled justice, a deeper meaning of the concept is reached as death is doled out in an order of increasing guilt; those who are less guilty die towards the beginning of the purge to evade the anxiety and panic that haunts one as they continue their trek and witness their fate. Evading the governmental justice system before, the characters are emotionally tortured as they succumb to their thoughts and mortality, but because humans are innately imperfect, the justice system is also flawed.
Marcuse, Harold. "Translation of The Stuttgart Delaration of Guilt." 12 July 2014. 19 November 2014 <www.markusgemeinde-stuttgart.de>.
...n idea about the human psyche and the nature of evil. Throughout the novels, we have acts that were dubbed as evil. Some of these were: the acts of the rabbi’s son, the killing of Simon, and even the joy Eliezer felt at the death of his father. All of these points and the many that weren’t mentioned all shared a singular idea. It was that the ulterior motive of these acts revolved around people reacting on instinct and desire. From these, we gain the final message of the novel that was proven time and time again. This message was that evil isn’t an act that just isn’t moral. Evil is the primal, instinctual, an animalistic rage that lives in the darker part of our heart, a part of the heart that is brought to light upon the moment the chains of civilization are broken..... A moment where we fall prey to our instincts and our conscience disappears into the darkness.
There are many ways to decide what makes a man guilty. In an ethical sense, there is more to guilt than just committing the crime. In Charles Brockden Browns’ Wieland, the reader is presented with a moral dilemma: is Theodore Wieland guilty of murdering his wife and children, even though he claims that the command came from God, or is Carwin guilty because of his history of using persuasive voices, even though his role in the Wieland family’s murder is questionable? To answer these questions, one must consider what determines guilt, such as responsibility, motives, consequences, and the act itself. No matter which view is taken on what determines a man’s guilt, it can be concluded that Wieland bears the fault in the murder of Catharine Wieland and her children.
Sayres, William G. “Compounding the Crime: Ingratitude and the Murder Conviction of Justine Moritz in Frankenstein.” Sayres, "Compounding the Crime", knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/sayres.html.
William Faulkner’s Light in August (1932) is an investigation of the dilemmas of the modern Man. Faulkner examines the psychological as well as the social motives behind humans’ confused identity and weird behavior through the portrayal of his different characters in a constant search for their true selves. Alwayn Berland in his book Light in August: A Study in Black and White states that Faulkner “dealt directly with the largest human dilemma: what gives value and worth to human life? Why, and for what, do human beings strive?what is the nature of virtue? of evil? What are the limits of human freedom”. This novel, centered basically on the character of Joe Christmas, illustrates best these ideas. Joe Christmas represents the most complex character in this novel; he stands as the vehicle through which Faulkner introduces his views about human psyche and the anxieties of the modern era in the post-bellum southern society. The complexity of this character represents a source of confusion and mystery for critics because of his “confused identity, ambiguous sexuality, volatile temperament” (Walsh, 2), and often violent behavior. There were always conflicting critical views in relation to this character, when some consider him the victim of his traumatic childhood experiences and the Southern society’s cruelty; others perceive that he is the novel’s villain and the embodiment of evil. Relying on the ideas of the German psychiatrist Alice Miller, this paper aims at stressing the importance of childhood memories in defining the mystifying character of Joe Christmas as well as accounting for Faulkner’s use of such character.
If we are to be truly innocent and humble beings, we must recognize our own innate guilt as human and accept it. If we do not, we will constantly be obsessed by our “state of apparent acquittals”. Kafka, Franz. A. The Trial. Trans.