Although it may be easy to blame all the depraved events in one’s life on curses and bad luck, most of the time, these unpleasant misfortunes can be traced back to greed and selfish ambitions. Curses do not haunt families, but sin struggles and temptation can easily be passed down from one generation to the next. The greed that motivated and consumed Colonel Pyncheon was his own selfish ambitions and lack of any compassion towards others. He was willing to do what was necessary to get his hands on more land, better possessions, and greater wealth. The Colonel let his greed drive his actions when it came to the ownership of the land. “Nor did it fail to be whispered, that there was an invidious acrimony in the zeal with which he (Colonel Pyncheon) …show more content…
had sought the condemnation of Matthew Maule.”(4) The colonel died shortly after his receiving of the land, but to say that his death was a result of curses is a little far-fetched. Even though the actions which he took may have been morally wrong, the curse which Matthew Maule gave him before his own death was not the reason for the colonel’s death. Coincidental though it may be that the colonel died with blood around his mouth, it is easier to believe in physical and mental causes of death opposed to whimsical causes of death. When a person is so full of self and greed, it is not surprising for them to have a heavy, hardened heart. When the colonel died due to health failure problems, the burden which lay upon his heart from all his selfish and greedy ways weighed him down in his final times. Greediness is not something that just one man struggled with; this problem ran in the family lineage.
Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon followed in the footsteps of his relatives and longed for more wealth, land, and possessions. He threatened to through Clifford in prison if he did not cooperate because Jaffrey was so desperate to have the missing deed that he was not willing to allow anyone to get in his way. Greed outweighed compassion for Jaffrey and he was no willing to allow anything to come between him and his wealth, not even Clifford, his own family member. Regardless, he died at the end of the story; he would have had a much more enjoyable life had he taken the time to love his family and not spent so much time trying to devise a plan on how he could obtain all the family wealth for himself. If Jaffrey would not have been so greedy, the outcome of the story could have completely changed, but because he wanted all the inheritance for himself, the story ended with the melancholy death of the acquisitive Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. Greed may not have been his cause of death, but if his attitude toward his family would have changed, his life may not have ended in the way that it did. He still would have died, but instead of dying an angry man, he would have died a happy one. Another character in the story that allowed his actions to be driven by greed was Gervayse Pyncheon. Completely willing to allow whatever it took to find the missing deed, he handed his daughter over to Matthew
Maule. The importance of the document in question renders it advisable to neglect no possible, even if improbable, method of regaining it. You will therefore oblige me (Gervayse), my dear Alice, by answering this person’s inquiries, and complying with his lawful and reasonable requests, so far as they may appear to have the aforesaid object in view. (189) Gervayse desired this great fortune so much that he agreed to let Matthew “work” with his daughter. In the process, Alice became hypnotized and died shortly after the evil works of Matthew Maule. The misfortune of this event can be traced directly back to the greed of Gervayse. He wanted the fortune, wealth, and prosperity so much that he placed his own daughter in an unsafe environment. Even though curses and bad fortune don’t follow a family lineage, the patterns and customs that a man struggles with can easily be passed on to his children and the generations that follow.
“When he ran to the door he saw the barn enveloped in flames”-(Hunt, 106). Why the barn was enveloped in flames was because the citizens decided to take matter in their own hands and punish the Creighton family because of what bill did which was join the south. All this happened al because bill decided to join the southern army. The Creighton family was most affected by this betrayal because they got punished because it was their son and brother. This time was very rough on the Creighton family. They suffered through the consequences of bills decisions. If Bill didn’t decide to join the south they might have not have suffered through what had happened. The Creighton’s could have just lost all their animals but luckily they were in the field. But their hay still burned in the great fire. It’s not the Creighton’s fault that Bill decided to join the south the citizens did not have to take all their anger on
Guilt is a powerful force in humans. It can be the factor that alters someone's life. On the other hand, forgiveness can be just as powerful. In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, her characters-the Price family-travel to Africa on a religious mission. Throughout the novel, the concept of guilt and forgiveness is reflected on multiple occasions. Each character has a different experience with guilt and how it affects them in the end. By structuring The Poisonwood Bible to include five different narrators, Kingsolver highlights the unique guilt and forgiveness to each individual experiences as well expresses the similarities that all humans face with these complex emotions.
Throughout The Poisonwood Bible each member of the Price family expresses their guilt in very different ways. Leah turns to saturating herself in it, Adah helps others around her, Rachel ignores it, and Nathan lets the guilt consume him. Each family member expressed their hidden burdens in very different ways, exemplifying the different method that people unconsciously use when dealing with their own personal regrets. In the end, moving on and forgiving one’s self are the biggest and most beneficial steps to dealing with past guilt. Even though in the present guilt is almost painful, it is also a core part of being human. Without guilt and regret, individuals would not grow as they age, instead staying the same and never fully assimilating to each other.
Money can cause people to act selfish and arrogant, especially when they have so much money they do noteven know what to spend it on. In the novel,
... The greed portrayed by these characters has no explanation, at least that Fitzgerald offers, and thus should not exist; proving that these characters are simply greedy and deserve all that comes to them. And thus these two authors differ in the reasons why the greed occurs and, effectively, the difference in the short, 1-day gap from October 24 into October 25, 1929. And so greed exists in the modern period, saturating its two of its most famous novels and a theme of two of its most famous authors, portraying all evil as caused by greed, illustrating the true cynicism of the era. Works Cited Stenbeck, J. a.
Sarty, whose full name is Colonel Sartoris Snopes, shares his name with a Famous Civil War Colonel in Faulkner’s word throughout “Barn Burning”. Colonel Sartoris in Faulkner’s fictional world is a distinguished confederate Colonel most likely famous for his integrity (Faulkner, 480). The significance of Sarty being named after a man regarded so highly rest in the fact that Sarty holds himself to the same high standards. Someone even remarked to Sarty before he testified against his father “I recon anybody named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can’t help but tell the truth” (Faulkner, 480). Further subtle evidences of Sarty’s intuitive sense of justice comes from Faulkner’s brief statement about the Major de Spain manor. Sarty’s first reaction to seeing the manor is “hit’s as big as a courthouse” (Faulkner, 483). In this one phrase, this singular idea that pops into Sarty’s mind, the reader gains a quick glimpse into Sarty’s consciousness. Sarty’s almost instinctive thought is of a courthouse, and not of a bank or of a church. Courthouses are synonymous with justice, doing what is moral, and punishing what is immoral. Faulkner utilizes this thought to provide a subtle indication and further demonstration of Sarty’s sense of
Gandhi once said, “I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul”.
In fact, Dunstan is the main reason why greed is an issue. He steals Silas’s life earnings from weaving so that he can run away. “Do we not wile away moments of inanity or fatigued waiting by repeating some trivial movement or sound, until the repetition has bred a want, which is incipient habit? That will help us to understand how the love of accumulating money grows an absorbing passion in men whose imaginations, even in the very beginning of their hoard, showed them no purpose beyond it” (Eliot 24). This quote explains that one’s desire for money is not obtained from the want to pursue a rich life, rather from obtaining wealth and wanting more. This fits Dunstan because he comes from an upper class family, but he finds the greed in his heart to want more. Molly is another character that is filled with this sin. She makes efforts to put herself and her baby in danger just so that she can confront Godfrey in order to obtain money. Similarly, both of these characters end up dying which is a consequence for their greed. Another very prominent deadly sin in this novel is envy which is portrayed by Godfrey and Nancy. They both are in despair that Silas is raising Eppie after all of these years of Godfrey knowing she is his child. At this point, they make an attempt to reconcile with Silas in order to take Eppie back. They become envious of the parenting Silas got to do and wish to have her back as their
In “The Penal Colony” the life of the officer is solely based on the old commandant’s rules and ideals. His strong obsession of being “involved in the very first experiments and also [sharing] in the work all the way to it completion” (96) Has a deep impact on the officer’s life and beliefs. The officer is not only obsessed with his work but with the old ways that the old commandant made. Also, the fact that he is the last one in the colony that still follow the old ways means that he is going against the whole society in the colony. The new commandant “uses everything as an excuse to attack the old ways” (105).
“I’m never going to act like my mother!” These words are increasingly common and yet unavoidable. Why is it that as children, we are able to point out every flaw in our parents, but as we grow up, we recognize that we are repeating the same mistakes we observed? The answer is generational curses: un-cleansed iniquities that increase in strength from one generation to the next, affecting the members of that family and all who come into relationship with that family (Hickey 13). Marilyn Hickey, a Christian author, explains how this biblically rooted cycle is never ending when she says, “Each generation adds to the overall iniquity, further weakening the resistance of the next generation to sin” (21, 22). In other words, if your parents mess up you are now susceptible to making the same mistakes, and are most likely going to pass those mistakes to your children. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows the beauty of hope in the presence of a generational curse. Even though the elders are the ones who produce the curses, they are also the ones who attempt to break Junior from their bond forming mistakes. The curses that Arnold’s elders imprint on him lead him to break out of his cultural bonds and improve himself as a developing young man.
This novel depicts greed on several occasions through out the novel. One example of this is when Gatsby is left twenty five thousand dollars by Dan Cody as a legacy, but from what one is led to believe Ella Kaye refused to let
evil inside all of us. Another thing that ties in with this that children try to
The concept of inherited sin is in the most read book in human history appearing in the first chapter of the Holy Bible where Adam and Eve; original man and woman eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and are expulsed from Paradise. This is the original sin all humans have inherited thus being born into a state of sin. This theme of inheriting evil from your parents is central in Sophocles’ 442 Bce Greek Tragedy Antigone as it caused the problems that befall Antigone and her sister Ismene as well as influencing Haemon’s actions. It is an important theme in the Norwegian realist play A Doll’s House (1879) by Henrik Ibsen pertaining mainly to the characters of Dr. Rank, Krogstad and the protagonist Nora.
Guilt and shame can tear a person's soul away. The inevitable consequence of sin is the immediate reaction of guilt, shame, and remorse. For example: John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, and Reverend Dimmesdale have all committed a sin or sins and are feeling extremely guilty about it. They want to be forgiven, but they have no strength and are cowards. Forgiveness can only be obtained when these characters find the strength within themselves to speak the truth.
We live in a society that is full of horrific things everywhere we turn. In order to not come in contact with these things we would have to live apart from the media and almost separate ourselves from society altogether. These horrible things are often called sins. Sins are actions that are felt to be highly reprehensible and are also viewed as going against God’s will. Many actions can be viewed as sins, but there are seven sins that are particularly important. These seven sins are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. They are infamous for being called the Seven Deadly Sins. A wide variety of works include these sins in order to show society how wrong they truly are. One work in particular is “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne’s characters in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” all show one or more of the seven sins in one way or another. Hawthorne believed that man was becoming condemnable; therefore, he used his characters to portray that. Hawthorne’s interpretation of humans is quite true because the Seven Deadly Sins appear everywhere in our society. If one was to watch television or use the Internet, he or she would almost certainly discover one of these particular seven sins in a very short amount of time. This is precisely what I found to be true while doing an assignment to find examples of the Seven Deadly Sins for three days.