The Lamb, The Tyger, And The Child by Tiger
For as long as there has been life, there has been a constant war of good and evil. The poems The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake suggest that these two powers, good and evil, exist, but in separate bodies. Thomas Wolfe, the author of The Child by Tiger, on the other hand, suggests that good and evil coexist in humans. Wolfe shows in his story that everybody has their breaking point where the good will be taken over by the evil, and chaos will ensue. These pieces of literature all deal with the thematic issues of good, bad, right and wrong, but the connections essentially stop there.
The Tyger and The Lamb both use lots of imagery to illustrate their points about life. On one hand, The Lamb
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describes the lamb as “wooly bright” and having a “tender voice”. Blake compares the lamb to God himself, and uses the lamb to symbolize a form of purity and good. Nothing bad could come from this harmless little lamb. On the other hand, in Blake’s other poem, The Tyger, a much darker imagery is used to describe the tyger in a way to make it seem mechanical. The tyger is portrayed in a way to show that it is a beast whose sole purpose is to kill. The animal only knows how to be evil. Blake asks “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”. This rhetorical question is used to illustrate how different the two animals are. One is purely good, and one is wholly evil. The lamb can do no harm, and the tyger is designed to be evil. However, that may not be the case. Dick Prosser, of the story The Child by Tiger, is a “deeply religious” man who is kind to everyone he meets. He is an intelligent man who seems to be good at everything he does, including the shooting he learned in the army. Whenever Dick reads his bible, he reads about this perfect world where everything is how it should be, and everything is fair. He wants to believe in this Utopia, but he sees the real world and how unfair it can be, and it angers him deeply. Dick wants to believe in the perfect word of God, but knows that it is unrealistic. At a certain point, when it is implied that Pansy Harris refuses to leave her husband to be with Dick, this kind, caring, and religious man snaps. Dick decides that he does not want to live in this cruel world any more, and wants to enact revenge. He goes on a murderous rampage, killing everyone that he sees, for as long as he can. For all his life, he has successfully endured racism and prejudice because of his skin color and has become a relatively well-rounded individual. Despite his successes, he loses his mind because of Pansy’s refusal and decides that it is best to go on a righteous massacre. As the story continues, Wolfe suggests that this evil exists in all humans, and that this darkness has the power to consume everyone. Once Dick starts his rampage, there is a “bloody roar” amongst the citizens of the town and they too begin to give in to evil.
Upon hearing of Dick’s massacre, they become overcome with rage and the community descends into violent chaos. A small riot ensues, with people completely ignoring or forgetting their sense of right and wrong, and the citizens raid the hardware store of the town as they “helped themselves to every rifle they could find”. This mob’s sole purpose is to track down and kill Dick Prosser, no matter what laws they break or what it takes, and they shout obscenities as they go on their way. These citizens, who would seem completely normal on any other day, snap at the news of Dick Prosser’s rampage. They then revert to a sort of primal state in which their only priority is to eliminate this man as brutally as possible. This normally unusual and totally unacceptable behaviour is accepted, and the townspeople eventually succeed in murdering, mutilating, and proudly displaying their handiwork in a public place. Wolfe is suggesting that, in the right circumstances, even the strangest, most barbaric actions can become accepted by the mind and seem normal to the person or people carrying these actions out. While Blake’s poems argue that either good or evil can exist in one being, not both, this is not the case shown by the irrational actions of Wolfe’s …show more content…
townspeople. The poems The Tyger and The Lamb and the short story The Child by Tiger all deal with the thematic issue of where good and evil reside in the world, but their arguments differ slightly.
On one hand, the idea that either solely good or solely evil can exist within one being is presented by the poems. The two forces are separate and cannot be mixed. On the other hand, the short story suggests that not only do these things exist in everything and everyone, but that everyone has a point at which the good will be consumed by the evil. At this time, chaos and disorder are sure to follow. It is not discussed where exactly that point may be, but it could potentially happen to anyone. Though all of these works consider the existence of good and evil within humanity, this is essentially where the thematic similarities end. All three pieces of literature agree on the reality of these forces, but a consensus about their powers over each living individual cannot be reached between
them.
The battle of good versus evil is present in all aspects of life. Actions taken by people can determine how others view them. Some choose to do what is right and good, while others choose what is wrong and evil. Many characters are forced to choose between the two, and some do not foresee the consequences of their actions. In the book Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, actions committed by the Davy, Jeremiah, and Jeremiah’s friends, both good and evil, always have consequences.
Since the beginning of time, fairy tales, stories and legends have shared a common theme where good and evil are played against each other. In the story of “Beowulf”, translated by, “Burton Raffel”, there is a hero who plays as a good character, and there is also a demon who rules the dark side. The hero Beowulf, agrees to take a journey to conquer the evil monster Grendel. But when Beowulf is trying to defeat the beast, Grendel fights back, causing integrity and generosity to vanish. The common theme in various tales like in Beowulf is, good vs. evil.
Dick is annoyed by Perry’s statement, mostly because he is uninterested in dwelling on what they had done to the Clutters, but also because Dick thought much higher of himself than he did of Perry, after reviewing what he had known of Perry and his peculiarities, Dick remarks, “Deal me out, baby, I'm a normal.”(108). Perry thinks in a self deprecating way, he reflects upon his childhood, his siblings, and the Clutters. Perry cannot shake an unrelenting guilt and is driven to the conclusion that in order for two men to commit an act as grisly as theirs, they must have had some form of mental instability. Dick becomes incredibly irritable at the mention of what he and Perry had done and demonstrates a lack of concern for what it takes for two men to butcher a family of four they had never known.
The idea that man's relationship with good and evil is not predestined is a central idea in this novel. The conflict between good and evil is a universal battle. Many characters in the novel, East of Eden, struggle both internally and externally with Good versus evil.
The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being.
Through the analysis of characters and their actions, the novel Grendel suggests society has adopted good and evil’s unequal relationship for meaningfulness in life. The modern society is built on the opposite forces of nature and that evil must be challenged although good prevails it. However, evil and good is subjective which makes the true struggle between good and evil. Moreover, our every day actions are differentiated between good and evil acts. Unfortunately, while this occurs, good and evil will never be a black and white concept.
"All conflict in literature is, in its simplest form, a struggle between good and evil." This means that all conflict in any work is basically just a fight between the forces of good and evil. The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne show that this statement is true.
The clash between good and evil has been a prominent theme in literature. The Bible presents the conflict between good and evil in the story of Adam and Eve. Many authors use the scene in the Bible in which the snake taunts and tempts Adam and Eve to take a bite of the apple of knowledge to demonstrate the frailty of humankind. John Gardner provides these same biblical allusions of good and evil in his novel, Grendel.
How are the themes of good and evil explored in Chapters 16 and 17 of
Despite the differences between the characters in the poems, I will also go on to say how the preoccupation with death and violence all seem to stem from the apparently unstable minds of the characters; from the instability brought on by varying emotions such as grief, jealousy, resentment, guilt and madness, and the fact that these emotions may lead to paranoia.
Being born a human, one has the potential to be inherently evil and has the intent of doing violent things. This is because throughout the world’s history, there has been an abundance of violence from hunter-gatherers Additionally, in the current world today, there are constant wars fought with mass deaths and much hatred, and bullies that inflict pain and cruelty because of their own innate evil.
Good and evil can be summed up as a difference between rational and irrational thoughts, with the former being related to “good” and the ladder to “evil”. This is a view shared by Immanuel Kant and his Categorical Imperative. In the movie Schindler’s List, we are presented with two individuals, Oskar Schindler, who by the end of the movie displays characteristics of a man following rational thoughts, doing acts that he would want to become universal maxims. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Amon Goeth. Goeth follows his irrational thoughts, using the Jewish people as a means for his own ends.
Good versus evil is said to be one of the most common themes throughout literature and is widely universal in the idea of humanity. The author Dean Koontz is known for the commonality of the good vs. evil theme in his literature and he is known as the “Man of Many Pseudonyms” with so many pen names. He has had a writing style that has changed over time, beginning with his most popular themes of scientific fiction and now transitioning towards a more horror type genre. His focuses on his literary works is almost always his detailed character insight and his elevation of common themes. Koontz’s popular theme of good versus evil is prominent because it is a theme many readers have been exposed
"All conflict in literature is, in its simplest form, a struggle between good and evil." —Anon. This quote by Anon states that the most basic principle of conflict comes down to good v. evil. This theory has been proven every time there is a conflict in a book or story there are even examples of it in the book "Before We Were Free." In the book Anita's father and uncle Tio Tony are always hiding from the S.I.M and are afraid of El Jefe, who they describe as a very bad man to their kids.
In conclusion, due to being a simplistic poem using a sheep connect with Christ, shows that the poem “The Lamb” belongs with Songs of Innocence, while using a fearing tone, and using a more sophisticated language here by shows that the poem, “The Tyger” belongs with Songs of Innocence. The lamb shows emotion that involves a story revolved around God and Christ. The fact that the small lamb is cute and innocent, shows that it belongs where it is placed; along with the tiger showing that it is a fierce creature, capable of extreme bodily harm, shows that the poem, “The Tyger” belongs with Songs of Experience. Overall William Blake did an excellent job manufacturing these poems while placing them into categories of Innocence and Experiences. These are very terrific poems that deserve their titles and a spot in our literature book.