whats good without evil

Without Evil What’s Good

“If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well.” Rainer Maria Rilke wrote this to explain the nature of humanity. He expressed his views on human behavior and how humans think. Without evil, one does not know exactly what goodness is. Everyone possesses good and evil qualities. For they are balanced and create stability in everyone. If the one doesn’t exist then humans would not be able to differentiate or comprehend whether their actions are right or wrong. In our nature life always presents two sides of a situation therefore, making us act and think the way we do every day.

In the beginning of the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, there is a theme of society in which the boys begin to show order. Problems occur based on the sinful nature of man in desperate conditions. Jack and his hunters greatly illustrate the evil in human nature. Most of the story is made of the battle between good and evil through symbolism. While Ralph represented the good of the boys, Jack symbolized evil. Order is a great part of human behavior since it allows people to act upon rules and values. Ralph and Simon conducted order by guiding the boys. They built shelters and fires in order to stay civilized. As the novel began, they had rules and concerns and acted like civilized people who had some sort of governmental atmosphere. Ralph decided to choose a leader and every once in a while they would call assemblies. Ralph always seemed like the calmer on, but as time progressed he began to show his savage side towards Jacks group. At first, Jack would never think about killing a baby pig, yet later discover he is the first to turn into a savage hunter. Society was taken away from them and therefore they lost their values and innocent thoughts and began killing the other boys. Without knowing what bad was, none of them would feel guilty of what happened on their stay at the island. There is a great struggle between savage and civilization as the two groups of boys argue and try to live on their own until they are rescued.

In the same way, the novel Grendel, by John Gardner, reinforces the fact of evil and good in people. Grendel had both characteristics of human and of monster. He acts like a child and has the heart of one, ye...

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...small occurrence could change someone and their bad side will automatically arise within them. Dick experienced inner conflicts within himself with the fact of being a black man and anything was able to strike his inner anger. He began committing crimes and killing people in his town. The mystery of his background and the reason he shot people symbolizes that evil is all around and nothing can stop it once it hits. Dick’s new personality shocked the boys to see how someone so nice and kind could turn out to be so uncivilized after all. No matter how pure and civilized someone seems to be, the “other” side eternally exists.

Inevitably, all people must have the sense of right and wrong, angel and devil, in order to go through life and understand the meaning of it. Without knowing the good, the bad will not exist and vice versa. In humans the quality of dual nature exists. Each work of art will always have these views in characters because it shows how people think. Though Jack and Grendel were perceived as the devilish characters, they both had a sense of pureness. All were created with two consciences for learning through experience and observation.