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Module 6: Lesson and Notes

The Nature of Good and Evil in Literature and Why It Matters

The conflict between good and evil isn’t a new one. It is as old as time itself and accompanies humanity as a shadow, taking many forms and manifesting in as many ways as there are different kinds of conflict. A few things about this concept:

· There are different ways of defining what is “good” and what is “evil.”

· The definitions aren’t concrete, and never can be, but instead are left up to interpretation by individuals involved or by society as a whole.

· For example, the act of murder is an evil thing. However, we often hear stories of people committing murder to avenge an attack on a loved one and the act is forgiven. Revenge for love changes the game.

· The nature of good and evil follows closely with the common conflicts: man vs nature/self/man/supernatural/fate, etc.

· It is one of the methods authors use to help present conflict in the story line.

· This theme is often represented by foil characters, which are characters that are complete opposites in order to illuminate certain personality traits (Think “Cinderella”. The wicked step-mother seems so wicked because Cinderella is so good, and Cinderella seems so good because the wicked step-mother is so wicked). This makes is easier to determine who is good and who is evil in the story. But it’s not always that simple (the good guys sometimes make bad decisions and the bad guys sometimes do heroic deeds).

· Sometimes, you really, really want to like the bad guy… this is called the anti-hero. Think, Captain Jack Sparrow from “The Pirates of the Caribbean”. 

Click here for a quick read about the (awesome) anti-hero.  (Links to an external site.)

The beauty of literature is that, over time, it has captured the crazy spectrum that is associated with good vs. evil, and been able to tell of it from every angle. Often, this resonates with readers either by speaking to a personal conflict and relating to a current social conflict.

Popular Examples

Shakespeare has plenty. Don’t groan, we aren’t reading Shakespeare, I promise, but we will look at one example: 

  
Macbeth- Macbeth was an incredible warrior and very loyal to his king, King Duncan. He is influenced by a trio of witchy sisters that tell him of a prophesy in which he becomes king. Maddened by his new found ambition, he kills the king and assumes the kingship only to meet his demise in the form of a ghastly and gruesome death.

Pretty solid good vs evil, right?
But consider:

· Although it appears that Macbeth is evil, it is important to know that Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth, had even more ambition than Macbeth and pushed him to commit the murder. He didn’t necessarily want to and when he couldn’t go through with all of it, she taunted him, doing much of the work herself.

· There were supernatural influences and witches were known to cause trouble, just for the sake of causing trouble. 

· Was Macbeth really evil? or was he just easily influenced by others that forced his hand?

· How is evil defined here?

· As one action/ multiple actions? One person/ multiple people?

(We will stop there with Shakespeare. Whew.) 

Far from Shakespeare, let’s look at a popular fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. For being such a simple story, the nature of good and evil here is very complicated. In the story, a father takes his two small children deep in the forest and left them there. Twice. Eventually the children are lost in the forest and encounter an old witch that captures them to eat them. The children trick the witch, push her into the oven intended for them and escape home to their, seemingly, very grateful father.

Initially, the evil in the story seems to be the witch. Or is it?

Consider:

· The father in the story is forced to take his children into the forest by their step-mother (wicked step-mother, anyone?)

· The only one to commit murder, an evil act, is a little girl.

· Therefore, who is the evil one? Step-mother, witch or Gretel?

This fairy tale was based on an early 14th century famine so fierce that families were starving and forced to make unspeakable choices, like the one that the father made. What if sometimes evil is defined as survival?

Previous

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Complete these readings from the textbook:

· A Good Man is Hard to Find- Flannery O’Connor

· Young Goodman Brown – Nathaniel Hawthorne

· Those Winter Sundays- Robert Hayden

Remember that academic reading is a skill you develop over time.

Here is 

my best advice for scholarly reading

.

Process of Reflection

Now that you have submitted your first paper, I want you to go back and revisit your process. It is important to start learning your writing style. Pay attention to how you gather information and how you get to the final draft. A lot will have to do with your personality. Often times, analytical thinkers write short, efficient sentences while creative thinkers tend to write longer, multi-line sentences. Neither is wrong! Learn to embrace your own style and use it as a foundation.

Once you have this foundation, you know how to get to your end goal, which, for this class, is that beautifully crafted final draft. You learn to reflect and grow. For example, if you know that you write brief, choppy sentences, how can you develop them? What information can you add? If you write long, flowy sentences, consider whether or not every word is really needed.

Think about the following:

· What was your brainstorming process? How did you come up with your idea (while driving, cooking dinner, ideas hastily written on a paper napkin at a birthday party)?

· What did you do with the idea?

· Did you try to write the paper from start to finish?

· Did you write in sections or parts and piece it together at the end?

· How much time did you (honestly!) give to editing and revising your work?

For this assignment, consider your writing process and reflect. What do you feel you did well? What part of the process needs improvement?

In 400-600 words, walk yourself through your own process. Be honest. Talk about where you should make changes. Feel free to refer to the questions listed above. 

You should:

· Include a heading and title

· Write professionally. You may use “I” for this assignment but avoid other conversational speech.

· Format the assignment like an essay (practice, practice, practice) with indented paragraphs, not Q & A style. 

· Always revise and edit before submitting. 

Rubric

Some Rubric (1)

Exceeds Expectations

3 pts

Meets Expectations

0 pts

Does Not Meet Expectations

5 pts

5 pts

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Formatting

Title Page

Citation

Outline

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