Evolution of Evil
Like Buss I have also thought about the fact that society labels people who murder as evil when they turn around and say that killing in war is okay. How many times are innocent people killed in attacks by the US when they are attempting to get terrorists? How many times are those “killers” tried? Are those innocent lives justified in the fact that it is a war areas where they were killed or because they were killed during fights against terrorism. Buss makes a very good point when he suggests that people have all these reasons that others are evil but when it comes to the out group that is affected those perpetrators are not always considered evil anymore. What is up with that?
I think that Buss is also right in suggesting that we make up all these reasons for a person’s “evil” behavior because we are afraid that we all have that ability in us and because that ability to do “evil” is perhaps a natural adaption for survival. There are many other species that kill, and maim each other and I think that we are much more like them than we suppose. Perhaps we’re of higher intelligence but can we really say that we do not have those instincts to do “evil”? I think we give animals too little credit and ourselves too much credit when we say that individuals are susceptible to “evil” but not our species as a whole. Maybe humans like other animals are programmed to kill, rape, steal or do other terrible things when it is profitable to them.
I think this reading and Buss’s portion really fits into this book quite well. It not only gives a different perspective that makes the reader uncomfortable, or at least it makes me uncomfortable, but it also presents something that high school students would not normally get to read. I think readings like this are more interesting just in the fact that they are relevant to what is going on now, and what might happen in the future. Not only is a reading like this interesting a little bit bazaar it also helps to open up the readers mind and think about things that they might not think about normally.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
Alright first thing is first, I just love it when the end makes everything click and there's just an epiphany feeling. It's that sort of feeling that makes me want to read more and more... that's what causes the addiction. Then there is the thinking in circles my mind does to try to figure out all of the connections and how they were important, and I have to say this one has so many circles!
The one aspect of this story that I thought was amazing were the connections between the characters, not only are they connected as a family but their experiences are also intertwining them together. I thought this was especially interesting because for a book intending to be about Oscar's story Diaz spent nearly half of the book explaining his mother's, Lola's, and his grandfather's pasts in order to have Oscar be totally understood. The connections between Oscar and the rest of his family can't even be seen until nearly the end. Just when I was about to right off Oscar and say that he was going to die the odd ball out I was thrown for a loop when I realized Oscar, Lola, Beli, Abelard, and even La Inca were so much alike in the end. He was being beaten in a sugar field for the same reason his mother was and that was for the "forbidden love" and the same reason that Diaz suggested that Abelard was put into jail. For me the most important idea carried throughout this novel was the dirty message of love, they all had it and it was unrewarding most of the time but they still had it and still clung to it. All of the characters seemed to connect at the end through Oscar as he went and fought back, not physically of course, but he refused, like so many in his family had before, to give in and give up. Oscar was in the game the rest of his family had played before, but he went back for more. He like his mother had been given a way out but came back for a second fight. Who would have thought he had it in him?
One thing is for certain this book does make the reader work for understanding, and even understanding isn't completely attainable in this novel.
The one aspect of this story that I thought was amazing were the connections between the characters, not only are they connected as a family but their experiences are also intertwining them together. I thought this was especially interesting because for a book intending to be about Oscar's story Diaz spent nearly half of the book explaining his mother's, Lola's, and his grandfather's pasts in order to have Oscar be totally understood. The connections between Oscar and the rest of his family can't even be seen until nearly the end. Just when I was about to right off Oscar and say that he was going to die the odd ball out I was thrown for a loop when I realized Oscar, Lola, Beli, Abelard, and even La Inca were so much alike in the end. He was being beaten in a sugar field for the same reason his mother was and that was for the "forbidden love" and the same reason that Diaz suggested that Abelard was put into jail. For me the most important idea carried throughout this novel was the dirty message of love, they all had it and it was unrewarding most of the time but they still had it and still clung to it. All of the characters seemed to connect at the end through Oscar as he went and fought back, not physically of course, but he refused, like so many in his family had before, to give in and give up. Oscar was in the game the rest of his family had played before, but he went back for more. He like his mother had been given a way out but came back for a second fight. Who would have thought he had it in him?
One thing is for certain this book does make the reader work for understanding, and even understanding isn't completely attainable in this novel.
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