Human Nature Essay Example for Free

Human Nature Essay Over time, there have been numerous portrayals of the war between good and evil that has forever existed in society. However, very few have come forth that have shed light upon the tussle between the tendency to indulge in either one of good and evil that exists inside the human mind and continues to do so throughout the course of one’s life. It is essential to understand that works such as these are not mere contribution to literature but are in fact in depth insights into the human mind and present a picture of the nature of the perceptions that exist within it. This is so because of the fact that no matter how much man chooses to evolve in his society and surrounds himself with monuments to sophistication, there will always be the desire to break free of moral boundaries and to indulge one’s self in the free and uncontrolled activities of evil. This paper shall consider Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a depiction of the fight between good and evil that ensues within the darkest of depths in the human mind, then one can see how there is a continuous battle that perseveres within these depths and that there are instances when the suggestion to be evil becomes so strong that there is no longer any degree of possible control that can be attained on the rampage that evil engages in (Colvin, Adcock and Stevenson). The novella was first published in 1886 and has served as one of the most clear and concise insights into the intricate workings of the human mind. If one was to consider the character of Dr, Jekyll, it is evident that Robert Louis Stevenson has chosen to portray that all people are not inherently either completely good or completely evil by nature, rather they hold a frame of mind that comprises partially of a tendency to good, and partially of a tendency to indulge in evil. However, if one was to refer to the bigger picture that is visible in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; it is evident that Robert Louis Stevenson has chosen to use his characters to reflect upon particular dimensions of human nature. For instance, one can see that in contrast to the elusive Dr. Jekyll there exists firstly, Mr. Hyde who is a severe contrast to the principles and morality that Dr. Jekyll stands for. Further on, Mr. Enfield appears to be the continuously probing element of curiosity that is ever present and active in the human mind. Lanyon appears to be a vessel that holds logic and a desire for life to be composed of a series of events that are in no way out of the ordinary or do not comply with the rudiments of logic. Also, the degree of loathing that develops amongst the common man towards this dark side of the human mind once it becomes exposed comes out to be nothing more than prevalence and broadening of the element of hatred and evil. An example of this fact can be seen in the very first few pages of The Strange Case of The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when Mr. Enfield states in a reply to the lawyer’s question about the appearance of the suspected criminal: â€Å"I never saw a man I so disliked†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment† (Stevenson 5). From this line, we can surmise that Mr. Enfield develops a loathing towards the creature that lurks in the darkness of the night and indulges in actions out of the pure loathing to all that is good, pure and honest. By giving personalities such as those mentioned above to each individual character and taking the traits that form these personalities to their natural extremes, Robert Louis Stevenson has taken a stance that shows how each individual holds his/her own set of good and evil traits, both of which come together to form the mind of the ordinary every day person. An aspect that should be highlighted at this point is that Dr. Jekyll is perhaps in no way different from the rest of the characters in the plot, and the only distinction that exists between Dr. Jekyll and the rest of the characters is that Dr. Jekyll crosses a threshold of sorts and enters a state of mind where his evil bent of thinking dominates over him. We can therefore surmise that Dr. Jekyll is not an individual person who manages to experiment with his own perceptions and allows his evil side to roam free, but is in fact an example of the form that any normal every day character from the plot would have taken, had it been allowed to roam free and unattended. However, if one was to raise a question concerning the value of friendship or the loyalty towards it that exists with regard to the revelation of different sides of the human mind, then one can see from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that there is hardly any element of loyalty or commitment to friendship that remains when a part of the concerned party enters into the absolution of evil. It is perhaps because of the very same illustration of the forces of good and evil that exists within each individual that The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been subjected to not only numerous forms of adaption over time, but has also been the center of numerous interpretations for the same reason. According to an interpretation by The Guardian, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be seen in more perspectives in modern times than it could have been possibly seen in the earlier days (Campbell). This is because of the reason that the tendency to submit to the desires of evil or the desire to adhere to the principals and morals that define all that is good can be replaced by numerous other tendencies that lurk within the depths of the human mind and it is for the same reason that Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde holds more relevance now than it did at any other point in time. Works Cited Campbell, James. The beast within. 13 December 2008. 21 May 2009 http://www. guardian. co. uk/books/2008/dec/13/dr-jekyll-mr-hyde-stevenson. Colvin, Sidney, Arthur St. John Adcock and Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Louis Stevenson: his work and his personality. Hodder and Stoughton, 1924. Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Courier Dover Publications, 1991.

World War I and the Domestic Casualty of the Industrial Workers of the World :: World History Workers Work Essays

World War I and the Domestic Casualty of the Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) worked in the early 20th century to organize all labor to collectively strive for the interests of labor and in order to create a more democratic society, in spite of possible resistance from the interests of capital and the repercussions that were to occur in reaction to organizing (Bird et al 1). Although, in a mostly defunct form, it still exists today as an international labor union, the height of the labor movement occurred towards the mid-late 1910’s, with the practical demise of its influence occurring during the time in which the United States entered into the First World War (Bird et al 4). Persecution and physical harassment by the federal government, the exercising of the force of legal rational authority by state governments, cultural hostility toward the IWW, and internal quarrels of leadership and indecision in the IWW were the key factors that lead to the downfall of the Wobblies. The burden placed on common workers at the turn of the century, whether in industry or agriculture, was great. A mass of surplus labor at this time, literally â€Å"millions of laborers†, (Bird et al 3) had created a situation in which the private owners of the means of production could exercise a great deal of economic power over individual workers. While jobs were relatively few, unemployed job seekers and drifters were many. Thus, using the capitalist values of the marketplace, the market value of the commodity of labor was generally very low, and the workers, each individually powerless against the strength of employers, were, when fortunate enough to land a job, given subsistence level wages while oft working under very hazardous work conditions. While owners were securing what is perhaps the greatest interest of capital, profit, workers were coerced by the situations of reality to sell their labor to merely attempt to survive. Under the desperate drive of many hungry stomachs and desolate lives, workers saw a need to organize, giving rise to labor several labor movements. One of the most prominent and perhaps most radical and revolutionary of the movements was the IWW. The Wobblies, as they would become more commonly known, were officially formed on June 27, 1905. (Bird et al 2) The IWW was founded in the aftermath

Mary

Mary, What a day so far! It started off with Kathy calling at 6 a.m.   She is a real mess. Kathy wants to come home. She hates it there and wants out. She realizes that she needs to take care of Joe, but she is falling apart. Then, at 11 a.m., I get a call that Dawn needs fluids and her immune system is worse than I thought. I am thankful that the bleeding stopped. Next, I asked to talk to Dawn. She was crying and falling apart.   She asked if she just can go live in her house. That way she could give you and Don your home back. She is very concerned that she is causing too much stress on your relationship with Don. Kathy is miserable and so is Dawn. Dawn doesn`t want to make anyone’s life unhappy, but I can`t let her live on her own yet. She would die if left alone. I doubt she would make it through a week. I’m not sure what to do.   She has asked me not to ask you to do anything extra. I can`t do that either.     I don`t want her suffering additional pain because you need to remove the fluids. You must do the therapy three times a week so she can stay dry. Being wet right now will only cause infections. Please play the game as well.   I really do feel this can help her brain get stronger. You will also need to check on her every hour or hour and a half to be certain to treat fevers and chills when she is sleeping. I have tried to ask you for as little as possible with Dawn’s care these days because I understand the problems between you and Don. Dawn tries to pull her weight around the house, with cleaning, cooking, and taking good care of you, but she feels she is not doing enough.   She is ery concerned about the stress she is causing for you and Don. However, I told Dawn the husband-wife thing is not her problem to figure out. As adults, we need to figure that out, not the kids. The kids are the sick ones, yet we sometime make them feel really badly even when that is not what we are trying to do. For example, when Kathy and I were in Madison, we both wanted to take care of Joe, but we also complained about the small amount of time we spent together. Yes, we couldn`t sleep together, but I made no effort to spend time with Kathy before her bed time and she didn`t make any effort to spend time with me.   So, what I am trying to say here is that we have to make time to spend with our spouses. No, we can’t be together every night, but some nights we can go and get our spouses and spend that time together before bedtime. I have had time to think about this and I was just as much at fault as Kathy was for us not spending time together. My advice is that you learn from my mistakes. Some night, at 10 p.m., go get Don and spend some time together while Dawn watches her soaps. Just do like Kathy does, keep going to bed on time. Yes, it not the same as sleeping together, but it the time together that counts while taking care of this sick kid of ours. Trying do this two or three times a week. I’m not sure how else to help you guys out. I could watch Dawn during spring break, but I think you told me that you already bought tickets. I am not sure what to do to help you guys. Everyone seems very miserable. Please tell me what I can do. I don`t want Dawn stopping treatment in an effort to give you your life back. Dawn has been seriously talking about this for awhile now. She believes that if she dies, you will have the money to go someplace and make up for lost time. Mary, I’m sure you understand that Dawn cannot continue thinking like this. Dr. Smith

Comparing Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club and The Woman...

Comparing The Joy Luck Club and The Woman Warrior Amy Tans immensely popular novel, The Joy Luck Club explores the issues faced by first and second generation Chinese immigrants, particularly mothers and daughters. Although Tans book is a work of fiction, many of the struggles it describes are echoed in Maxine Hong Kingstons autobiographical work, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. The pairs of mothers and daughters in both of these books find themselves separated along both cultural and generational lines. Among the barriers that must be overcome are those of language, beliefs and customs, and geographic loyalty. The gulf between these women is sadly acknowledged by Ying-ying St. Clair when she says of†¦show more content†¦Communication becomes impossible (Huntley 46). This anecdote sets the stage for conflict between the Chinese mothers and their American daughters. The issue of the language barrier is a constant theme in both The Joy Luck Club and The Woman Warrior. In the immigrant narrative, English plays a major role in assimilating into the new world. For Tan, the struggle between Chinese and English haunts both her real life and her fiction. Tan herself stopped speaking Chinese at age five, though she has never lost her first language entirely (Amy). Her mother, Daisy, however, speaks in a combination [...] of English and Mandarin (Huntley 3). Tan was taunted in grade school for her mothers heavy Shanghai accent (Huntley 3). Because Daisy never became fluent in English, the linguistic friction merely escalated between the two women (Amy). Tan expresses this tension in her novel when the fictional Jing-mei admits that she has trouble understanding her mothers meaning, and empathizes with her aunties who see daughters who grow impatient when t heir mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English (Tan 40-1). The stresses of a bilingual relationship are further explored when Lena St. Clair finds herself acting as translator between her Chinese mother and English-Irish father, who each refuse to learn the others language, placing their daughter in the cultural crossfire (Tan