Friday, February 6, 2009

How do the books "East of Eden", "The Stranger", and "The Magus" relate to my BIG QUESTION, are humans inherintly good or evil?

East of Eden by John Steinbeck - (See paragraph in first post about my big question. More symbols and themes to follow, but I read it over the summer and my books begin to run together! :D )

The Stranger by Albert Camus - In the book The Stranger, the reader struggles in determining not whether the main character is good or evil, but whether he has a conscience! Does he have a moral compass that tell him what are and are not acceptable actions in life. And although this may seem to argue that humans are evil by nature, he is "the stranger", a mutant from the norm of society and the what most people are like. Also, if this poor man is born without a conscience (which I do not believe because by the end he begins to realize what a good life he had and how he would have began to live it had he not been sentenced to death) than that would not make him evil; a child born deaf does not make them rude when they don't answer you when you call to them.
(Notes and annotations in my composition book and novel will also help with elaborating more on this paragraph for the paper.)

The Magus by John Fowles - In the book The Magus, the end of the novel proves good intentions from the "teacher" Maurice Conchis, but a good intention may or may not justify the means; that would be the argument for this paragraph because his actions, and those he forces his actors to perform, are sometimes very controversial and cause the reader to ask if he is a morally good person under all his facades and lies. Also, it questions the morality (does morality = good?) of the actors and even of the main character Nicholas because of his reactions to what is happening to him and his decision at the end when he is finally asked to judge them for all his humiliation.
(And again, MANY MANY annotations in my novel about this question.)

(Thinking about adding Crime and Punishment instead of The Magus with obvious good v bad debates.)

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