The Struggles of Good vs. Evil
What is good vs. evil? Is it two forces that are complete opposites? Or maybe
it’s just our imagination. The constant battle between good and evil is everywhere.
It’s in the news, movies, books, and everyday life. While reading The Chocolate War,
Inventing Elliot, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I began to notice a reoccurring
theme – the struggles of good versus evil. Battles of right and wrong are something
all people have to handle; yet sometimes we don’t think about it. We’re going to have
to face the impact of good vs. evil for the rest of our lives. And we all need to find a
way to deal with these constant forces.
Jerry was the boy who got selected to be in the notorious society, the Vigils.
This group of boys did horrible things to innocent people. They used blackmail,
torture, and threats in order to gain power. That’s probably where the struggle of
good vs. evil comes into the picture – when we are trying to get power. Not only are
the difficulties and struggles there, but also the impact that the fight of righteousness
and wickedness that it leaves on everyone. It’s like an earthquake; the actual thing is
life changing. But so is the aftershock. Both will leave a mark. We try to cope with the
goods and evil that they bring us. The aftershock in The Chocolate War is how
everyone starts acting after Jerry refuses to sell the chocolates. Brother Leon gets
angry, and the Vigils begin loosing control and power. “The world was made up of two
kinds of people – those who were victims and those who victimized” (80). This quote
shows the good and evil in our world, but in a smaller scale. The people victimized
would be considered the bad, meaning they’re picking on people and singling them
out. The victims could be the good, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes just
because they’re the victim doesn’t mean they’re good. You might have to dig deeper
to find the truth. It’s hard to see the good and evil that everyone has to deal with. But
in this particular quote, I think the author was trying to bring up the point that there is
good and evil in the world when there are victims and victimizers.
Good and evil will always be at war. The boy in Inventing Elliot is in a different
scenario. This boy, Elliot, starts to change once he gets accepted into the secret
society called the Guardians. Somewhere in this book Elliot starts to change. He
begins to adjust depending on who he’s with at the time. He puts on an act for
everyone in his life: his mom, the Guardians, Ben, Louise, and even himself. “The
difficult part was managing and keeping apart all the different people you had
become” (138). Elliot begins to have too many “masks.” He has multiple
personalities that are hard to keep up with. Not all the Elliots were someone he liked
though. That’s where the good and evil comes into the picture. Elliot began facing
this struggle with himself. He encompassed both good and evil because he had so
many personalities and masks. “He was splitting into multiple Elliots – Elliots who
mustn’t meet under any circumstances – and he didn’t know how much longer he
could handle them, or keep them apart” (100.) Elliot, trying not to get caught up with
too many identities, started to become different people. Elliot lost control and began
fighting with himself inside his head. Many of us can relate to this example of good
vs. evil because we’ve been in situations like this. They’re hard to control. The hard
part is that by human nature we’re both sides, both good and evil.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the good and evil in this novel can be
recognized as McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. McMurphy is the good and Nurse
Ratched is the evil. McMurphy is trying to bring life and some fun to the hospital even
though it’s under the power of Nurse Ratched, the woman making the hospital so
depressing and horrible. McMurphy tried to bring good to the hospital by entertaining
the patients. Breaking the strict rules and doing his own thing, McMurphy was the
good. He was cautious about it though. “What I want to know is am I safe to try to
beat her at her own game?” (70.) McMurphy was careful about which way to go
about it but readers can tell he’s the good in the story because he’s competing
against Nurse Ratched. Once again, the evil is there ready to fight back. Nurse
Ratched won’t hear of any of his nonsense. It shows how far we’ll go to fight for our
side of things. McMurphy is willing to defy all rules set by the intimidating Nurse
Ratched in order to fight for his side of things. The patients are the ones who have to
deal with their battle. They’re the ones impacted in this good vs. evil fight with
McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest also brought up
whether or not one of the other could exist on it’s own. Could morality survive without
immorality? Would McMurphy be who he was if Nurse Ratched wasn’t there to fight
back? Just try to imagine our world without one or the other. Good would probably
disappear without its coexistence with evil. So, really what is good and evil?
My visual collage signifies the struggles of good vs. evil. The reason I chose
black and white pictures was because black and white are known to be and
recognized as opposites - for example, a black and white cookie. White shows peace,
good, innocence, and purity. Black shows power, evil, sophistication, and mystery. I
thought the color symbolism added meaning to the pictures. It also intensifies the
strength in the collage. One side of the collage is a collection of the “good” pictures in
caparison to the other side that’s a group of “evil” pictures. I included flowers, an
innocent child, and a dove to signify the good in our world. Then I used lightning,
world hunger, and an earthquake to show the evil. Most of the pictures are the
stereotypical good and evil, but some have hidden meanings that you have to dig
deeper for. For instance, I mentioned the earthquake and aftershock before. I used a
picture of an earthquake to show that the actual thing is bad, but sometimes the
aftershock is the hardest thing to cope with.
Good and evil. What exactly is it? What goes on in the inside of this neverending fight? We may never know. This battle will always be in our lives even if we
don’t want them to be. The generation we’ve grown up with has introduced the
conflict of good and evil since we were little kids. They were in the happily ever after
fairytales that we were glued to as children. Looking back on it - watching the Little
Mermaid when I was younger, I realize that the fight of Ariel versus Ursula was just
another example of good and evil in our universe. It was preparing me for this battle
that we’re going to have to face countless times in our life. Sometimes I don’t think
there is anything worse than the ongoing struggles between good and evil in our
world.