East of Eden

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."








I've often wondered, in the whole scheme of human history, if we could somehow tally up all the "good" deeds and "bad" deeds that people have committed and assign a point value indicating the relative goodness/badness of a deed (ie. stealing from your brother = 1 badness point, killing your brother = 100 badness points), what would be the finally score? Is humanity overwhelmingly good or bad?


It seems to me that, unfortunately, the answer would have to be evil. Each new generation faces the same struggle between good and evil in their hearts as the one before it. Humans have done some cruel and terrible things - like enslaving fellow humans, torture, killing others for religious purposes. And I guess, to be fair, sometimes we remember the bad times more than the good times. But, no matter how egregious the acts we commit may seem,  as long as one still believes in the hope that they can change their ways, goodness will be present in society. And, I don't ever think that humans can fully extinguish the hope that things will get better. Well, except maybe people who commit suicide - but even that could just be due to them not realizing the magnitude of their decision.  Even Cathy Ames, the most "evil" character I've read about in literature thus far, showed remorse at some point.

So, the topic behind this post is basically due to the fact that I recently finished reading the acclaimed novel East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I thought it was one of the most thought-provoking and interesting novels I've read in a long time. I mean, I've read several good novels this summer that made me think but East of Eden made me want to just keep reading and not put it down. Anyway, the point of this post isn't to convince you to read the novel, but rather to talk more about what it means to me.

Basically the entire essence of the novel centers around the struggles of the main characters between the good and evil they have in their heart. Some characters, like Aron, are foolish and naive because they are too scared to accept that everyone is inherently evil in some way - or, at least, has the potential to be. This realization can be shocking. But evil is a part of humanity just as good is.  The most important idea the novel postulates is that we have the decision on whether we want our lives to ultimately be composed of good or evil deeds - and everyone has a basic idea of right and wrong.

This got me thinking about the role of good and evil in my own life. Do humans really have some kind of innate sense of what is right and wrong? Or does it just depend on the individual? Do people like serial killers and mass murderers really believe what they are doing is "OK" or do they just not care? Why do people derive happiness from seeing others suffer? Are we just build this way?

I guess I'm not so naive to not accept there's some "bad" parts of my psyche that kind of disgust me. But, it's a part of who I am. Is there any point trying to block or hide it away? I guess all I can try to do is find a balance that I can live with. I thought I'd have more to say but I really don't - this struggle, as Steinbeck says, is really the only struggle I have. Will I succumb to all my fears and inadequacies? Or will be able to make a positive impact with the brief time I have here? I guess, only time will tell.