Fall Of Man In Class Essay

567 Words3 Pages
Take Home Essay I agree that man is good until negative external forces of society make man evil because it is human nature to respond and change according to our environment and the harsh reality is that evil exists. The counter argument is that man is born evil, and that good has to be learned. For example, children in the infant or toddler stages tend to be more stingy, greedy, selfish, or rebellious. Nobody teaches them things and these things can’t be corrected until they are taught otherwise. In the assertion ‘all people are good, but it’s the external forces of society that make a man evil’ I immediately think of the ‘Ballad of Joe Meek’. Joe Meek was generally a ‘good’ person before his encounter with the police officers. He had good intentions by telling the police officers they were wrong for putting their hands on the young woman, but the blatant disrespect the police officers showed him changed his outlook. The actions taken by the police officers stand as the external forces or catalysts for Joe Meek’s violent rampage. Back in our ‘Rise of Man’ unit, many people in the class agreed that the quality that makes man is the ability to be shaped by our experiences. Naturally, Joe Meek or anybody for that matter was good until a negative force changed their good path. The ‘Ballad of Joe Meek’ was set in a racially prejudiced New Orleans and that alone connects with the idea of man being good until forces in society change that. Perhaps all the tension between the races was one of those external forces. In chapter ten of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, a young Dr. Jekyll is distraught when trying to decide between living a life of lusts, or as a proper doctor. The story addresses how one becomes evil, but more so if good or evil is more dominant. To an extent, the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde also asserts that once man learns evil it is very hard for man
Open Document