Evil's power over fear Essay

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Evil’s power over fear People are controlled by fear. Actions and thoughts are warped by the things people fear and it can cause previously innocent minds to become corrupted and evil. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph sees the correct choices in front of him, but because he fears losing power and the safety of his own physical being, he is unable to prevent the collapse of his society. Similar to Ralph, In A Separate Peace by John Knowles Gene’s fear of being judged prevents him from doing the right thing and leads to the eventual death of his friend Finny. In Elizer’s case this idea is intensified because fear consumes entire countries and the jewish people in a way that leads to the slaughtering of millions of innocents. In Night by Elie Wiesel, fear corrupts innocence and allows evil to spread. In the beginning fear blinded the Wiesel’s and their town from the first signs evil. Moshe the Beadle warns them first with inside information of what the gestapo do to the Jews. The Jews in fear of this story brush it off as false. They innocently believe that such a crime could not happen and even if it did they couldn’t do anything about it anyway. When they are put into the ghetto they do not question the Nazi’s authority or try to escape because they are scared. this blindly leads them to view their situation as “well-off” or “normal” because they fear they have no control over the situation anyway so they might as well make the best with what they’ve got (9). Before they are deported, Martha offers them an escape, but the blind fear of Elie’s father prevents him from seeing the need to go with her. Unfortunately, they became too optimistic because they feared thinking otherwise. With this unwise optimism, they pass on the offer and allow the Nazi’s to sickly throw them in a cattle wagon with 80 other people. This fear to not even believe in evil, prevents them from acting upon it and allows it to spread. In the camp, the nazi’s fed on the Jew’s fear. The more fear the nazi’s forced into the Jews, the easier their jobs became. No one questioned their authority or their reasonings because they were too scared to. When Elie is first sent to Auschwitz, he witnesses his father being hit because he kindly asked where the bathroom was. with Elie witnessing the abuse of his own father, the one man that is supposed to protect you in life, he becomes so afraid that he doesn’t know what to think. A father is viewed as almost invincible and yet Elie views his father’s defeat and this makes him realize that he is defenseless against them. Any chance of him rebelling against the nazis in anyway, died when he entered that camp. making the camp the first place that his fears now include death more than before. This feeling of helplessness mixed with fear forces the Jews to comply with the nazis and makes evil spread because they allow them to gain so much power over them. Later Franek bullies Elie’s father because he can’t march in step. Even in these terrible situations prisoners treated other prisoners ruthlessly because they were afraid that they needed an advantage to stay alive. Franek demands the gold crown and a piece of bread because he is scared he will die without it and this fear drives him to evil instead of trying to assist others. This shows how fear leaves people vulnerable to evil temptations. With evil all around them and fear in their bodies, many prisoners allow evil to spread in themselves. The Kapos were prisoners just like everyone else, but out of fear act like nazis because they think it makes them safer. The Kapos treat other prisoners like dirt and this shows how once innocent people evolved into nazi-like prisoners because they fear the safety of their own well-being. Another example of how the Jews allowed evil to consume them was when they were being transported in the carts and bread was thrown in. The once peaceful Jewish people turned into “wild beasts of prey” and “sharpened their teeth
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