The Evil Inside Us All

The current topic of our readings and discussions is "Monsters and Ourselves."  This got me thinking about whether or not there is an evil monster inside all of us, and if so, is it there from birth, or does it develop as we grow?  In my opinion, I think that there is an evil monster inside everyone, and that everyone is born with it, and it just grows, or shrinks depending on how we are raised, and the choices that we make.  A perfect example of this is in the novel The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.  In this novel, Dr.Jekyll is a very generous, and kind man.  Although, once he forms a potion that is able to seperate the good and evil sides of him, he begins to get enjoyment out of the things that Hyde does, and therefore Hyde, or the monster inside of him begins to take over.  Jekyll also enjoys the fact that he can do heinous deeds as Hyde, and never have to suffer the consequences as Jekyll.  In the real world, our evil monsters inside can also grow just as Jekyll's did.  One of the things that makes it grow is how we are raised, and taught to view the world.  Earlier this month, a 17 year old boy named Treyvon Martin was shot and killed in a neighborhood in Florida.  The man who shot him was a 28 year old neighborhood watch captain named George Zimmerman.  Currently, all of the details are not very clear, and the case is still being examined, but one of the suspected reasons that George Zimmerman shot Treyvon Martin is because he was African American.  This distinction, and the stereotyping of races is taught to us because of the society that we are raised in.  This is one of the things that causes the evil monster inside of us to grow.  Therefore, if this is true, then the evil monster inside of George Zimmerman took over that night, when Treyvon Martin was shot and killed. 

The Necessity of the Opposite Sex

In Virginia Woolf's essay, "A Room of One's Own," she describes her thought process on the position of women in society.  For me, one of her ponderings really caught my attention.  It is number 2 in the journaling questions which asks us to discuss the fact that many books are written by men about women, but there are much fewer books written by women about men.  Woolf takes this to mean that women are much more important to men than men are to women.  This got me to thinking, and after a few minutes I realized that Woolf is right.  That there really are many books written by men about women, and I could not even think of one written by a woman about a man.  Which also lead me to think about examples of why this would happen in the real world.  What i came up with is this: men and women define success very differently.  Most men define success as having a stable, well-paying job so that they can not only support themselves, but their families as well.  Women define success purely by the amount of happiness that they have.  They are much more likely to take a job just by the happiness that it brings them, unlike men who mostly base their decisions on the amount of money they will earn.  This is also the same for families.  If a woman does not think that having a family will make her happy, then she is very likely to not have one.  Men on the other hand place a lot of importance on having, and supporting their family, which in turn causes them to place a lot of importance on finding a woman in order to begin that family.  Therefore, I agree with Virginia Woolf in that men place much more importance on women that women do on men.  Even at the high school level, where kids are not really concerned with marriage just yet, I see that guys always want a girlfriend at all times because they get complimented by their friends on how many girls they can get.  With girls, having too many guys will result in them being labeled as sluts, and whores, and it is looked at as negative by their friends, so they tend to be a little more cautious about getting into relationships.  "A Room of One's Own" contains many valid points about women and men, like this one, even though it can be very hard to follow Woolf's train of thought at some points.