Throughout the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the reader feels evil. Evil is a concept that is hard to define. The dictionary defines it as " morally bad; wicked" . But is the definition of evil really as simple as that? Many would say that there is more to defining evil than just a few words. Evil can also be defined by a culture. If one were to study various cultures around the world, he or she would discover that each culture has a different way of defining evil. Even world politics sometimes plays a role in defining evil. But one's personal definition seems to have the most impact on what one thinks is evil.
Theology has played a strong role in defining evil for thousands of years. The Bible teaches Christians that Satan is evil, and not to follow his teachings. Evil as a concept in Christianity developed in the third and fourth centuries. During that time, St. Augustine determined that "Evil is the privation, or absence, of good, as darkness is the absence of light." (Funk&Wagnalls19) In modern times, theology has had a difficult time defending the existence of God in light of the many atrocities that have occurred in the last 100 years, such as the Holocaust, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the ethnic c
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The American view on the Soviet Union reached its climax when President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire. In more recent times, entire nations view each other as evil. As a result, theology is now having to redefine what evil is. In that way she will elude her wicked tormentor and break its evil cycle of birth and death" (Achebe 77). as a capitalist nation of which greed had totally consumed. It would seem that the only way for a person to understand and define evil is to take the cultural definitions, and the religious definitions and create their own definition that fits their own unique perspective of the world in which they live. " (Achebe 148) Another belief held by the tribe in the novel is that if a woman has children, and each dies under "evil" circumstances, then she is under attack by an evil tormentor. " Each of these views is valid, but are the United States and the Soviet Union really evil?
The most influential definition of evil on an individual is the one that the individual devises for himself or herself. Many people believe that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were evil youths when the shot and killed 13 of their fellow students at Columbine High School, even when many of the victims begged for their lives to be spared. Certain groups of people believe that Adolf Hitler's slaughter of 6 millions Jewish people was not evil. Some people felt the United States' participation in the Vietnam War was evil, and they labeled American troops as baby killers and the like.
In turn, the natives saw the European culture and religion as invasive and parasitic.
Approximate Word count =
823
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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