Whenever there is a battle, whether it is physical or mental, there are usually two
sides; the good , and the bad. There are many people that would like to believe that good
triumphs over evil in most instances, however that is not always the case. In the short
story "Water" by Frederick Philip Grove, the two sides were apparent, with Magnus as an
example of evil, and Mrs. Kurtz acting as a counselor of good advice. Evil had some help
in this story, as it was through Kurtz pride and foolishness that evil prevailed. Mrs. Kurtz
tried her best to stop the problems from happening, as her mind was a lot clearer, but it
was Kurtz who, in the end, ruined things for his family.
Kurtz was not a stupid man by any means, but he was a foolish one. He knew
there was a problem and it was one that had to be solved if his family was to prosper. The
trouble with Kurtz was that his way of going about solving the dilemma was quite naive.
Kurtz came to a premature conclusion about how to solve his trouble, and that was quite
foolish. When Kurtz was explaining the problem to Magnus he said "...no water to be
had here, I've dug in a dozen places. Every winter, a new spot. Fifty, Sixty feet down."
After that being said, Kurtz still went ahead and signed the contract, and then allowed
Magnus to go so far past the normal water line of about 70 feet (which is what Kurtz
struck water around). When Magnus was telling Kurtz about Kelm getting water, Kurtz
got far too excited, the prospect of water was just too good for Kurtz to resist and he
acted on impulse. " Doggone it! If he gets water why don't I?" The only factor that had
any chance of saving Kurtz from humiliation, and disaster, was his loving wife. Mrs.
Kurtz had a very clear mind about this situation, and she tried her best to show her
husband what he was doing wrong in this circums
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