The Awful Rowing Toward God - Assignment Example

Defining Evil Maybe it is because our society is so focused on religious doctrine, whether we are one of the faithful or one of those doing our best to avoid it, but America seems completely fixated on the idea of evil. The word is thrown around a lot, but what do we really mean when we use the word 'evil'? According to the Free Online Dictionary, evil can be either an adjective or a noun. As an adjective, it can mean "morally bad or wrong; causing ruin, injury, or pain; harmful; characterized by or indicating future misfortune; ominous; bad or blameworthy; characterized by anger or spite; malicious" (2011). Many of these same terms are used in the definition of evil as a noun: "the quality of being morally bad or wrong; wickedness; that which causes harm, misfortune or destruction; an evil force, power or personification; something that is a cause or source of suffering, injury, or destruction" (2011). From these definitions, it seems there are some general characteristics that can be looked for that might identify someone or something as evil, but there is a lot of room for subjectivity. Something that is morally bad or wrong would have to be defined by the culture and the morals that it values. It seems something that causes ruin, injury or pain would be pretty clear-cut, but what if it is to destroy a cruel dictatorship, to cause injury as a means of repairing an internal injury or to create pain as a means of setting a broken bone? In many ways, evil must be considered to be a changing concept depending on the dominant cultural beliefs at a given time and considered along with the greater context of events. By looking at some relatively recent depictions of evil in today's culture, it is possible to see that evil is usually considered to be an outside force characterized by its creation of unearned pain and destruction. In the novel The Shining for example, evil is a bodiless force that is confined for some reason within the area of a remote Colorado resort called Overlook. Within the novel, there is no clear sense of where the evil comes from or why it is attached to that particular location, only that it has likely been in place since the hotel's beginning. There are several instances where people who have died at the hotel are mentioned somewhat offhandedly, as if it is too regular to make anyone upset. The Torrence's arrival at the hotel is marked by an angry woman speaking about the time her second husband died out on the roque court (Ch. 9) and they continue to hear about other deaths, increasingly more violent in nature, as the book continues. Even early in the story, some of these deaths seem odd, such as the death of the hotel's first owner, working as a caretaker after he'd lost his fortune. "He plugged his finger into a light socket by mistake and that was the end of him" (Ch. 10) or that of his son, who was killed in a riding accident on the property. The evil of the hotel is a disembodied thing, but it has a clear objective - to destroy life by causing extreme pain and mental anguish and to acquire power. The violence of the hotel is introduced in Chapter 12 as the little family is getting a tour of the Presidential Suite on the third floor: "Great splashes of dried blood, flecked with tiny bits of grayish-white tissue, clotted the wallpaper. It made Danny feel sick. It was like a crazy picture drawn in blood, a surrealistic etching of a man's face drawn back in terror and pain, the mouth yawning and half the head pulverized." However, the hotel exerts greater violence than normal with Danny in residence because it wants to capture his 'shine' or psychic power. This idea is perhaps most clear in Danny's description of the dead lady in room 217 as he tells his parents what happened to his neck. "And she started to get up and she wanted me. I know she did because I could feel it. She wasn't even thinking, not the way you and Daddy think. It was black ... it was hurt-think ... like ... like the wasps that night in my room! Only wanting to hurt. Like the wasps" (Ch. 29). As the hotel pulls out all stops to gain Danny's power, it becomes more and more violent. The general concept of evil as presented in this book, then, is one of disembodied greed and insatiable desire for maximum pain and suffering. This same concept of an exterior evil that comes to overtake a group of innocent people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time is also carried through films such as The Evil Dead. In this film, a group of college students goes out to a remote setting and unknowingly release evil spirits that had been trapped within the book of the dead. Again, there seems to be an excessive thirst for violence as the first college student is taken, literally, by the evil within nature. The scenes are brutal and gory as she is forcefully and agonizingly raped by the trees. Physically beaten and mentally traumatized, her friends don't believe her when she tries to explain what happened to her, but her insistence finally drives them to the discovery that the only bridge out has been willfully destroyed - the frame having been bent into the shape of a hand. Only now, after she has been thoroughly destroyed inside and out by the evil, does it take over and use her to get at the other students. At every turn, the evil force seems to play with the minds of those still surviving, forcing them to turn against each other and doubt their wisdom in fighting off a friend. It is not just an exercise in physical pain, it is one of mental anguish and soul destruction. In the end, as the last survivor walks out into a clear dawn after having burnt the Book of the Dead and caused his animated dead friends to dissolve, this same game is played on the audience as the 'evil' rushes up behind him, giving him just enough time to turn around with a look of horror on his face and the screen goes black. Again, the evil is externally contained, its victims have no hand in their connection to it and as a result, they suffer intense mental and physical suffering. In both of these examples, the evil is confined to a relatively lifeless area. Although there are wasps within the hotel's walls, there is never any true sighting of deer or other animals one might expect to see around a remote Colorado resort and the people are cut off from other civilization by the deep snow. The cabin featured in The Evil Dead is also remote with little sign of forest life and there is only one known way out over a bent and broken bridge. These ideas are also brought forward in songs about evil, such as in Black Sabbath's "Lady Evil." In the valley where this woman lives, "the wind won't blow" (verse 1), "the rain won't fall" and "Thunder cracks the sky, it makes you bleed" (verse 2). Darkness and possession are the two main elements incorporated into the song as identifiers of the evil that resides in the lady. She casts such a frightening and soul-consuming spell that the people won't even speak her name for fear of invoking her. Once she has you, she "takes your vision / And turns it all around / The things you see are what to be, lost and never found" (verse 3). Again, though, evil is considered to be an outward thing that is brought down upon someone for no particular reason and that someone is then made to suffer horribly for it. However, not all portrayals of evil involve the idea that it is an outside force. There are hints that the evil is inside Jack at the Overlook Resort in The Shining and it is clear that the evil unleashed in The Evil Dead was, at least in some small way, brought out by the active participation of the college students poking around in things that they would have left alone if they had respect for the old professor. Even the evil lady in the Black Sabbath song is limited in her power to those who come seeking her. Anne Sexton, in her poem "The Evil Seekers," suggests that we must understand the evil inside of us in order for us to understand what is good. "One must listen hard to the animal within" (13), "One must be a prisoner just once to hear / the lock twist into his gut" (26-27) before you can be "free to grasp at the trees, the stones, / the sky, the birds that make sense out of air" (29-30). In other words, by acknowledging and accepting the evil within, as Jack starts to do in Dr. Edmund's office for just a few moments in The Shining, one can be free of its influence to enjoy the good. Unfortunately, there is also the danger that we are incapable of keeping it controlled or that we will forget and again try to bury it in the darkness where it again grows strong. Thus, as the concept of evil is explored in books, films, songs and poems, it becomes clear that it is an elemental force that is insatiably hungry for pain and destruction. It can be an inner or an outer force and it doesn't necessarily have to be looked for in order to find someone. However, if it is acknowledged or seen for what it truly is, as Danny saw through it to his father in the novel or as Sexton urges her readers to do in order to enjoy the good, then it can be mastered and put in its proper perspective. Works Cited Black Sabbath. "Lady Evil." Song Lyrics. Heaven and Hell. Vertigo Records, 1980. "Evil." The Free Dictionary. 2000. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/evil King, Stephen. The Shining. New York: Doubleday Books, 1977. Sexton, Anne. "The Evil Seekers." The Awful Rowing Toward God. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1975. The Evil Dead. Dir. Sam Raimi. Perf. Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManicor, Betsy Baker & Theresa Tilly. Renaissance Pictures, 1981. Read More