Monthly Blog AP English 7 "Good and Evil"

       Good and Evil is a battle as old as time itself. After reading "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" I really reflected on the division of myself, the good and the bad that "exists in me". Now, I believe in "Tabula Rasa", Latin for "A Blank Slate", meaning everyone is born neither bad nor good. However, I do believe people are born with a certain "soul" I guess you could say. For 17 years living on this planet, about 6 of them actually processing what is going on, I have noticed a certain "essence" of people. I guess what I am trying to say is that everyone has something that makes them unique or special in a way, to me at least. I guess my certain "soul" has a strong heart, being both beautiful and angry, which has its ups and downs.

      ANYWAYS back to the topic at hand, good and evil. In the story, Dr. Jekyll makes a potion that divides his "evilness" from him and he turns into Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll is very kind and caring, while Mr. Hyde is destructive and sour. After embracing Mr. Hyde a little too much, Dr. Jekyll cannot control the transformations. This alludes to the hidden meaning of the story, being that embracing evil can take over your whole being, corrupting your good self.

      Personally, I battle evil and good constantly within myself. So far, good has won over evil, I am a pretty nice guy after all. Even though I'm a nice guy, doesn't mean that I don't have a mean bone in my body. I go through the same stuff that everyone goes through, things like anger, desire, and depression. I'm not sure why, but I usually block these things out as much as I can and suppress them. Sure, people can still piss me off, and I have bad thoughts from time to time, but I try my best to ignore it. Sometimes these things push me over the edge, and a "person" I'm not familiar with comes out, someone who is angry and extremely negative. The good side of me always conquers the bad side of me, and this good side is who people mainly see me for.

     The main dilemma why evil is such a problem, is that it is so inviting at times. I guess by nature we are all in some ways "evil", whether it be selfishness, desire, or intention to hurt in some way. In society, It seems like evil is the winner.....which really bothers me. Our society gives into the compelling and easy life of "evil". This mainly consists of hurting others, drinking, doing other drugs, having relationships made up of mainly sex. All these things provide short term "happiness" to people, and it's easy to get into. It's so tempting as well, mainly discriminating others and adultery.

      For myself, I choose to not do these things because it causes this horrible feeling inside of me, like my "soul" is telling me that it isn't right. So I choose to be considerate, nice, kind, whatever I can to just be good overall. I want no gain, other than respect I guess, it's just my nature to be good now. The battle will always continue in my mind, but good will always shine through. Hopefully the good will start to shine and spread in the world we live in.