3+UNIT+3+Good+and+Evil

"A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." [|Joseph Conrad]

"And oftentimes to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths; win us with honest trifles, to betray's in deepest consequence." Shakespeare, Macbeth

“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” [|Socrates]

“When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.” [|Martin Luther King, Jr.]

“Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.” [|Nathaniel Hawthorne]

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness.” [|Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley]

** How does the exploration of evil in literature provide insight into good and evil as a part of the human condition? **
 * // What is evil and why does it exist? //
 * // Is evil learned or innate? //
 * // What is the relationship between good and evil? //
 * // Can evil and good be universally defined? //
 * // Why do good people commit evil acts? //
 * // How are concepts of good and evil represented in the writings of our culture? //

Reading assignments for this unit will be selected from the following resources:

**__ Novels: __** //The Things They Carried// Tim O’Brien

//The Road// Cormac McCarthy

//Brave New World// by Aldous Huxley

**__ Drama: __** //Othello// Shakespeare [|Othello e-text]





**__Selected Short Stories__** from the //Norton Anthology// and available on-line: A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor “The Destructors” Graham Green

“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” Ursela LeGuin [] **__Selected Poetry__**__:__ “Fire and Ice” Robert Frost “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” Thomas “Dulce et Decorum Est” Owen “Facing It” Yusef Komunyakaa “The Man He Killed” Hardy **__ Selected contemporary, non-fiction articles, columns, editorials __** []

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