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Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

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The question as to whether humans are inherently evil or good has been asked time and time again. Despite the fact Humans are naturally evil based on how they act under grim situations, the tendency of people to follow leaders that are evil, and how people have caused destruction, and have committed terrible acts throughout time. Humans often do terrible things when the situation for them is dire, even with the knowledge that doing said terrible things will only further the problem. A famous example of this is present in the story surrounding the wreck of the french ship, the Méduse. The raft was on its own, provisioned with only a few caskets of wine and some soggy biscuits. The men and one woman on board entered one of those mind-numbing …show more content…

While the lesser guards were largely passive at the beginning of the experiment, they turned aggressive while under the leadership of an evil person. It is important to note that the “prisoners” were actually volunteers, not actually hardened criminals. This is relevant because the guards were verbally and physically harassing innocent people, who had done nothing, under the leadership of Jaffe.When placed in stressful situations humans look for leaders whom they believe are more powerful and will lead them through problems,following them sometimes regardless of whether or not the leader is the best for them in the long …show more content…

During the whole of human existence it has been humans that cause the most tragic events, or simply stand by passively and let them happen. One perfect example of this appears in Goldings Lord of the Flies. During the descent into savagery that is present in the story, Jack and his group start to show the dark side of human nature. What starts as the beating up of a littlun, eventually leads into the murder of two main characters in the story, Piggy and Simon. This is a horribly evil act, and completely unjustifiable seeing as the characters murdered were the most passive of those trapped on the island. This is representative of humanity as a whole, as the story can be seen as an allegory for civilization and society. Humans are conduits for tragedy , and unfortunately tragedy is very common in the

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