The Influence Of Selfishness In Button And Ruthlessness

What makes people do bad things? Throughout history and literature, people have done horrible things for seemingly no reason. However, in short stories like "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson and "Ruthless" by William DeMille, It is shown that there is definitely a motive to doing bad things. When they do, they are influenced by selfishness, greed, and revenge. Firstly, from my learning I believe that one of the reasons people do bad things is selfishness. In the short story "Ruthless" by William DeMille, near the beginning of the story, a character named Judson is packing up to leave for the winter. During this, the narrator explains, "Not even his wife was allowed to have a key, for Judson Webb loved his personal possessions and felt a sense of deep outrage if they were touched by any hand but his own." (2) This evidence is showing that Judson is very protective of his personal possessions to the point where his wife isn't allowed to have access to them. Later in the story, we learn that Judson's whiskey was stolen by a thief the previous winter, and because of this Judson tries to use poison to kill them if they come back. Selfishness is when a person keeps things to themselves without care for others, and Judson trying to kill someone to keep something to himself prove this point.

In the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson, in the middle of the story, Norma and Arthur are going to bed after arguing about the button machine when Norma thinks "…Fifty thousand dollars…" (69) At this point in the story, Norma knows the button machine will kill someone if she presses it, but she is still seriously considering it because of the money involved. Greed is when someone has an intense and selfish desire for something like wealth or power, and this fact defines what Norma feeling about the button machine. This evidence proves that greed makes people do bad things such as killing