Is Innocence Targeted By Evil?

Wow we finally made it to the final concept blog post! Over the past few weeks we have been leaning about 7 concepts Power and Authority, Humanity and Inhumanity, Violence and Destruction, Human nature, Civilization and Savagery, Innocence and Evil, and Individualism and Community which were formed mainly around Lord Of The Flies and our overall unit question which is “How should we make the rules?”. Each week we had to write a paragraph around one of these concepts. You had to form a inquiry question and could use basically anything to back up your statement. After we wrote 3 of these paragraphs we were told to pick one and expand and turn it into one amazing learning portfolio post which must include a reference from Lord Of The Flies, Macbeth, and a historical or current event, and that is what I am here doing now.

Inquiry Question: Is innocence targeted by the evil?

When you think about all the classic fairytales, there is always an innocent and an evil side to the story. In these tales, some burden or challenge always seems to come about for the protagonist, or the innocent character, usually effecting them in a negative way. The antagonist, or the evil, is usually the one sending these obstacles in the protagonists way. This is how fairytales tend to always go, but in reality, is it always the innocent which is targeted by the evil?

The recent terrorist attack on Manchester, UK, was an act of pure evil, where thousands of young people at a concert were innocent in the truest sense. The place were people should be enjoying themselves, relaxing and letting the music take them away, was soon turned to a crime scene. Was it the goal to target such an innocent crowd and imprint fear into peoples brains? As a way to be seen and terrifying and powerful? Probably. “Music is not something we should fear”, (Shawn Mendes). For most of the young people attending the concert, it would have been their very first show, something they would remember for the rest of their lives. But instead it was turned to something they would forever fear, something so terrifying they may never be able to enjoy a concert again. “Music is one of the very rare things in life that can bring people together in a way that words cannot describe but we can only feel, and something that important is worth protecting and it should never ever be broken”, (Shawn Mendes). When the innocent are targeted it causes panic, commotions and fear amounts them. This is exactly the reason why the evil take on these negative acts.

In the novel Lord Of The Flies, the boys on the island have no sense of a community or a society. Ralph as the elected leaded tries to keep everyone working toward the end goal of being rescued. The other boys are more interested in their self-interests, that is, the boys would rather fulfill their individual desires then cooperate as a society. Which ultimately resulted in the signal fire dying, the lack of shelters, the abandonment of Ralph’s camp, and the murder of Piggy. But why is it Piggy that gets murdered? He did nothing wrong, he was only there trying to help keep the boys in order. Piggy was intelligent, logical, and innocent of the boys. The boys could have done it to show their strength but they could have done that to any of them if that was their main intention. If they murdered piggy in their mind it would effect everyone the most, because he had done completely nothing wrong. That is why evil targets the innocent, it has the biggest effect on everyone else.

While Macbeth in the beginning of the play seems innocent and kind he later ends up being the evil one. Killing the most innocent man, king Duncan. He’s kind, generous, benevolent, and just a little weepier than you might expect from a noble warrior and king. Even Lady Macbeth, who says she would murder her own nursing babe, can’t kill him because, as she says, he “resembled/ My father as he slept”. But the want and need of power and to be king drove him to madness.

Why is it always the innocent who are targeted? Because the cause the most affect afterwards. They are the ones who will leave the biggest imprint.