The Evil Of Envy & Egos
DescriptionAn essay exploring how power drives many to corruption and harm the innocent as a result.
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ImageGeorge Orwell
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Authors regularly explore this concept in writing, daring to question authority and wanting to bring attention to this danger. No better is this seen than in A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, and Animal Farm by George Orwell, which copiously communicate how the corrupt, envious, and egotistical eternally injure the innocent, forever destroying their homes and perpetually prohibiting progression for their people.Hosseini’s novel is one of many he has written attacking the issues that have plagued Afghanistan for decades. The main characters Mariam and Laila continuously watch as wars, gangs, and foreign invaders decimate their home, pummeling the land for power over the public. One of the book’s culminating moments is Laila’s thoughts as one group is finally evicted. “Massoud’s violent end brings her no joy, but she remembers too well the neighborhoods razed under his watch, the bodies dragged from the rubble, the hands and feet of children discovered on rooftops or the high branch of some tree days after their funeral” (Hosseini 230). Throughout different rulers' reigns, whether that be the recently dethroned Massoud or others, the evil make it out on top, men, women, and worse of all, children, being victim to a spar of egos and the power-hungry. But this example is not alone, as on a smaller scale, Mariam and Laila, both women, face another danger: corrupt men. “God has made us differently, you women and us men. Our brains are different. You are not able to think like we can. Western doctors and their science have proven this. This is why we require only one male witness but two female ones” (Hosseini 221). By this point, A Thousand Splendid Suns had come to the 80s or 90s, but women in the highly traditionalistic Afghanistan were still seen as lesser, men their superior. The excuse is that God made them different, that males were made to be honest, and “science” is used to defend this point, a common tactic to keep others down and push the powerful ever higher. Both quotations provide insight into how the self-aggrandizing, self-centered few keep and use their power, only for the evil of harming the innocent, not helping. They make their lives a living hell, forcing them into submission and stopping them from being who they truly are. However, the next story in this list shows a different side of things, the classic account of Caesar perfectly distilling how the egotistical AND envious can tear down everything good, all for the sake of self-preservation.Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar is one of the most iconic historical fiction pieces imaginable. It condenses what happens in five years down to one month, telling a tragic tale about how the noble soon-to-be king of Rome falls at the hands of his friends, Senator Cassius manipulating Caesar’s dearest—and more powerful—pal Brutus to deliver a fatal sentence. How does Cassius get him on their side? With a bit of corruption, of course! “Good Cinna, take this paper, / And look you lay it in the Praetor’s chair, / Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this / In at his window; set this up with wax / Upon old Brutus’ statue” (Shakespeare 45). To trick Brutus into betraying Caesar, he asks Cinna, one of his disciples, to write fake letters that seem to be from the Roman public, begging Brutus to take out Caesar and place himself as king. The point was to make it seem that removing Caesar was the will of the people, when in reality, it was Cassius', who was looking out for his own back, worried that Julius was becoming too powerful and taking control away from the Senate. And it works, the separatist group gaining validity through Brutus’ addition. From that point onward, the covert collection of con men and their legitimizing leader set out to justify their killing, coming to this: “[If Caesar] would be crowned: How that might change his nature… / And, to speak truth of Caesar, / I have not known when his affections swayed / More than his reason. But ’tis a common proof / That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder” (Shakespeare 51). These lines, stated by Brutus himself, outline their concerns that Caesar is getting too powerful in Rome, and that if he were to become king, how would his nature (personality) be changed? To them, he was getting too influential, too ambitious, and this is the excuse they use right up until the last moments, Ceasar's funeral riddled with those words. The only one to refute such claims is the beloved leader's second, Mark Antony, who comes with proof that Julius was not any more ambitious, power-hungry, or harmful for Rome than Cassius and the Conspirators were; if anything, Caesar was a great person whom the public adored, who left his land and fortune to the people, who loved and fought for Rome at every chance he could. But that man was now gone, the Empire left with no one besides a mourning Mark, envious Cassius, and confused Brutus, all ending in decades of war so horrible, mothers would be happy if their children were torn into pieces, because they would not have to bare the torment of the fight. This is the harm Cassius’ hate for Caesar and need for power did, the innocent losing the one man who could have progressed their society, not burdened it, the Senator's actions eternally damning Rome. And this leads to the last book, an Orwell short, that tackles the damage of corruption and power head-on.Animal Farm is a genuinely excellent allegory for the Russian Revolution. Between all the parallels, references, and just plain linear story it gives for how the powerful rise, it really acts as a lesson on how idealistic beliefs are crushed by the policy of the corrupt who take advantage of it. Animalism, the Communist equivalent in the novel, is dreamt up by Old Major, one of the oldest and wisest pigs on the then Manor Farm. Seven rules were drawn up in total, each and every one intended to separate the animals from the humans, making laws against sleeping in beds, walking on two legs, and inequality. But post-revolution, when the livestock liberates themselves from Manor’s owner Mr. Jones, it becomes clear that not all animals are equal. Quickly, the pigs are propped up as leaders, taking over the farmhouse and managing the roles man once did. Then, when it came to the question of who gets excess resources after their first successful season, this is their response: “Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig… The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples” (Orwell 30). To justify why they should get the apples and milk more than the other animals, they start to come up with false reasoning, attempting to dupe them into thinking they are less than the pigs. This strategy is almost precisely the same as the one seen in A Thousand Splendid Suns, as faux science is yet again used to prove that the ones in power NEED to stay in power, as they are the best for the job. Of course, this is not nearly true, but it points to one type of corrupt act the powerful use to remain that way. Another is by changing the rules, something the pigs often do. Napoleon, who becomes the sole leader at the farm, has his posse of pigs control and change things at his whim, similar to both the real Napoleon and, reasonably, Stalin, on whom he is based. This is what happens: “Where the Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces. Squealer… was sprawling beside it, and near at hand there lay a lantern, a paint-brush, and an overturned pot of white paint… A few days later Muriel… noticed [another Commandment] the animals had remembered wrong. They had thought the Fifth Commandment was ‘No animal shall drink alcohol,’ but… the Commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol TO EXCESS’” (Orwell 67). Squealer, the pig regime’s propagandist, was literally changing the rules followed at the farm, all to accommodate Napoleon’s recent liking to alcohol. Of course, the normal animals were restricted access to said alcohol, and generally lived miserable lives under him. The forced labor, political punishing, and brainwashing with songs and chants, were all to keep them down and push Napoleon higher, and rule editing was part of it. The absurdity is multi-leveled, but Animal Farm presents a perfect example of how the powerful keep moving the bar ever higher, propping themselves up and feeding their egos by stomping on anyone in their way. This, along with a myriad of other examples in the text, like Napoleon holding an election (it was rigged for him to win), act as great guides to how the corrupt rise and remain, all for the sake of their personal wealth, not the public’s health.A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, and Animal Farm by George Orwell daringly demonstrate how egotistical and envious figureheads can harm the innocent with their violent actions of selfishness. It is truly disturbing how common such pain is, and how it can be so candidly laid out yet never learned from. So take what can be learned from these books and use them; seek these lessons as a warning, not as a reminder of what has already happened. The public, whether Afghani, Roman, or for God’s sake, Animal, have power, and at the end of each of these tales runs the chance for taking the corrupt down. But will they? Can they? Should they? YES! These three stories, these three playbooks on power, make it clear that if no one stands up to their rule-switching and fear-mongering, then they are doomed to never be free. That, to be frank, makes every fight for rights worth it, because where would the world be without freedom?
Sources
Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Penguin Publishing Group, 2008.Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Edited by Trevor Millum, Longman, 1991.Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Edited by William Shakespeare, Penguin Books, 1994.
