In January I read a book called "The Devil and Miss Prym" by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. It's about the inhabitants of the village Viscos. A stranger enters the town with 12 gold bars and a proposition to determine whether or not men and women are just innately evil. The proposition presented in the novel; kill one of the villagers before seven days are up to receive the good bars. It got me thinking can people truly be good or are we all evil? Interesting concept, but with what has happened lately in California, it makes me wonder. In the last few months Orange County has been plagued with both Christopher Dorner and Ali Syed.
I don't think we are all born bad. On a bad day I've said I "have little faith in mankind." There are days that I do in fact believe my statement. However, if I was presented with this proposition, I could never do it, it's not even a temptation for me. For the most part I'm good. As much as it pains me to say it, I'm not perfect, I make mistakes. Being raised a Catholic and attending Catholic school for 12 years, I have to say Catholic guilt would get the better of me. The 12 gold bars wouldn't be worth the guilt I would feel later.
I wasn't completely thrilled by the ending of the "The Devil and Miss Prym". The beginning and middle truly made me think of the importance of human life and that maybe there's hope for us yet.
Right now I'm reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer (I decided to try it even after Twilight, yuck!!). Since most of America has already read the story, I won't give any plot information but once I am done I will review the novel. It makes me what wonder would happen if our free will was taken away? For the record I'm not suggesting that it should, but would we be any better off?
WARNING: "The Devil and Miss Pryn" is not for everyone! If you're not a thinker or you are a thinker but you just like to read happy novels as a form of escape, then don't read this. This is a story about human nature. But, because I like this type of novel, I will award it 4 out of 5 Pink Gerber Daisies. The ending was a little lackluster.
This time my quote will be a little different. I am going to end this blog with a quote from the novel "The Devil and Miss Prym" by Paulo Coelho "The story of one person is the story of all of humanity" (Coelho 195).
