The Presence of Evil in Contemporary Literature

           There are certain distinct qualities that have gone to help contemporary literature become what it is today.  One of these traits is that contemporary literature is the writing of the presence of evil.  In contemporary works, there are always main characters, or sets of characters, who must overcome a sort of evil in their lives.  We have seen this conflict within the numerous pieces that we have read so far.  From here, I would like to examine how the presence of evil was a constant, appearing in numerous ways, in three of the novels that we’ve read.

            First, we have a tangible evil seen through particular antagonists.  This is displayed in Naguib Mahfouz’s Arabian nights and Days.  Within this intricate episodic novel there are numerous different stories that are occurring, many of which are accompanied by the presence of genies.  However, these divine characters are not intrinsically good and do not necessarily consider the well being of man for their own entertainment.  This mentality is shown in an interaction between two genies named Zarmabaha and Sakhrabout in which Sakhrabout begins;

“Zarmabaha, this world is weighted down with stupidity”

“I have an idea,” exclaimed Zarmabaha joyfully.

“What is it?”

“An idea worthy of Satan himself.”

“You’ve set my curiosity afire.”

“Let’s have some fun and set [Nur al-Din and Dunyazad] together!” (79)

Keeping in mind the sometimes malicious intents of the genies, the novel does go to further show how the genies inspire people to do evil.  At times, this is as far as to persuade people to commit murder and other heinous acts.

            There is also the use of evil as sickness, both mentally and physically.  These sicknesses can be seen in Amos Oz’s My Michael.  In My Michael, the main character Hannah displays symptoms of rather severe emotional deterioration.  This came to fruition when Hannah took the freezing cold showers on the cold morning, silently laughing in her pain.  As Hannah describes, “I strained my vocal cords like a drunkard, singing and shouting.  The pain and the pleasure enflamed each other.  The pain was delicious and exhilarating” and “I turned blue with cold.  The warm pain spread down my back, trickled down my spine” (173).  These actions clearly suggest that Hannah was undergoing a very serious sickness that effected everyone around her.  There was a definite evil present.

Another example of sickness as an evil can been seen in Kying-Sook Shin’s Please Look After Mom.  In this novel, we can see evil in the form of disease.  As a mother’s condition continuously deteriorates, all while she is neglected as a constant person by her family, the reader sees just how the evil of physical disease can affect one’s life.  As the mother took pleasure in visiting her son in the bustling city of Seoul, she had few hesitations to visit him again, despite her ailments.  However, while there she has an episode that leaves her lost and confused in a subway system in the largest city in Korea.  And yes, while the story does go on to use the mother’s disappearance as a means to develop her as a character and her family’s transition to a life without her presence, it is inescapable to recognize how the mother’s constant headaches and memory loss affected the entire family.  Even after their mother’s disappearance, her children and her husband all recollect how they had sat passively by while ignoring the signs of mother’s conditions.

Lastly, the evil of complacency occurs within the novels that we have covered.  In Arabian Nights and Days, the sultan character made a drastic change in his life when he chose to abandon the throne and take the life of a travelling commoner.  It is while on his adventures outside of the palace that the sultan does actually obtain an opportunity for real happiness.  When meeting a mystical queen, she offers to the sultan a life as “my partner in love and in throne” in a “city not of human making: in beauty, splendor, elegance, cleanliness, fragrance, and climate” (225).  Had the sultan remained complacent in his unsatisfying role as leader, he would never have been granted the opportunity to life a life of eternal pleasure.

In Please Look After Mom, complacency is recognized as an evil that kept the eyes of the children and husband characters void of their mother’s condition and her influence in their lives.  One of the most powerful and meaning times that this is displayed is when her daughter is remembering how accepting her mother was of her father when he returned from a time away from his family with another woman.  She describes how the father walks into the room where the whole family is sleeping, as her mother wakes up and brings him a bowl of rice that she had prepared for him and placed in the warmest corner of the room.  She had performed this ritual everyday that her husband was gone. 

There is also the scene in Please Look After Mom that describes how the father had never considered their mother when he continuously walked a pace too fast for her.  It is because of this negligence that she was lost originally, having lost sight of her husband as he walked ahead in the crowded subway.  In his mourning after mother been lost, the father character dreads his previous ways.  He confesses to himself “since your wife has gone missing, your heart feels as if it will explode every time you think about your fast gait” (149).  It was only after he had lost his wife did the father realize that he had taken her for granted throughout their whole marriage.  And it was this evil complacency that eventually caused their mother to be hopelessly lost in the Seoul winter.

Evil is accepted reality in the world.  Through all of the good things in the world, there is always this enemy to overcome.  As we have recognized throughout the novels we have read, contemporary literature is greatly concerned with the overcoming of these evil forces and the realization of their presence afterwards. We see that evil has the ability to take many forms, all of which are out solely for the detriment of people.  Whether internal or external, evil has a way to make itself known and it is up to us to recognize and overcome it.  Contemporary literature makes this theme known through its writing.