About Human Nature

The book “The elephant man” by Bernard Pomerance and the book “The Monkey’s paw” by W. W. Jacobs are all representative examples that reflect the brightness and darkness of human nature. Human nature are actions, thoughts, and features that are born to have, inevitable, and might lead to problems. In “The Elephant Man”, a person named Ross is letting people pay money so they can see a strange and desperate elephant man, and a kind doctor, Treves, comes to save him. In “The Monkey’s paw”, a person named Morris gave out a monkey’s paw that can grant wishes to the White’s family, which caused Herbert White’s death. These simple things can all show that human nature appears just beside us, and it can cause great consequences.

Bad human nature blinds people’s eyes and lures them to do wrong things. No matter if it’s greediness, curiosity, selfishness, or hatred to ugliness, it lets people see the world in a bad and   unequal point of view. According to “The elephant man”, Ross’s greediness to money lets him harm the elephant man, while people’s curiosity and hatred to ugliness made them have a bad impression of the elephant man. According to “The monkey’s paw”, Morris’s selfishness is shown when he knew the consequences the monkey’s paw would bring, but he still gave it out. Also, the White’s family’s greediness and curiosity attracted them to buy the monkey’s paw, so death seems more like to punish their greediness. If people can control themselves with bad human nature, they will still have a normal life without consequences, rather than a bad life. As a result, people should learn to control their deepest desire.

Even though bad human nature happens very often and will bring consequences, there is still good human nature. Good human nature appears to change the situation, including correcting mistakes, helping, respecting, and understanding others, also spreading kindness. In “The Elephant Man”, when everyone is feeling disgusted with the elephant man and stays away from him, Treves comes to help him. He understood the person’s feelings and gave him enough respect. This shows his kindness and sympathy. In “The monkey’s paw”, even though the White’s family made so many wrong decisions, they finally are no longer believing in it, and they used the last wish to correct the second wish. In all, no matter what consequences bad human nature causes, the sincere and kindness of good human nature will always come to make a change. People shouldn’t let bad human nature take over them, but try to have good thoughts and characteristics.

Whether it's bad human nature or good human nature, it is rooted in internal causes. Laziness, ambition, self-interest, without conscience and empathy are all reasons that cause human nature. Putting this into “The elephant man”, people don’t like the elephant man because they don’t have conscience and sympathy, only self-interest. They see the appearance of others, so they don’t feel pity for him. Ross too, he has a business, so making money is important to him, but Treves is a doctor, so helping others is normal. This is not their fault, for they have different values. Putting this into “The monkey’s paw”, it is laziness, ambition and self-interest that gave the monkey’s paw a chance to harm others. The White’s family always wanted the best for them, but they are lazy, so they decided to use the monkey’s paw, ignoring the consequences that might have. Also, Morris, he knew the bad of the monkey’s paw but still gave it out, it seems like he is selfish, but if he didn’t, his own family will be harmed. Human nature isn’t as easy as it seems to be, behind this is the determination of people wanting the best for themselves, but in change, they need to sacrifice others. Human nature actually has no good or bad, it is the deepest hopes and desires that makes people do things.

In conclusion, human nature has different sides, it is a feature born to have, inevitable, and might cause consequences. Bad human nature includes selfishness, greediness, curiosity and hatred to ugliness. Good human nature includes correcting mistakes, respecting, understanding, having sympathy and spreading kindness. Human nature is a characteristic that lets people do whatever it takes to get the best for themselves. In front of oneself, human nature is neither good nor bad, only what it can bring to oneself. It is one thing that never goes away.