Exploratory Essay on Is Revenge Ever Justifiable

The question as to whether revenge should be justifiable or not is a complex one and needs a lot of discussion and this is of great importance to the society to learn the impacts of revenge in the society. This is because there are people that have faced great suffering and challenges throughout their lives and feel that the goodness does not pay and that morality is unappreciated in the society and therefore resort to criminal activities in order to repay for the evils that have befallen them. In this situation, it proves to be difficult to blame those that seek revenge because they feel that have made every effort to become good people but their goodness is not reciprocated. In this case, there is need to examine the issue with wisdom to ensure that holistic evaluation is put in the analysis of the matter (O'Connor 23). The question is of great interest because of the widespread and increasing cases of revenge in the society because people have developed the urge to seek revenge for the wrongs done to them.

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In the story of A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor, there are several lessons to learn and which prove to be of great importance to the society. The story tells of how the urge to revenge has changed the personality of Misfits and made her become a hardcore criminal (O'Connor 32). This shows the extreme effect of the urge to revenge and proves the need for the society to understand the effects of the same in order to tackle the problem in the society. The story starts with the planned family trip of Bailey plans to take his family and his mother, otherwise called grandmother on a trip to Florida. The family has a smooth journey until they get involved in an accident and run into Misfits, a hard core criminal. Misfits, together with his gang, kills all the family members despite grandmother pleading with him to spare their lives.

Reluctance of Misfits to save the lives of the Baileys and that of the grandmother relates to the suffering he had undergone through. Before killing her, Misfits opens to the grandmother what made him to turn to criminal activities and the basis of his need for revenge (O'Connor 34). Misfits tells grandmother that he tried all the rightful ways of becoming stable and living through the right path but no avenue was successful, he also posits that he prayed to Jesus but his prayers were not answered. In this regard, he has therefore sought to make people suffer and steal in order to made the society feel the pain that he felt during his early days.

It factual that Misfits suffered and felt that even God had abandoned him, however there is no importance of seeking revenge, this is because seeking revenge only makes people to suffer and propagates the act of revenge in the society. Despite the challenges that one has gone through, one needs to appreciate the role of forgiveness and forget the past and build own life in a positive manner (O'Connor 76). The book helps in understanding the question in that it shows, systematically, how challenges and evils in the society change the behavior of people to seek revenge and become evil. From the book, I learnt that revenge is not a solution to ones problems neither does it solve past injustices in ones life. The source offers a practical example of the effects of revenge and encourages the population to disown the idea of revenge in the society. What is missing from the source is that it does not elaborate how evil people seeking revenge influence others to help them in fulfilling their evil desires of revenge. From the source, the next step is to educate the society on how to deal with evils and not allowing degeneration into revenge.

According to Retribution and revenge by Brian Lickel much support is shown for revenge and the author supports the issue of revenge in the society and posits that revenge is always the right answer. The author proves that revenge should be viewed as a form of punishment and that no one should feel guilty by punishing someone else, in this manner, the author proves that revenge makes the parties equal and it is the first offender that should feel guilty because they are the one that called for revenge and that it creates a room for forgetting the wrongful done to a person (Brian 88). There should therefore be encouraged revenge in the society to ensure that people forget and move on from to a new page. Finally, the author proves that revenge makes a person determined and that it is natural to every human being.

The second source, The Cask of Amontillado was chosen because of its view on revenge and how revenge affects friendship in the society. In this manner, the effect of revenge is shown among friends and the result of the same catastrophe. The source argues that revenge can be sought even between the best of friends and that friends need to help one another to build morals and encourage peaceful relation between members of the society. I agree with the source that revenge is so strong that it can change long term friends to become great enemies to the extent of planning to kill and killing each other. The source is wrong in proving that even friends tackle their differences through revenge; this is because friends needs to develop the right cordiality that can help them to tackle their differences. Additionally, friends need to support one another and not abuse and it should be the foundation of unity and cohesion in the society.

Brodersen Rupert Brodersen iin his book, Rage, Rancour and Revenge: Existentialist Motives in International Relations makes support for revenge and posits that it is in line with karma. In this case, revenge helps in ensuring that the offenders get a dose of their own medicine and that they turn away from their evil ways (Brodersen 32). This proves that revenge makes the society better by reducing the number of criminals and creating harmony among individuals. Finally, revenge occurs naturally to everyone and it is therefore not evil to encourage it.

Conclusion

From the articles, I have developed the view that the society needs to appreciate peace and unity and tackle evils that propagate revenge. Psychologists need to encourage the society on how to deal with lifes disappointments and eliminate any thoughts of revenging other parties. Even after the examination of the sources, it still challenging to answer the question, this is because the urge to revenge develops under different circumstances and for different reasons and this makes it to create a uniform solution toward the issue. Additionally, some cases of revenge seem justifiable as it helps in eliminating the sources of evils in eth society.

Works Cited

Brodersen, Rupert. Rage, rancour and revenge: existentialist motives in international relations. Diss. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), 2014.

Lickel, Brian. "Retribution and revenge." (2012).

O'Connor, Flannery. A good man is hard to find. Harvest Books, 1955.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The cask of Amontillado. The Creative Company, 2008.