Caught In The Widow's Web

Black Widows are both feared and glorified in society. From being seen as intruders that must be destroyed upon entering a home, to being a lethal superhero; the Black Widow undertakes many different personas. In Gordon Grice’s essay “Caught in the Widow’s Web”, a new identity is found: Evil. Grice takes an in-depth look at why evil is in a world with “a benevolent God.” Similar to most essays, “Caught in The Widow’s Web” uses a variety of modes. One of the modes used is showing a process. Grice describes the process of how the black widow kills its innocent victims stating, “The widow climbs down and throws [the] gummy silk onto its new prey.” This shows how the spider captures its prey. Showing the process of how the spider consumes its prey menacingly. Grice uses the word gummy due to its negative connotation; reiterating the idea that the widow represents the malevolent force in this world. Another mode Grice uses is narrative. Grice flashes back to his childhood to show how the widow is feared by not only its prey but also …show more content…
His tone is awestruck and befuddled. Grice, much like many others, is confounded by the idea of the unnecessary evils found in nature. He concludes that even scientists cannot find an explanation for the strength of the widow’s venom by saying, “Evolution sometimes produces flowers of natural evil traits that are neither functional nor vestigial but utterly pointless.” The widow is a natural anomaly that is seen as evil due to its pointless evolutionary progress. In “Caught in the Widow’s Web”, Grice explores the natural evils in this world. He questions why there is unnecessary evil when saying, “No idea of a benevolent God is comfortable in a world with the widow.” Not only does Grice question why such an amicable figure would allow for such a dangerous creature, he does so in a concise, elegant manner in his