Role Of Selfishness In Literature

Selfishness: An Inescapable Plague

As humans, we are inconsiderate, egoistic, greedy animals who proceed down the most revolting and corrupt path in order to achieve our desired goals. Gone are our ethical values when our hunger for success and power is unleashed. Unconcerned with the wellbeing of others, our lethal daggers plunge into our vulnerable prey. Why is it that even with many witnesses, no one dares to take a step forward to save the victim? Many may feed you the generic response of “it is a problematic question with an equally challenging answer”. That would be an ambiguous answer to mask the shameful truth. With sordid rawness, we, the human race, are selfishly disgusting. We are unable to face our own selfishness, so instead, we choose to suffocate and hide the reality of its existence. When reading literature, we are exposed to this demoralising flaw within ourselves. In literature, characters mirror our society’s struggle with selfishness. However, the question is to what extent does reading literature shock us out of our own selfishness? How are we, the readers, reminded of our selfishness, and how effectively do we respond? Through the text, the characters evolve by battling an internal or external conflict, and selfishness remains to be a factor in the problem. We read about their egoistic choices, and, …show more content…
Under the influence of literature, readers, to a great degree , become aware of this undermined selfish catastrophe. It unlocks the potential of correcting our mistakes, but the journey to complete selflessness is far beyond human capacity. Our awareness of selfishness may reduce the severity and quantity of it, but to completely eradicate this selfish plague is impossible. Greed will poison its preys , and even a strong antidote like literature is only capable of slowing the