Anand Giridharadas brings in a crucial and thought provoking idea into this already riveting story; the idea that “we all harbor germs of evil”. This concept is difficult for me to swallow, and I believe it could be difficult for anyone to fathom. Do we all really believe that, inside somewhere we’re all evil? Do we all really accept that we could be bad people? I have never broken a law, been a subject of discipline in school, or provoked trouble in my neighborhood and I’m told to believe that I could still be evil? This controversial and profound statement made by Giridharadas can be directly thrown into the psychological category of “Nature vs. Nurture”. Are we the people that we are because of biological similarities to our parents and
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His parents weren’t exactly considered citizens of the year, but perhaps they could have made it easier on Stroman and his siblings had they not been brought up in a house where abuse and neglect were prevalent, family unity was just a dream, and the chances of making it out and on to a prosperous life were slim to none. These conditions made it easy for Stroman to accept these things as normal and he made the choice to do so. The book mentions that Stroman’s grandparents had it well, and states that Stroman spent a lot of time at his grandparents. They acted more like his parents than his mother and father. His grandfather gave him the opportunity to work on the farm, and it was very clear that his grandparents had done what they could to salvage Stroman’s damaged home life. Stroman, however, turned into a mischievous adolescent that made little effort to turn his life around. Glimpses of effort are shown when his children are born. Stroman would shape up for a few weeks, maybe a few months, and then turn right back into his ways of juvenile delinquency and troublemaking. Stroman wasn’t shown the discipline necessary to distinguish and maintain right and wrong, so he was unbounded by what he could and could not do. Stroman’s “germs of evil” toxified him at a young age, as it does to many criminals and convicts. The intensity of his ideals and values would only prove to
His parents weren’t exactly considered citizens of the year, but perhaps they could have made it easier on Stroman and his siblings had they not been brought up in a house where abuse and neglect were prevalent, family unity was just a dream, and the chances of making it out and on to a prosperous life were slim to none. These conditions made it easy for Stroman to accept these things as normal and he made the choice to do so. The book mentions that Stroman’s grandparents had it well, and states that Stroman spent a lot of time at his grandparents. They acted more like his parents than his mother and father. His grandfather gave him the opportunity to work on the farm, and it was very clear that his grandparents had done what they could to salvage Stroman’s damaged home life. Stroman, however, turned into a mischievous adolescent that made little effort to turn his life around. Glimpses of effort are shown when his children are born. Stroman would shape up for a few weeks, maybe a few months, and then turn right back into his ways of juvenile delinquency and troublemaking. Stroman wasn’t shown the discipline necessary to distinguish and maintain right and wrong, so he was unbounded by what he could and could not do. Stroman’s “germs of evil” toxified him at a young age, as it does to many criminals and convicts. The intensity of his ideals and values would only prove to