In both King Lear and A Thousand Acres, everyone contains the seeds of morality and immortality in varying degrees; however, corruption prevails in threatening situations because of human weakness.
Often people desire to succeed so badly that they will hurt those they love to do so. Their greed stifles any good intentions because of uncontrollable ambition. Larry, who has built up the farm to one thousand acres, exemplifies someone who wants to p rosper at all costs. Ginny describes how he sacrificed his family for this success when she states, "Not long before the death of our mother, Daddy drained the pond and took out the trees and stumps around it so he could work that field more efficiently." (85) As children, Ginny, Rose, and Caroline had a place they enjoyed to swim which also held certain memories of their mother. It took up little space, yet Larry got rid of it so he could have more farmland. He did not want to take away this swimming hole deliberately to hurt his children. Instead, he intended to maximize his farm size to make the most money and farm as efficiently as he could, which seems a respectable goal. Yet because he would deny his children a simple pleasure to make a few extra dol lars he demonstrates his greed. He is not willing to sacrifice anything for his family and this lack of compassion shows his uncontrollable ambition.
The youngest daughter Caroline shows a similar example of having too much ambition. Unlike the rest of the family, Caroline has a desire to be something other than a farmer. When Larry has finally decided to give up his dream of maintaining the farm, C aroline wants no part in the property. Ginny says, "Caroline would have said, if she'd dared, that she didn't want to live on the farm, that she was trained as a lawyer and was marrying another lawyer, but that was a sore subject."(20) Unlike her sisters, Caroline wants to be a lawyer. She has every right to this aspiration yet, because she makes this dream the main part of her life, she puts it ahead of Larry's decision to give up the farm.
Certainly one can see the influence of ancient thought in many of today's popular films. This is especially true in the 1999 film by Warner Brothers entitled, "Matrix". The films elaborate and mind-warping take on reality, lends itself to serious philosophical analysis. Many have endeavored in f...
Does our strength of character and morals have a chance against our darker inner instincts for violence and evil? ... Ralph and Jack could be viewed, as according to Jung's theory of collective unconsciousness, as archetypes of good and evil (Feldman et al. 2004), order and chaos. ... Instinct theories suggest that aggression is primarily the outcome of inate "inborn "urges. ...