Did you feel any of the main characters were evil, or did you mostly feel they were well-meaning?
Is anyone wholly bad? I recently heard the novelist, Sarah Perry, speak on her beliefs in writing and her position is that all humans have a good and side (I maybe simplifying what she said) which is why she may structure her worst characters with warmth. I struggled with this because Iām not sure I could anything good about a Hitler or a Stalin. But in the case of these characters, I really didnāt see anything evil as what these two men did, I just saw venial people with little empathy or altruism.
I wouldnāt say they were either. For the most part, they were all exceptionally self-interested. Everyone is at least somewhat self-interested, but these characters were more so than most.
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Greed truly affects oneās morals and some people more so than others. Evil? Maybe not, but definitely self-serving.
I wouldnāt classify the characters as evil, but many of them were certainly of the āends justify the meansā mentality.
I donāt know about evil but I really didnāt like Charlie Creek. Just as he seemed to develop somewhat of a conscious he chooses the easy way out by turning his back on people who were kind to him. He let the greed in him take him back.
I didnāt feel any of the characters were evil. Their behavior is universal, mostly motivated by making money, getting ahead, staying ahead. Although their is an element of Greed in their actions when they get āhookedā on money and power.
I think how one defines or perceives āevilā is subjective and dependent upon oneās individual and unique circumstances. Is it considered āevilā to only look out for oneself at the expense of others?
I realize Iām not answering this question but posing another, which requires me to go back thru the characters one by one to examine.
They definitely made selfish terrible decisions, but most of them felt like regular people trying to do what they thought was best, even if they got it wrong. It would have been easy to make the financial crisis seem like it was caused by obvious villains, but I think the book showed how well-meaning people mixed with greed can end up creating something much bigger than any one person intended.
So many comments to reply to!!
I donāt think they were well-meaning, I surmise they were caught up in what was starting to happen in the world. In the book I think everyone was swept up in what was happening in the world - if you or your company do not move forward, you lose. There was no win/win in what happened. As mentioned, Charlie Creek was the least likable.
Most of the characters were interested only in their own situation. I wish there had been more interaction with the whole group other than the very rushed ending. I donāt think the book brought it all together in the end as I was expecting, given the detail in each chapter.
Not evil, per se, just incredibly entitled.
I didnāt get a sense of evil from any of the characters per se, but all of them were very self interested and greedy. As the old saying goes, though, money is the root of all evil.