Wyatt Taylor

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102-021
29 September 2015
Reflection
After reading this paper I believe this is a pretty solid first draft for my inquiry proposal. Of
course its just a start and still a work in progress but at least I have my solid points in the paper
and believe I can add some more ideas to this paper. Some of my concerns right now would have
to be adding more examples to this paper of evil people. I know there are many famous evil
people out there but my question is do I need to relate the people to The Book Thief? Some of
my examples would be Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Jeffry Dahmer. These guys really dont
relate to The Book Thief but I feel they would be good examples to add to this paper.
Why so Evil?
I have been thinking about this for many years now and Im sure Im not the only person
that has had this same question. There are many evil people in this world today and many of
them you have learned about in the past. What I want to know is why people become evil? Is it
because it is the way they were raised? Is there something mentally wrong with people that make
them evil? Or just one day do they believe they want to be recognized and maybe doing a terrible
thing will get them recognized.
I really started thinking about this question as a little kid but never did anything to try
and find the real answer. After reading The Book Thief, the question really came to my attention

again. The Book Thief is about a young orphan, Liesel, arrives at the home of her new foster
parents, Hans and Rosa. When Hans, a kindly housepainter, learns that Liesel cannot read, he
teaches the child the wonders of the written language. Liesel grows to love books, even rescuing
gone from a Nazi bonfire. Though Liesel's new family barely scrape by, their situation become
seven more precarious when they secretly shelter a Jewish boy whose father once saved Hans'
life. This book takes place during World War II when Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany
and the most influential and powerful person in the world. During his reign, he killed many Jews,
honestly for no reason, but what he also did was bring evil to many ordinary people. Hitler was
in charge of the Nazis at this time and because Hitler was so influential he made the Nazis think
like him. This brought more evil to people during this time. After I have done some research on
this time in history, I plan on doing more research on what really made Hitler so evil and were
the Nazis evil as well or did they just act evil because they were forced to and did Hitler make
these people evil.
Hitler might have been the most evil person ever, but this time in history was not the
only time evil has been showcased all over the world. Evil first began in The Bible. Now this is
only from a Christianity view and I plan on doing more research from other religions about evil
and about where they believe evil came from or if they believe evil is real. From a Christianity
standpoint, evil began in The Bible, and was created by Satan. Satan was once one of Gods
angels, but Satan wanted to be more powerful. He knew the only way he could be me more
powerful would be to abandon God and be opposite. To do this he must try and change what
Gods plan was to do. Gods plan was to make people perfect just like him and the first people
God created was Adam and Eve. Satan knew that he had to make Adam and Eve abandon God
and break the rules. Satan was able to do this by persuading Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and

Eve then gave the fruit to Adam. This action of disobeying God became known as sin, and
because sin was created then by Adam and Eve and they were no longer perfect making no one
else is perfect, except Jesus.
Now because evil was created and I know where it comes from, but what really makes a
person evil. Like what made the Devil evil and were Adam and Eve considered evil because they
have sinned, but that would make everyone evil because everyone sins. But what really makes
evil, evil. According to Merriam Webster dictionary, evil is defined as morally reprehensible; or
arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct. So now that evil is defined then what
makes a person evil?
After reading about why some people are evil, my first thought was greed. I believe that
greed is the biggest cause of evil. Now Im not sure what exactly is wanted when becoming evil.
For example, what was in return for Hitler killing all of the Jews, if I had to take a guess I bet it
was power. But after reading I do believe some people are evil because something is physically
wrong with them. The article titled, Why Some People are Evil, talks about the molecule
oxytocin, which he call the moral molecule. He did a study on thousands of people and whether
people are oxytocin releasers or non-releasers. The difference between the two is
that the oxytocin releasers include having someone trust you with their money, being touched,
and even watching an emotional movie. The people who do not release the oxytocin are people
who have many of the traits of psychopaths: they are charming, deceptive, and even selfdeceptive. And, when there is money that can be shared with others, they
unabashedly keep it all for themselves. This brings me back to greed, which is one of the
seven deadly sins. The results came to be 95 percent oxytocin releasers and five percent of
people did not release oxytocin.

In conclusion, what makes people evil? I believe this question will interesting to myself and to
the readers. After never doing a paper like this I believe I am reading to really try to find out the
real answer I have found facts and done little research on this question, but as I go along I know
more research will have to be done. I know more questions will come to my mind as well such as
can evil be reversed? Or what really makes a person evil. This question will be very difficult to
answer and honestly might not be answered just because of the many opinions and different facts
on this topic.