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Brittan Kennedy
Prof. Philip Anosike
COMM 1750
24, September 2011
ARE HUMANS ESSENTIALLY GOOD, EVIL, OR BOTH
There are people from various ethnic cultures with different
beliefs and religions. Today society is extremely diverse, that is why I
cannot truly believe that people are good, or evil because people have
both of these qualities. Over the millennia, people have been good,
evil, and every inch in between.
As humans, we live in a world that is always growing and
changing. I believe we have evolved behaviors that escalate our
chances of survival and reproduction. When we are in a stable
environment with food on the table and a roof over our head, we are
more likely to be moral. We are in a place where we can and should
help others. However, in a highly stressful environment, when our
resources are low, we will step on whoever is in our way if it will help
us survive. In the book Night, by Elie Weisel, he talked about how
people in the holocaust would be so hungry that they would fight
anyone who had food. They would beat people up and turn on their
friends just for a small piece of bread. In situations like this, humans
are evil, but they had to be to survive. Now if circumstances were

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different, I doubt any of them would have risked killing someone to
benefit themselves.
People have both of the good and evil traits, but for the most
part I believe humans are essentially decent people. No one is born
evil, people change based on his or her environment. Look at how
amazing people are when a crisis occurs. How people will band
together and do whatever they need to do to help the ones that are
displaced or hurt. When hurricane Katrina hit us in 2005, millions of
people lost their homes and families. No one asked for help yet a great
deal of people stepped up and donated money and their time. Things
like this show me that humans have big hearts and are capable of
being good.
I read an article about a girl named Agnus Gonxha Bojaxhiu, who
left her comfortable home at the age of 18, to become a missionary,
knowing she would never see her family again. Agnus, better
recognized as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, gave 45 years of her life to
helping the impoverished. In 1979, she received the Nobel Peace Prize
and after her death was declared by the Roman Catholic Church, she
was rewarded a critical step toward sainthood. Just last year, on the
100th anniversary of her birth, there was an international
commemoration of her service to humanity. People across the world
admire her selflessness. I am so stunned that a girl, who is my age,
took on such an immense task. She didnt have to leave. Agnus had a

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good life at home and she gave it all up to go to countries in poverty
and help people. She left knowing she wasnt going to get anything out
of it. No money, no fame. She just felt it was the right thing to do.
Mother Teresa is an extremely generous person.
Everyone simply wants to love and be loved, and to live life right.
When you no longer need to defend the boundaries of self, a natural
goodness tends to arise. The good heart emerges on its own. We are a
complicated species, both immoral and moral. But I believe, that
mostly the moral dominates.

Work Cited
Jay Michaelson, Columnist, Activist, and recent professor at Boston
Univ. law school
Posted: Febrary 16, 2010
Psychologytoday.com
myLot.com 2008
www.nobelprize.org September 23, 2011