Wyatt Taylor

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102-021
1 October 2015
Reflection
For my second draft I believe its a little better than my first draft. I got some great positive
feedback from the people in my group and because of that I believe this draft is so much better. I
really didnt change much from my first draft to my second. I had some grammatical errors and
that I believe was my biggest problem, but besides that I dont believe much of this paper should
be changed. I thought about adding some more into it but I didnt want to make my proposal too
factual so I didnt add much.
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 do 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 one day do they believe they want to be recognized and maybe doing a
terrible thing that 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 Hubberman. 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 one from a Nazi bonfire. Though Liesel's new family barely scrape by, their situation
becomes even 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, 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 were Adam
and Eve. Satan knew that he had to make Adam and Eve abandoned 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, what really makes a
person evil? Like what made the Devil evil and were Adam and Eve considered evil because they
have sinned? That might 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, 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 self-deceptive. 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. Since Ive never done 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 completely just because of the many
opinions and different factors on this topic.