Evil and its presence in this world is an interesting topic to discuss. Where does sickness, death and evil come from is seemingly the age old question. It is clear in studying history that many explanations have come up and yet it is difficult as I sit here staring at my computer trying to put into words a story of my own when it comes to evil and where it comes from. I think of stories like Pandora’s Box or even King’s story and yet it is still a challenge. I shall try my best therefore.
The First Shadow.
The basic background to the story
The Shadow symbolizes evil
Your Shadow could be atoned for and therefore taken away. The story of the first shadow create it into a murder greed and darkness coming from someone’s heart and therefore creating the first shadow
The story of the first shadow being created explains how the greed that is found in the characters heart creates the first shadow.
A canoe trip was the beginning of a wonderful fall semester. It was accompanied by my three sisters and my father. Every day was spent in paddling the Lady Lake Evelyn a gem of a lake hidden in Ontario’s Northern Wilderness. The days were beautiful and the nights were spent in continuous laughter and the sharing of life’s moments that will forever be held close. It was in a star-filled night that I decided to tell the Story of the first Shadow. Occurring generations earlier I retold the horrific story to my sisters on how the first family brought the Shadow into the world. The first family had two girls it had been a happy upbringing with joy and continuous laughter. There were no shadows or darkness, there were no arguments or bitterness. Laughter was forever heard in this beautiful family. What occurred next forever changed society though and a dark shadow would forever follow mankind. The older sister fell into the trap set out by a higher power. She fell into the trap of greed by wanting not only the beauty of light but light itself which was the Sun. By having this unquenchable want for the sun a Shadow was attached to her being changing who she was. The darkness of the shadow that had attached itself to the sister was unshakeable. It followed her wherever she went and the shame and misery of the Shadow caused her to commit her second crime of murder. She was unable to see the beauty of her former life and in her darkness she killed those who had been her life. Mankind was brought under the curse of this unforsakeable shadow and the only hope of salvation was found in the starlit sky. In the starlit moments where the sun gave peace to the world for just a few hours release from the Shadow is found. In these moments forgiveness was found but complete dismissal of the Shadow was not a reality. Because of her greedy desire of more sun she fell into the trap of the shadow.
The story horrified and made a damper on the evening we had enjoyed together it was another reminder that the Shadow exists. The story had been told and although new in storytelling the reality was the same. The story exists. The story was told and like the shadow it would stay.
In writing this blog post I struggled. I am not at all accostomed to this type of exerise and it was definitly a challenge. I feel like stories are important and yet while I am continuously telling stories about my life or what is happening to people around me. Yet for some reason writing a story about evil and how it came felt foreign and somewhat difficult. Because I have such a strong idea of where our world came from it felt very odd writing my own version. Ultimitaly though the idea of stories and the importance of telling stories is a important part of all our lives. As King states “The truth about stories is that that’s all we are(King).” In telling my story to a friend she definitely resonated with the idea of a Shadow representing evil. In the sense that it is obvious that there is evil all around us and it sometimes seems to attach itself to our lives.
Works Cited
Lopenzina, D. “Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History, and: The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative (review).” The American Indian Quarterly, vol. 32 no. 3, 2008, pp. 356-359. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/aiq.0.0005.