Assignment 1.5: The Story of How Evil Came into the World
The Story of How Evil Came into the World
I have a great story to tell you.
Or, well, it’s your decision, really, whether you think it’s a great story. But you can only decide that once you’ve heard it.
Or you could just walk away now and assume that any story I could tell probably wouldn’t be that great anyhow. Are you willing to take the risk and hear me out?
Well, this is a story of how evil came to the world. If you can believe it, there was a time when this world didn’t have any greed or maliciousness, there was no prejudice or hatred, and there was no loneliness or abandonment. But that was a long time ago.
Back then, there was a child who had wandered away from their village in search of a new spot to play. They were hoping for a new idea for a game to alight in their mind with promises of amusement and laughter. The child wandered often, but seldom this far from the safety of the arms of their mother and the comfort of their circle of friends.
We can call this child Eve, if you want. Or Pandora, maybe. Any name will do. I’ll call them Foolish for now. But we can change the name whenever we’d like to.
Now, Foolish wandered further and further away from their village and the trees began to grow thicker and darker. The child was barefoot and unclothed, for the soil was soft and the sun was gentle where they usually played. But, in this strange place away from home, thorns on the ground began to prick their feet and the sun was blocked by a thick cover of pine needles, so their skin grew cold and they began to shiver for the first time.
While many children would have turned around by now, Foolish thought that they had better continue on. They were spurred on by imaginings of discovering something new and bringing back a story to share with their siblings. So, Foolish scampered through brambles and dug under branches, scratching their smooth golden skin and getting mud in their dark brown hair.
Just when Foolish supposed that perhaps they should turn around and seek a new adventure somewhere a tad less difficult to walk, the child glanced upon some glowing eyes in the thicket ahead. The eyes were unblinking and bright, drawing Foolish closer and closer.
“Hello!” cried the child to the glowing eyes. (Remember, Foolish has never had to worry about meeting strangers in the woods before. Those stories hadn’t been told yet.)
Upon being greeted, the Creature slunk out of the shadows. It wasn’t very large at all, but Foolish had never seen an animal like it before. Strangely, the child couldn’t seem to grasp quite what the Creature looked like, and couldn’t form an idea of its image in their mind.
Suddenly, Foolish was overcome with a new feeling, a feeling they had never encountered before. It was a feeling of discomfort, of skin beginning to crawl, of breath becoming constrained, and of eyes starting to water. Foolish stopped walking forwards, and stood still, gazing at the Creature, whose size seemed to have grown slightly larger.
The Creature locked eyes with Foolish and then opened its mouth to speak. “I have a great story to tell you,” the Creature said. It said it with a smile and with a grimace and with a sneer and with a snarl. And as the Creature spoke, it grew in size.
Foolish was caught. Where the child had previously been looking down upon the Creature, Foolish now had to crane their neck to see its glowing eyes. It’s not that they wanted to, believe me. But they felt drawn in, entranced and as if they were being held in a tight grip, unable to move and unable to breathe as the Creature continued to speak in an unfamiliar tone.
Foolish couldn’t deny the story. Foolish couldn’t nod or look away. Foolish was small and shivering, and was held by a much stronger force than they had ever encountered.
The Creature continued to weave the story. It grew and writhed like a pile of hissing snakes, or swirled like a cloud of acrid smoke, or bubbled like a pool of burning tar. It wrapped around the child and forced its way inside their ears, eyes, and mouth. Foolish was overwhelmed with hatred, greed, desire, loneliness, fear, and anger. They collapsed to the ground, wrapping their arms around their body for a sense of comfort, but the comfort never came.
The story seemed to go on forever, but really, it was over in an instant. For, the length of the story doesn’t matter, it’s what the story holds that counts.
The Creature saw that the story had woven its dark magic and retreated once more into the darkness.
After a while, Foolish managed to sit up. Then they began to drag themselves back towards their village in the mud and the thorns. Then they managed to stand up, and stumble. Finally, they began to run.
When Foolish returned, they appeared the same to their family and friends as they had before hearing this new story. Except, of course, a little scraped, bruised, and muddy. But, while Foolish looked the same, the child had changed imperceptibly. They were full of the story of evil that they had just heard, unable to leave it behind.
From that day, with every word that Foolish spoke they shared a bit of the story, passing it on to their family, to their friends, to their village. And so evil spread from person to person, a little bit at a time.
For, once a story is told it becomes loose in the world. You cannot take a story back, nor can you return a story that you did not like. Every story you hear becomes a part of your own story and a part of the story of those close to you.
So, be careful of the words you dare to whisper. And be wary of the whispers that tempt you to listen.
Stories are dangerous things.
————
In creating this story and sharing it orally, I learned a few things. First, the story changed subtly every time I spoke it. Through inflection, tone, the arrangement of words, and pace, my oral story had a slightly different feel in every rendition. Secondly, I learned how difficult it is to capture the ease of spoken word in written form. I struggled to know when it was suitable to break paragraphs, whether to use commas or ellipses and when casual language was appropriate or not. Lastly, I learned how much energy and emotion it takes to properly convey an oral story. I had to use my hands, facial expressions, and variance in loudness and softness, just to name a few storytelling techniques needed to convey the story. I also noticed that my story changed depending on who I was telling it to, based on how engaged they were in the tale and whether they were responsive to a more active storyteller versus a more subtle approach.
This assignment makes me excited to read more stories aloud and see how this changes my perception of the language and the story.
Works Cited
Isbouts , Jean-Pierre. “Why Adam and Eve Were Cast out of Eden.” National Geographic, 31 Jan. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people-in-the-bible/adam-eve-couple-relationship-bible/.
Otis, Dan. “Ariel View of Pine Trees in the Mist.” Unsplash, 8 Aug. 2017, https://unsplash.com/@danotis.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Pandora.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18 Apr. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Pandora-Greek-mythology.
Hi Georgia! I loved your story! I’ve been struggling with this assignment myself, for the same reasons you mention like grammar and form but also forming a story line and plot. I’m finding myself being very torn between emotions with how you mention Eve and Pandora at the beginning of the story. I love how it invokes the themes and morals of those stories which enriches some of the details of your own. I also love how you keep the main character gender neutral throughout the story keeping the story universal. However, having mentioned Eve and Pandora at the beginning, and also maybe as a female reader, somehow seems to colour the main character with a female energy. Adam is never as guilty as Eve, there’s Narcissus but it’s not the same degree as say Pandora. Which made me think, where are the male stories of evil in our history?
I don’t know why this posted as anonymous!
This is Emilia Brandoli from ENGL 372! Apologies!
Hi Emilia, thanks for the comment!
I’m glad that you shared some of the struggles I had with this assignment. I decided to just trust my sense of pace and spacing and accept my discomfort with writing in such casual language.
I really wanted to write an origin story of evil that didn’t place blame upon a certain gender; however, I wanted to remind audiences of the tendency for blame to rest with women for being curious or foolish. So, I thought that perhaps, while acknowledging the tendency for characters like the one I wrote to be gendered as women, I could unsettle this cultural narrative by positing a gender-neutral child in the place of the expected woman. In doing this, I really hoped to spur some questions of why our society associated original sin or evil with women. What was the purpose of this? How has it affected the way we think and behave? Maybe I should have destabilized the “evil woman” trope further by suggesting some male names in addition to the two legendary women.
Thanks for inspiring some thoughts on this! I hope my intentions to create a genderless origin story shone clear, and I hope that I managed to arouse some sympathy for the child who was burdened with an awful story to share.
Hi Georgia,
I liked your story a lot, especially the introduction which I thought really captured the essences of individuality and opinion of stories. I thought your naming sentences were interesting as I immediately knew your references and appreciated the allusion.
After reading your reflection I was curious how you felt coming out of this assignment in terms of your preference for written or oral stories? Did you enjoy this form of storytelling versus reading such a story on a page such as Thomas King’s original or would you prefer having to just have had to write it down? Would you do this again with one of your own stories or do you think you would prefer to write it down to be shared? Just curious about tying it back to last weeks lesson on orality vs written culture and how/if your experience changed your opinion or opened your eyes to anything?
Have a great week!
Grace
Hi Grace!
I’m glad you enjoyed my story. I wanted to make it accessible and enjoyable to read, but still impactful.
Regarding my preference for oral or written stories, I must admit that I have a preference for the written word. Perhaps it is because I grew up an avid reader and now spend so much of my time writing essays (aha!). I enjoy having the ability to create a final draft, to choose every word precisely and arrange them in a particular manner. I find that when sharing an oral story, the storyteller becomes far more vulnerable. Your speaking voice and your body language become a part of the story. And, I feel that you lose some control over the story in that you might rearrange a sentence or add a small tangent where there hadn’t been one before.
That being said, I have always loved reading my favourite books aloud to share them with family and friends. Further, radio and podcasts are some of my favourite ways to learn new things. There is comfort in hearing the human voice aloud.
For me, I enjoy the security of writing down a story or an idea. But, that doesn’t mean that I won’t read it aloud and share it orally. Both forms have their power, and a time and place more suited to their form.
I hope this answers your question!
Hi Georgia!
This was a very cool story to read. I felt nothing but pity and sadness for Foolish so it is interesting to hear you mention that you were thinking of the tendency to blame woman for evil (I caught the references too!). The thought never occurred to me to blame Foolish just like I have never blamed Eve or Pandora.
When you first introduced Foolish as Foolish while mentioning Pandora and Eve, I was ready to blame the character for the evil that I knew was coming. I assumed some Foolish choice would lead to it. However, I didn’t blame Foolish for wandering into the woods, after all, you mentioned that Foolish had no reason to be worried as they never heard the stories about meeting strangers in the woods. I also didn’t blame Foolish for talking to the creature or for sharing the story. By the time Foolish might have released that the story would have such a large effect, it was too late. I also think knowing the story was too big of a burden for Foolish to carry on their own.
I was curious why you named your character Foolish? I don’t think they were foolish, just curious. I did notice that we could change it and I might want too!
Thanks,
Emily
Hi Emily,
Thanks for your thoughtful response to my story!
I struggled to choose a name for the child in my story. I wanted to choose something that might both capture the innocence of the character as well as the shame that is associated with original sin. For example, throughout history Eve has been shamed for her giving in to temptation and having Adam transgress the word of God along with her. I wanted to rewrite this sort of blaming and shaming narrative by introducing a character we could all empathize with, but reminding audiences of our cultural tendency to place blame on others for the evils we face in our lives. So, I stuck with Foolish because it has a negative connotation but still fits a child. However, I do like your idea of Curious for their name! The only hesitation I have is that if I associate curiosity with evil, I might tinge curiosity with a more negative connotation than I think the word warrants. But, if you ever feel like sharing this story aloud, feel free to call the child Curious. 🙂
Hi Georgia,
I was actually surprised to know how similar our stories were! But guess it makes sense, when we think of a time that evil could have been born our brain tend to conceive some far off time, away from what is now. What I found interesting about your story was that the evil story was conceived and shared from the creature first not as a vocal story but as something that consumed Foolish, like negative energy. My story also had that component. I find that, that itself is a lesson. Stories invoke emotions, and change us. They have the power to change the way we think, hence change reality. I’m not sure if that’s what you were going at, but it was where my mind went first. Is there a reason why your creature shared his story the way he did?
Hi Shashini,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment! I think your idea of the story as negative energy is compelling, and definitely something I was learning towards. To be honest, I found it easier to express evilness in feelings and senses, rather than explicit words. I found that with my method of weaving the story, I was conveying the feelings that one would feel when hearing a myriad of different evil stories. I hoped to amalgamate everything that I could have said through dialogue in a feeling that would capture the essence of so many different awful situations. While you and I may have heard different insults, lies, horrible truths, and so on, I believe we all might share an understanding of that awful feeling of being consumed by negativity and evil thoughts.
I hope this explains my reasoning! It’s a little hard to put into words.
Hi! I loved reading your story! It’s such a creative take on the topic! I liked how you not only told how evil was created but how it has spread! I loved how you used the image of a small child, portraying innocence, to spread evil throughout the village. Did any inspiration from this story come from the seven deadly sins? I found myself reminded of the concept while reading the story..
Hi Claire,
Thanks for reading my story!
Yes, I was reminded of the seven deadly sins while I was reading the story because those resonate with so many people when the topic of evil is brought up. However, I wanted to also add feelings of pollution through the description of the story itself, as well as touch on all those negative emotions that spur the worst feelings and beliefs and behaviour.
I hope this gives a little insight on my thought processes 🙂