Is It a Craving for Evil, or for Power?

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dangling punishment from the local gangs (“The Littlest Killers”). Although they may have learned the actual action from gangs, the reason they put it to use was to feel superior after their demands were not met. The two boys wanted candy, so they decided to force a younger child to do it for them. It would provide the boys with satisfaction, for both their sweet tooth and their superiority complex. However, when Eric refused their requests, the boys decided to take pleasure in bullying the 5-year-old, eventually resulting in Morse’s death.

In “Why Boys Become Vicious,” Golding outrightly claims, “If parents are absent, if they do not provide strength and do not provide love, then children will plumb the depths of their nature,” (“Why Boys Become Vicious”). Even though this thesis is reasonable, I do not believe this is the main cause of the evil found within humans. I believe every evil has a specific source from which it spawns, and in the case of James Bulger’s and Eric Morse’s murders, that source was a want to feel stronger than others, which, in turn, may have spawned from poor parenting. If the mother and father of the convicted children were more present, responsible, and loving when raising their young, these tragedies could have been avoided, and the young victims would still be alive. However, the boys were taught by their surroundings, which made them prioritize being more powerful than others, and the irresistible urge to prove it caused early deaths of their victims.

Works Cited

"Key Figures." Crime and Investigation. N.p., 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

"Did Bad Parenting Turn Thompson and Venables into Killers?" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 01 Nov. 2000. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

Staples, Brent. "Editorial Notebook;The Littlest Killers." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Feb. 1996. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

Golding, William. "Why Boys Become Vicious." San Francisco Examiner 28 Feb. 1993: n. pag. Print.