Selfishness and Lies
We all have the same needs: food, shelter, love, acceptance, support, etc. but little do we know that the difference between groups is minor compared to the similarities we all share. One of our many similarities is behavior including: selfishness, and the act of believing what we want to believe; one may analyze this among reading “The Other Wife” by Colette and “War” by Luigi Pirandello. It is our instinct to try and best each other, even in times of great communal strife as well as silencing others to strengthen our own beliefs.
Furthermore, the strongest motivating factor of human nature is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. If there were no rules and regulations we would pursue whatever was on our own interest without caring for others wishes. Selfishness can be seen when humans try to win up each other. A perfect example is seen in the story written by Luigi Pirandello “War” where what started off as a pleasant discussion quickly turned into a spitting contest, where each man tried to best the others by discussing his own suffering. One man had his child at the front since the outbreak of the war, while another's son had been injured on 3 separate occasions, and sent back just as many times. We see yet another man who starts to talk in math, using figures and calculations to show the he suffers more because of his multiple children fighting. Moreover, considering “The Other Wife” written by Colette one may see through Alice’s jealousy that she is trying to win up her husbands ex-wife. For instance, Alice wasn’t too happy when she found out her husbands ex-wife had blue eyes just like her. Naturally while a relationship is forming the women will always try and differentiate themselves from the mens past girlfriends to show that they are worthy and divergent. Also Colette states “Now and then, however, Alice laughed too loudly” (Colette, p.g #268) while in my opinion the nameless ex-wife seemed dull as she “smoked a cigarette with her eyes half closed”
Furthermore, the strongest motivating factor of human nature is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. If there were no rules and regulations we would pursue whatever was on our own interest without caring for others wishes. Selfishness can be seen when humans try to win up each other. A perfect example is seen in the story written by Luigi Pirandello “War” where what started off as a pleasant discussion quickly turned into a spitting contest, where each man tried to best the others by discussing his own suffering. One man had his child at the front since the outbreak of the war, while another's son had been injured on 3 separate occasions, and sent back just as many times. We see yet another man who starts to talk in math, using figures and calculations to show the he suffers more because of his multiple children fighting. Moreover, considering “The Other Wife” written by Colette one may see through Alice’s jealousy that she is trying to win up her husbands ex-wife. For instance, Alice wasn’t too happy when she found out her husbands ex-wife had blue eyes just like her. Naturally while a relationship is forming the women will always try and differentiate themselves from the mens past girlfriends to show that they are worthy and divergent. Also Colette states “Now and then, however, Alice laughed too loudly” (Colette, p.g #268) while in my opinion the nameless ex-wife seemed dull as she “smoked a cigarette with her eyes half closed”