The basis for the existence of a life is that of conflict. Biologically speaking, the purpose of life is to produce offspring. Beings are in conflict against each other and all other exterior forces to try to produce young. In human terms, life is only interesting if one is challenged and forced to face conflicts. And just as life evolves, a human’s life of experiences and situations evolves through conflicts. Through the troubles faced by a person every day, they learn and adapt to survive. However, the adaptations associated with human conflicts and experiences are of both good and bad nature. Regardless of one’s preparation to face and challenge conflict, the conflict will always bring out the poorer qualities of the person. Though it is possible and common for persons to adapt and eventually solve conflict, the initial effect of conflict is the exhibition of a person’s worst characteristics. It has been illustrated countless times in literature that when a conflict appears, the characters’ initial reactions exhibit their worst qualities and force the character to crumble (at least partially) under the effects of the conflict. In both Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the characters, once faced with conflicts, exhibit their least favorable characteristics. Just as novels and other forms of literature are merely examples and explanations of the real world, conflicts in actual life also bring out the worst in people (always). In situations such as World War Two, the French Revolution and Rwanda, poorer human qualities are shown at the onset of a conflict. It is always the poorer human characteristics that appear first when a conflict appears.
In My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, each member of Asher’s small family supports the idea that conflicts always bring out the worst in people by their inability to cope with the problems that they face. Early in young Asher’s life, his family experiences a traumatic situation when Asher’s uncle (on his mother’s side) dies. Immediately, his mother exhibits one of humanity’s poorer qualities in her inability to cope with the loss, self-withdrawal and self pity. She secludes herself from the activities of the family to the extreme point of becoming deathly ill. Upon facing the conflict, Rivkeh Lev exhibits her worst qualities and dwells in them for weeks until she is finally able to solve her conflict. Aryeh Lev, Asher’s father, never is truly able to accept or deal with the conflict of his son’s desire to draw and be an artist rather than acceding to his father’s job. Aryeh immediately exhibits the human trait of avoiding or denouncing that which is foreign to him. In reference to Asher’s skill, Aryeh comment “It’s a waste,” (Potok 54) and “Drawing is foolishness,”(Potok 17). Aryeh avoids confronting his conflict, hiding behind his important work for the Rebbe. When his seclusion and inability to comprehend Asher’s situation begins taking a toll on Asher’s schooling, Aryeh can only state “I’ll talk to you bout this another time” (Potok 70). When the conflict comes to its climax, when Aryeh could have been able to face it, the poorer qualities of evasion remain as the dominant effects of the conflict, he just stares at Asher and says nothing (Potok 349). In this case, the conflict brought the worst out of Aryeh Lev (as it always does) and it remained with him. The final example of an exhibition of poor qualities in the midst of a conflict is with Asher Lev, who for the longest time, exhibits the poor trait of stubbornness. Though it appears necessary for Asher’s family to move to Europe, Asher’s immediate response is to act stubborn and not accept the turn of events (thus creating a conflict for himself). Asher holds out on his stubbornness for many years, and each time he is faced with the problem (the conflict), he regresses and argues like a little child in his defense. “I am not going to Vienna . . . Something inside me says I shouldn’t go” (Potok 101, 108). The conflict brings out the worst in him in the form of stubbornness and regression. And just like his father, Asher is unable to ever solve his conflict, thus forever exhibiting his worst qualities.
Upton Sinclair also exhibits in The Jungle how a person will always exhibit their worst qualities before practically dealing with the conflict. Jurgis Rudkus, upon being faced with a conflict, reverts his persona from a hard-worker to a recluse who cannot deal with his problems. A first, major example of this is after Jurgis discovers that his wife was raped, he becomes blinded by his feelings and rushes in a rage to kill the raper. The human trait of spontaneous rage and overpowering emotions (letting one’s emotions get the better of them) leaks out of the usually calm Jurgis as the conflict faces him. Whilst he might have been able to deal with the situation otherwise, he still exhibits his less than preferable traits first. Eventually, conflict strips jurgis of his calm persona. “Each crisis would leave Jurgis more and more frightened” (Sinclair 142). Soon, unable to deal with the constant crises of a factory worker’s life, Jurgis exhibits another poor human trait, the trait of masking one’s problems with a material desire (alcohol). “When his wife had died, Jurgis made for the nearest saloon” (Sinclair 209). He began to hide his inability to deal with his problems behind alcohol, and this unfavorable trait developed itself to the extreme in Jurgis that he took all of the family’s money to go get drunk on one occasion. And the final immoral, unfavorable trait of humanity that Jurgis exhibits is shown in his time of most need. When all of his options are gone, Jurgis exhibits the poor traits of attempting to find the easy way out (laziness, apathy) and defying society’s plans, by turning to crime for help. Jurgis becomes a thief, further hiding his inability to fix a problem or dealing with a conflict by the temporary solution of petty thievery. Jurgis’s experiences in the factory yards exploit the fact that conflicts always initially bring out the worst, poorest characteristics of a person before that person attempts to deal with the conflict.
Though novels and literature are representations of the real life of the real world, ideas and theories are best supported by evidence from actual occurrences. Just as it is represented in the aforementioned novels, conflict brings out the poorer qualities, traits and characteristics of humans before it draws the better, favorable qualities which might aid the person in real events of the world. In the massive conflict of World War Two alone, one can uncover numerous times when the poorer trait of human beings emerged upon the establishment of a conflict. Prior to the onset of the war, the European nations attempted to appease to Hitler’s desires rather than standing up to him when he annexed Czechoslovakia. The world leaders exhibited the traits of hesitation, acceptance and incapability in their reluctant appraisal of the problems that they were facing. Their worst traits emerged and it would take six years for the better, positive traits to be fully exhibited. A similar form of hesitation and appeasement occurs today in 1999 with the situations at Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, where the more powerful countries’ leaders fold under conflict, exhibiting a reluctant, defeatist human trait. Other occurrences of conflict bringing out the worst in people have occurred in France during the French revolution and in Rwanda in 1994. In both of these instances, civil and political unrest drove groups of people to solely blame the opposing group and attempt to eradicate their opposition. In France, after the disposal of the king and the monarchy, the temporary government began losing power, and a Reign of Terror began. The peasant and bourgeoisie classes blamed the troubles which faced the new government on the aristocracy and purposefully tried to execute all aristocrats that they could. The conflict caused the people to “jump the gun”, and make false guesses as to the source of their troubles. Instead of resolving the conflict, they turned to the human trait of “scapegoating”. In Rwanda, the past conflict between ethno-political groups, the Hutu and Tutsi, appeared to be resolved, but a plane crash caused by fanatics spurred civil war. Rather than attempting to maintain the peace that had been established, each side blamed the other and people were slaughtered because of their ethnicity. The human traits associated with fear and not taking responsibility were exhibited when the conflict appeared. However, a far greater form of genocide with far less of a reason occurred in World War Two, when the Germans, unable to accept responsibility for the state of their country, and gullible enough to believe the fanatical Hitler, began to slaughter those of Jewish heritage resulting in more that six million deaths. The human traits of superiority and arrogance were exhibited as the Germans felt that they were the superior race who had to cleanse the world of those inferior to them. The conflicts of the state could not be dealt with by the government who had a strong enough grasp on its people that they were able to convince the people of their false superiority. Similar ethnic cleansing situations have occurred in Yugoslavia and Tibet, where one group falsely establishes its superiority and subsequently murders the “inferior” peoples.
Regardless of the conflict, whether it be as petty as a car accident or as traumatic as a war, the conflict will always first bring out the worst characteristics of the persons involved before those persons are able to exhibit some positive traits. This has been represented in literature (which reflects real life) in the novels My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The characters in these novels exhibit their poorer characteristics when they are faced with a conflict. However, this occurrence of the exhibition of poor traits is also exhibited in real events of human history, including the Holocaust and the Reign of Terror. It is logical that this would occur. When a challenging situation, a conflict occurs, a human experiences an array of feelings. No matter their preparation, a person, upon first facing a conflict, will first experience and exhibit their poorer traits of fear, reluctance and despair, before their reasoning portion of their mind begins to comprehend and evaluate the conflict and the possible solutions to the conflict. Thus, the poorer traits will always be exhibited first, before the better, more favorable traits are shown by the person.