English 8, Period 3

Mrs. D’Alessio

27th April 2010

The Unsatisfactory World of Greed

For the majority of humanity, satisfaction is hard to achieve. The anxiety caused by that truth is an emotion that causes greed. From the very early days of mankind and in religious text, where greed can always hide itself and cause wreckage for the ones closest to the person. Greed is always an excuse to get away from the pain of emptiness. It is very common for people to be dissatisfied with the power and money that they have; sometimes they feel cheated. There are no limits to desire, desire is limitless in replacing loneliness. History has demonstrated that without limits, hunger can seize the day and remain for eternity. In politics, a leader can take bribes to get his or her power. In finance; a Ponzi scheme springs from greed damaging judgement. Man’s desire for more is the foundation of the eternal proliferation of greed.
Greed is defined in many ways, and most commonly as getting the most we can. One definition of greed is an excessive desire to acquire or possess (Berube 1982). In reality, greed takes things beyond necessity like food. Another definition of greed is excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness (Mish 1987). It is to “posess as wealth or power, beyond what one needs or deserves” (Berube 1982). For the most part it is as if we cannot get enough. Some other words for greed are cupidity, rapacity and avarice (Gove 1968). Greed is really common as the pursuit of money and the pursuit of power; there are a lot of examples in government and finance. Greed is the most controversial method of preparation, because greed seeks more than what is needed and since it gets more than needed, the result is always more than can be used, leaving a large amount left over. Greed can be explained how it is defined and how else it is said in many ways, and greed has its historical associatations.
The roots of the English word greed are traced back in history in many different languages. According to historians, greed has its roots in the idea of excessive hunger which is translated as the Proto-Germanic word gratag (Barnhart 1995). According to scholars, the root of the modern word is from the Elizabethan era, in the 1500’s and 1600’s. Along with German, the Old English root of greed is greading and the Dutch root is gretig (Barnhart 1995). The ancient word of gretig defines itself in the strong desire for money and power. Greed is not only found with money, with food it is very common. When it comes to food, someone cannot get enough because the only thought they have on their mind is growing full but they are never satisfied.  The reason is because sometimes it is based on desire, not on necessity. Greed’s associated words describe the lust for money and power. Greed demonstrates its role in power when a man makes his rule an autocracy. When greed plays its part in money, man can try to escape but he will be arrested as soon as the police find out.  Not only does the idea of maximum craving have historical roots, it is also found within the very earliest writing .
Greed is located within religious texts; in which excessive desire is the root cause of the sin and the abuse of morality. Greed may be hidden inside such as Luke’s saying about those who appear to be pious on the outside; “but inside they are full of greed” (Luke 23:25). Those who are greedy may not have the open mindedness to speak about having maximum desire, but inside they can be very greedy. Desire can ruin someone because the blindness caused by greed sweeps judgement under the rug. Greed may just be at the bottom of someones heart and it may be at the very back of someones mind when it is hidden. In reality, greed can be very destructive and in the Bible Proverbs states: “Those who are greedy for unjust gain make trouble for their households,” (Proverbs 15:27). Destruction will happen when someone is so desirous that it’s considered unreasonable. A full disaster may appear to those who hide their scandal, like a Ponzi scheme, but later the truth comes out. Not only do the ancient religious text demonstrate greed, a more modern art of a moving picture can portray dissapproval and disallowance.
A motion picture can portray when someone has internal greed in contrast to a respectable appearance. This often occurs in the fields of business and even religion, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. The 2007 film There Will Be Blood describes what happened in the oil business back in the early part of the 20th century. The protagonist, Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, is an avaracious oil company owner, who describes himself as being highly dignified. One day, Daniel makes an offer to a pastor named Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano), whose church is on land where Daniel thinks he can produce oil. The deal that Daniel makes to Eli is “If we decide to drill for oil, if the well begins to produce, I’ll give your church a five-thousand dollar signing bonus” (scribd). Eli, however, is like Daniel because as Daniel is hoggish for the land to produce oil so he can get rich; Eli is also ravenous for power over his religious movement, his church and achieving wealth. Eli rejects the offer because he and his father know that Daniel is making an endeavor to cheat them, so Eli responds with “that’s not enough” (scribd). However, Daniel and Eli end up making a deal because they both realize that they are both rapacious for money and power. The corruption of greed is illustrated not only in an adapted screenplay based on a book; the same theme is traced through the greatest works of literature.
Greed is described vidly throughout novels, plays and poetry. Literature gets into more depth through dynamic character descriptions; an example of greed is a person who is an intelligent person on the outside but is a crook on the inside. In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Cassius takes refuge in Sardin with Brutus. While in Sardin, Brutus discovers the abuse of power by Cassius, who was respected earlier as an honest leader. Cassius forces the civilians in Sardin to pay him bribes to get offices and favors. Brutus condemns Cassius once he discovers all the troublesome bribes. “Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself are much condemn’d to have an itching palm” (4.3.10). Cassius started as interested in defending Rome’s honor and now found to be desirous of money. When Cassius hears this, he is infuriated, and his relationship with Brutus becomes strained. After it becomes strained they do worse in the battle against Mark Antony. Writing shows the dark side of greed, and finance can tell humanity that greed is good, but the advice results in misleading others.
Within finance, greed may try to fill the abyss inside ourselves. Some people think that having a massive amount of money will erase unhappiness; but in reality it is a misguided concept that results in entering custody or bankruptcy. Ivan F. Boesky, a investor who turned out to be a white-collar criminal, said that greed can be one of god’s gifts. “Greed is all right, by the way… I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself” (Andrews 1993). Boesky gained himself wealth and fame by being greedy but in the end he went to a life behind bars. An example of greed in finance besides Boesky is Donald Trump, who has stated that greed can have no limits. “The point is that you can’t be too greedy” (1993). Greed may be limitless for people in finance, but Trump has risen and fallen many times. Small amounts of greed is a motivation for the proletariats to work harder as opposed to no limits for greed. Financers can tell the general public that money is limitless and there is no such thing as too much greed, but that is proved wrong and what proves the deception is stealing.
Desire is eternally the root cause of greed. The meaning of greed is to be always wanting more. Since it is getting the most a person can get, it is beyond what is necessary and what is deserving. The historical roots of greed describe where it is common in many words and many languages having to do with hunger. Religious texts demonstrate greed that is hidden on the inside and greed that causes wreckage and abuse within someone’s home. Literature describes how those who are greedy for power, take bribes from other people. In finance greed can make someone rich then put them behind bars or rise and fall many times. The shadow over mankind is unhappiness, and desire tries to battle that feeling but sometimes the hunger is too strong so the wish eventually transforms into greed.

Works Cited
Andrews, Robert, ed. The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations. New York City:
Columbia University Press, 1993. Print.
Barnhart, Robert K., ed. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology. New     York  City: Harper Collins, 1995. Print.
Berube, Margery S., ed. The American Heritage Dictionary 2nd edition. The       American Heritage Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982. Print.
Gove, Phillip G., ed. Webster’s New Dictionary of Synonyms. Springfield,
Massachusetts, USA: G. & C. Merriam, 1968. Print.
Holy Bible with the Apocryphal Deuterocanonical Books . San Francisco, CA:
Harper Bibles, 1989. Print.
Harrison, G.B. Shakespeare ed. : The Complete Works. New York Brace College      Publishers,  1980 N. pag. Print.
Kohlenberger, John R., III, ed. The Concise Concordance to the New Revised  Edition. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1993. Print.

Mish, Frederick C., ed. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 9th ed.       Springfield, MA: Mirriam-Webster, 1987. Print.

Scribd. March 2010. http://scribd.com/com/2083473/There-Will-Be-Blood-Final-Script

There Will Be Blood. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. Perf. Daniel Day-Lewis. Paul      Dano. Writ. Paul Thomas Anderson. Paramount Vintage. 2007

Most war movies display the horror and PTSD of the aftershock and aftermath of the war. And most war movies in America for the past 40 years have illustrated World War II and Vietnam. The Hurt Locker has ousted the other Iraq War films. Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty, and Anthony Mackie portray a Bomb disposal unit, the most dangerous task outside of Special Forces like the Delta Forces and Navy SEALs and in the regular army. Sgt. William James (Renner) takes over the command of Sgt. Thompson (Guy Pearce) after he is killed by an IED. Private J.T. Sanborn (Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldrige (Geraghty) form tight bonds with James. Set in 2004 at the brink of civil war which turned in 2005; the film displays how insurgency spread.  The Hurt Locker displays the Iraq War after the leak scandal, giving a portrait of the addiction to danger and it presents it in a mixed emotion.

War films have never too much had itself set in a true war, involving soldiers, business people, and politicians. Green Zone is a pioneer showing the leak scandal and what caused the insurgency as the Preface and the first few chapters into The Hurt Locker. Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) works in the main task force working along side Special Forces looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction. He learns that there are none as he continues to fight in Baghdad against Ba’athist fighters. His main target, the top Ba’athist general, is General Al-Rawi. Miller goes with a former Iraqi veteran of the Iran-Iraq known as Freddie who translates with other Iraqis and assists Miller to find the general. Al-Rawi hides with his aides and Miller is set to find out that the war is based on lies or the truth. Green Zone illustrates how the war made people sharply sensitive, portrays how war can just be a fraud and portrays it controversy along wit lots of suspense and action.

War films have portrayed how they can make others sensitive. War can make others sensitive. Apocalypse Now and Forrest Gump are wide apart but they do show warfare and political aspect of the Vietnam War. The Longest Day, and Saving Private Ryan do show the same thing as the previous pair. In the Second World War that is. Iraq and Vietnam are America’s two most controversial wars.

The Hurt Locker and Green Zone can be put into analysis of the quote: Wars are fought by soldiers but are produced by politicians and businessmen.

Last Time you Saw me do reviews for Old Man and The Sea, this time it’s movies.

Receptive: Open-minded.

Reprehensible — stinky.

Reverence-Religious type of respect.

Answer to all questions in this paragraph:

The theme is that every one is outcasted and their in a different economic social class.  A painting of a farm with some darkness and lightness of a few poor workers is what sets the scene. The latch clicks every morning. Foreshadowing the novel, Lennie and George have been with very wealthy classes and two outcasted people. The people are Crooks and Candy. Candy’s dog is killed. This is a man vs. man and a man vs. society type of conflict.  Slim would have killed the dog  if he had not given it to Lennie since he had drowned four out of the nine. Slim says that he finds Curly’s wife’s wandering funny. George said if he were really smart he would leave Lennie and do whatever he thought was best without Lennie getting in trouble. Lennie’s aunt can no longer take care of him; George knew his aunt and he wanted to take care of him. A reader can infer that Lennie was not raised by intelligent parents that understood him. What George did was make Lennie jump into a lake. Lennie and George often play hearts and no poker since it’s the great depression. George told Slim that he had been kicked out of  Weed and did not like the people there when they really had been kicked out for harrasement. Lennie has been trying to go after the puppies and going too hard. The guys have been playing card games like Cards. Carlson’s problem is that he is frustrated with Candy without the hand.

Whit shows Slim a picture and letter in the paper about an old friend named Bill. Carlson said he was another worker who did not do his job correctly. Slim told Carlson to take some supplies with him, while he went to shoot the dog. Whit said that George and Lennie had to come to work because Candy was disabled and Slim and Curley were out. Whit invited George to go into town the tomorrow night. They went to Clara’s house instead of Susy’s because Clara is Lennie’s aunt. George said he didn’t want to spend too much money instead of buying a drink with a flop.

Curley was looking for his wife. Curley thinks Slim is trying to get his wife. Slim is really killing the dog in the barn. Whit and Candy have been listening to George and Lennie’s conversation about the ranch. The reason why the ranch would be $600 is because of the Great Depression. Candy got $2.50 from Slim’s wallet and snuck it out. George is afraid that they’re going to be outcasted if they are not buying a ranch. Candy told George he wished he had killed the dog. Lennie was smiling because he had gotten a few puppies. Curley thinks that Lennie is smiling about his wife’s troubleness. Curley and Lennie later get into a fight.

George and Lennie are two very close people like Candy and his dog. Candy is an old man and his dog suffers a lot. Lennie also suffers a lot just like Candy’s dog. George is like the mentor and owner to Lennie as Candy is to the dog. The dog is physically challenged. Lennie is also challenged, except in a mental condition. “Awight, take -im” (47). This meant that he didn’t care. “Tell you what made me stop that. One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around up on the Sacramento River. I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, Jump in. An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke before we could swim a stroke. An’ he was so damn nice to me for  pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in. Well, I ain’t done nothing like that no more” (40). This showed that George did not play with him anymore.