-
Essay / Selfishness and Then There Was None by Agatha Christie
Nothing sounds better than an island vacation to most people, or at least that's what ten people thought at first. In And Then There Were None, 10 people are sent to an island for crimes unimaginable to an ordinary person; they've all murdered someone in one grisly way or another. On the island, these 10 people are left for dead, each one killed one by one. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayIn Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None, two people who most deserved death were Philip Lombard and General Macarthur because of their selfishness. acts against others; However, Emily Brent was less deserving of death because she didn't murder anyone, unlike the others on the island. And thanks to the actions of everyone on the island, justice was served. Philip Lombard was without a doubt one of the most selfish people on the island. During the first hours of their stay on the island, a gramophone record was played, explaining why each of the island's inhabitants was now exiled and left to die. The gramophone announced: “Philip Lombard, on a date in February 1932, you were guilty of twenty-one men, members of a West African tribe. » Obviously, this act against another group of people was selfish, because he was attacking a tribe of twenty-one men. Instead of just taking what he needed to buy, he stole everything from them and left them there to die. Lombard treated these people like they were objects, like they had nothing to lose, but he had everything to lose. It was selfish to steal the lives of these people, when he had the option of sparing them and taking only the little food and water he would have needed to survive. Another example of Philip Lombard's selfishness is when he started thinking about Vera Claythorne when he first saw her. He didn't view her as a person, he viewed her as an object he could get along with, thinking, "He would rather take care of her." » Lombard wasn't wondering whether or not she would "like" him, he was only wondering whether or not he would be able to get along with her for his own personal gain. Just as with the African tribe, he only considered them as an object in his court. One final way Lombard showed his selfishness is when he hid his gun from everyone on the island; he only admitted to owning it when Blore called him saying, "I want to know why you brought a gun here." Lombard knew there was a murderer on the island, and he continued to hide his gun from the other residents so he could use it on himself, rather than making it known he owned one. He used the gun to give himself an advantage over others. It was selfish to hide the gun because he's in the same boat as everyone else on the island; he's there because he killed people like everyone else except Emily Brent. Philip Lombard was undoubtedly a selfish man, but so was General Macarthur. General Macarthur was also a selfish man who knowingly led a man to his death. During the first few hours of your stay on the island the gramophone played and it was stated: "John Gordon Macarthur, that on January 4, 1917, you deliberately sent your wife's lover, Arthur Richmond, to his death . » After hearing the gramophone, it is evident that Macarthur had no remorse for killing Arthur Richmond; he was selfish in the sense that he could not let go of his wife who obviously loved Richmond very much. General Macarthur wrongly killed Richmond for personal gain against his.