Evil can be defined as the intent to violate certain rules, laws and procedures. It is also a deliberate wrongdoing, designed to hurt others. In his book, Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche argues that the natural functional non-good has socially transformed into the religious concept of evil. Ayn Rand, on the other hand, believed that reason is man's means of survival. Anything that tries to destroy or negate a man from living a proper life is evil.
This article examines 10 fictitiously evil children as they are portrayed in popular culture. Let's take a look at the role models our children may follow. How may we censor some of the information affecting our children?
1. Henry Evans, Good Son:
A nice and well-mannered cousin, son and brother at first may be your worst nightmare later. This is one way to describe Henry Evans, the antagonist in the film, Good Son. Fascinated over death, Henry displays psychotic behavior, leading to the death of his brother and the death of the next door neighbor's dog. This is not all, Henry even dropped a dummy onto a local highway, leading to a massive pileup. Henry's behavior comes to a boiling point and climax, where his mother has to choose between him and his cousin. Life and death situation where Henry cannot blame anyone but himself for.
2. The Children, Village of the Damned:
In the small English village of Midwich, the populace is subjected to a massive blackout. The whole population passes out for hours before recovering. The only result of the incident was suddenness in unexplained pregnancies. Twelve children are born after this incident–six blond-haired boys and six blond-haired girls. The children are set apart from the rest of the village. Authorities try to make sense of these super-intelligent, emotionless children. The village thus agrees to let the children live in a separate cottage. But danger brews all around, and in morbid acts of self defense, the children are responsible for a rash of suicides and unaccountable deaths.
3. Rhoda Penmark, The Bad Seed:
Greed is one thing that forces a 9 year old to kill her classmate with her shoe. Rhoda tries to conceal the evidence as she attempts to burn the shoes in the incinerator. As the janitor of the school pieces the mystery together, he attempts to tell the whole world what Rhoda has done. Before he could do anything, he is burned alive. Rhoda's sociopathy is based on her mother's, Christine's past. Christine's mother was herself a serial killer. Sociopathy is thus genetic in this film.
4. Alessa Gillespie, Silent Hill:
Gillespie is a character in the film Silent Hill. She is vengeful, super powerful and deadly. She was meant to die in order to bring back her town's most elder god. The character was an outcast, bullied in school and shunned by society for being illegitimate. Escaping the bullying, she goes to the washroom where she is raped by the school janitor. Burned at the stage caused Alessa to show the most evil side of her. She caused severe burns to the nurse who peeked into her tent. When rage overfilled her, her soul split into 2. The dark side kept reappearing. One by one the evil Alessa brought back the people who were responsible for her suffering, torturing them and killing them.
5. Bart Simpson, The Simpsons:
This boy is pure evil, just like his father and has entertained our homes for the last 23 years. He constantly makes fun of his principal; prank calls Moe Sizlak in numerous episodes and interferes with his teacher's love relationship. This is just the crust of the cake. Bart is also a failing student who was sent back to grade 3 (one grade below) because he was not competing at the grade 4 level. If you ask me, I would never want to leave my kid with Bart Simpson.
6. Damien Thorn, Omen:
This boy is an antichrist and the son of the devil. His birthday constitutes the numbers 666 and appears as a birthmark. He is adopted by an American Ambassador to Britain and his wife who suffer a miscarriage. Unfortunate incidents occur around Damien, including Damien's nanny committing suicide on his 5th birthday. Accidents do follow the boy as he throws his pregnant adoptive mother off the balcony and murders a photographer in a freak accident.
7. Draco Malfoy:
This Harry Potter character is as evil. He definitely deserves to be on this list. His bullying methods were known to be sadistic. Malfoy even had every intent to kill his headmaster, but was beaten to the punch by Severus Snape.
8. Roger, Lord of the Flies:
This boy is a wild one. He and others become stranded on an island after their plane crashes. Roger seemed to have fun, taking his stay very lightly. Bullying others, he throws stones at other boys, ruins sand castles the little ones built. The worst came when he killed Piggy with a boulder. He never aimed to miss.
9. Dennis Mitchell, Dennis the Menace:
This boy deserves to be on the list as he is one of the worst role models you would ever find. Not only does he play pranks on his neighbour and parents, but he gets himself into trouble you can only imagine about in real life. Substituting mint gum for false teeth, shooting an aspirin into the neighbour's mouth and photocopying a parent's co-worker's head. This boy is a walking disaster.
10. Charlie McGee, Firestarter:
Charlie can make fire with just one click of a mind. In the movie, Charlie creates a large inferno, which has government agents going after her and her father. Fearing the experiment, they flee, only to be captured by Native Americans and their assassins. Charlie must then use her powers to get her and her dad to safety.
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