The Good and the Bad Are Half-Ugly (Inside)

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Martin Luther King Jr. (right) and Donald Trump (wrong).

Tomorrow, January 20, will see a mind-boggling juxtaposition of the good and the bad. It’s when the United States marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor the renowned civil rights leader (actually born on January 15) and also when the reprehensible Donald Trump is again inaugurated as President of the United States.

Makes one think of excellent novels I’ve read that have very good and very bad characters and/or dizzying highs and dizzying lows.

Such as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, in which one of the three brothers (Alyosha) is in the MLK category and another (Mitya) is closer to a Trump type.

Or Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, whose characters range from upstanding (such as Walter Hartright and Marian Halcombe) to evil (Percival Glyde and charismatic Count Fosco).

Or Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady, which features the sympathetic Isabel Archer and the scheming Gilbert Osmond.

Or Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, whose title character deals with the lows of a painful orphan upbringing, an awful boarding school, romantic heartbreak, and homelessness. And the highs of finding some independence and that aforementioned romance.

Or Jane Austen’s Persuasion — in which its protagonist, Anne Elliot, faces romantic loss and romantic found.

Or George Eliot’s Silas Marner, whose title character suffers betrayal and later an unexpected event that turns his life around.

Or Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which one character (Eliza) makes a harrowing escape from slavery and another (Tom himself) eventually succumbs to slavery’s awful yoke.

Or Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I don’t think I have to explain that one. 🙂

Good and bad, and highs and lows, are of course part and parcel of real life — and great fodder for making novels more dramatic. If anything, many fictional works enhance the roller-coastering of personalities, emotions, and events. Which Trump would know if he ever read a book.

Though my post concentrated on 19th-century literature, you’re welcome to name novels from any time period that fit today’s theme. 🙂

Misty the cat says: “I jump in windows to avoid Aldous Huxley’s ‘The Doors of Perception.'”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about more lawsuit news in my town and other topics — is here.

95 thoughts on “The Good and the Bad Are Half-Ugly (Inside)”

    • Ah, “Kidnapped”! Thank you for mentioning that book, Esther! True that most people have a Jekyll and Hyde element, though of course that’s more pronounced in some people than others. 🙂

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  6. Hi Dave,

    I have 130 random books on my shelf that are not part of a series, or part of a group of books by a particular author, that I was determined to read in alphabetical order. Once I had done that, I was allowed to re-read and re-sort some favourite books (the ultimate goal being to do some book culling but I bought a new shelf instead!). Anyway, I achieved my goal of 130 books at the end of last year which means I’m currently re-reading Eleanor Catton’s “The Luminaries”. Set on the New Zealand goldfields, most people are there to make money, or steal money or lie about money. But there are also two young people falling in love and I’m finding this superb novel even more enjoyable than I did the first time.

    After “The Luminaries” I’ll be re-reading “Anne of Green Gables” which means I won’t be able to comment if next week’s topic is about bad or ugly characters ❤

    Sue

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    • Thank you, Sue! 130 books — wow! And that’s ambitious to reread Eleanor Catton’s lengthy “The Luminaries.” I liked it a lot, overall, after you recommended it a number of years ago. “Anne of Green Gables”? Always worth rereading. 🙂 I think I’ve read it three times over the years.

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  7. Hello Dave, I suppose the theme of good versus evil and the use of propaganda and rhetoric to corrupt the masses (to incite hate or prevent essential change and acceptance), is prevalent in many great novels. It is a strong theme in Grapes of Wrath, 1984, A Brave New World, All Quiet on the Western Front, to name but a few. People fear change and losing what they have. They rarely recognise that by not embracing change and behaving with empathy, they end up losing everything eventually anyway. Fascist leaderships and repressive dictatorships never last indefinately, but unfortunately, they do a huge amount of damage during their reigns.

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    • Interesting points, but I gotta say I don’t believe people fear change or fear losing what they have as it is more about people who have a deep-seated need for power, to be able to control others and you’re so right about the hatred and anger via the propaganda and rhetoric. As Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 60s, the medium is the message. And these things have always existed as well: Dostoevsky and Orwell were very good about outlining what might happen and/or what actually did happen based on demonization, xenophobia, misogyny, racism etc. In addition, many fascist leaders and repressive dictatorships have been around far too long like Kim Jung Un, Putin, Orban, et al. For example, although Hitler is dead and gone, Nazism still thrives. And mostly among MAGAs. Thanks for your insights. Susi

      Btw here’s an interesting read about the oligarchy we now have in US, makes it easier to connect the dots re their political beliefs and their origins:

      https://www.ft.com/content/cfbfa1e8-d8f8-42b9-b74c-dae6cc6185a0

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  8. I can’t stop thinking that Trump and his minions are all Uriah Heep characters, sycophants who are in it for themselves, money and power. While Mr. Macawber, Copperfield and Tommy Traddles are good men, honest and true.

    Dickens’s description of Heep: “Though I had long known that his servility was false, and all his pretences knavish and hollow, I had had no adequate conception of the extent of his hypocrisy, until I now saw him with his mask off. The suddenness with which he dropped it, when he perceived that it was useless to him; the malice, insolence, and hatred, he revealed; the leer with which he exulted, even at this moment, in the evil he had done—all this time being desperate too, and at his wits’ end for the means of getting the better of us—though perfectly consistent with the experience I had of him, at first took even me by surprise, who had known him so long, and disliked him so heartily.”

    I can say unequivocally that this fits Trump, Musk, Vance, et al. and I’ll throw most Magas in with them. Thanks Dave for giving us a safe space to speak truth to power. Susi

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    • Thank you, Susi! I love that comparison to a number of Charles Dickens’ characters. Very apt! If anything, the modern-day oligarchs, sycophants, hypocrites, etc., in Trump’s orbit who you reference are even worse than Dickens’ villains because they have so much more power and influence and often huge media platforms. Plus they’re real, not fictional. 😦

      Uriah Heep — what a character! His name has of course become almost synonymous with loathsomeness.

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  9. Gee, good vs bad.

    Still you’ve upped the ante with the MLK vs trump.

    Predictable, but let me go with Joy Fielding’s novel “The Housekeeper”.

    Jodi Bishop would be the good. Elyse Woodley would be the bad.

    The father would be the victim.

    I can think of others, but it seems like there’s a bad guy, and victims. The victims are good, but are they good enough in terms of this topic?

    Like in “Still Life”, the husband is the bad guy, but is his wife, the victim a good guy?

    Of course super hero comic books like Superman are Good guys vs Evil guys. The good guy is a super hero. The bad guys are super villains.

    Hmm, just like MLK and trump.

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    • Thank you, Resa! Excellent mentions of Joy Fielding novels/characters! She definitely has created many memorable people to be admired or loathed. And of course some in-between. 🙂 “The Housekeeper” is one of her best books!

      Ah, yes, comic book super heroes and their nemeses. (I had to look up the plural of nemesis. 🙂 ) Often, good vs. evil seemingly stripped down to their essences.

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      • “The Housekeeper” is interesting to me. Yes, I liked it a lot when I read it, but somehow it lingers and gets better.
        Perhaps that is because it is so ordinary, could happen to anyone and really a position many find themselves in, even if an Elyse does not enter their lives.

        I gotta say, some of the comic book bad guys are wildly creative. In pop culture they have gone on to forge their own evil empire fans. IE: The Joker and The Penguin. 🃏🐧

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  11. Thank you very much ,Dave, for making us think about good and bad. The book that came to my mind in this sense is Lord of the Flies by William Golding. It is about a group of boys, who after a plane accident landed on a deserted island and where the reader sees how the boys degenerate morally after having lost connection to models or paarents and even kill each other.

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  14. Just thinking about Philip Pullman and his trilogy from Northern Lights (also known as The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. The characters are mostly very good or very bad, but I found them all fascinating when I read them (about 25 years ago and I still have them on my bookshelf).

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  15. You’re right on about a “mind-boggling juxtaposition” today. And you continue to bring up great examples that are found in literature. It’s the “we’ve seen this kind of thing before.” Which I think is a helpful reminder. We’ve survived before, and will do so again. Which is not to say that the next four years will be easy. No, no, no. But we can turn again to literature to show hope 🌞

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  19. We have 3 full years till end of corrupt DJT’s 2nd term,then the book is closed. He will be a lame duck. How unscathed will America be is TBD.

    I’d rather watch paint dry then the farce of his inauguration. Ironically will be held inside Capitol Rotunda where insurrection took place,trash MAGA supporters damaging property, stealing, killing of 6 people including police. But do not fret,the one remaining member of the Village People will “perform .”

    Prior was a cease and desist to use YMCA but a big payday for a few minutes changed his mind he sold himself to a vile man. I’ll miss the small little fists of corrupt DJT “dancing” to his theme song. What a buffoon albeit a dangerous one.

    This Carrie Underwood, I was never a fan,is also a sellout, Lee Greenwood hawking DJT bibles continues his sell out.

    Michele

    E & P

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    • Thank you, Michele! Excellent, strong comment! Yes, Trump will be a lame duck in 2028, though of course there’s always a chance he’d try to refuse to adhere to a two-term limit. And I share your dismay at entertainers who capitulate to Trump in return for some MAGA esteem and a big payday — though some entertainers are “sincerely” far-right. I will also not watch the inauguration, and will try to avoid clips of it on social media. The irony of where the inauguration will be held is indeed disgusting to contemplate. 😦

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  20. Lots of ground to cover! The inability of innocence to steer clear from forces of darkness is very powerfully themed in most novels by the French author Patrick Modiano (winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize tor Literature).

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      • Yes, I sometimes feel I’m proselytizing. It’s just that most of Modiano’s work is so connected to this week’s topic of your blog. If you care to provide a (poste restante) address, I’m happy to gift a novel or compilation. Not sure if WordPress/Jetpack enables bilateral exchange of information, though.

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  21. I am beyond words with this post as you gather together so many great books and characters. Thanks because all seems quiet around me but hopefully we will all regain our ways of telling truth to power. At present I can only think folk tales, Disney or interestingly was listening to some of Rumi’s Masnavi where we learn something about deception!

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  22. As usual, a great and thought-provoking topic, Dave – it’s just a shame that you’ve been given such a reason for choosing it. May I be awkward as usual and move away from novels into the realm of drama please? By which you’ll know that I’m off into the realms of the Bard. How about the ‘noble Moor’ Othello–and indeed his innocent and good wife Desdemona–against the devilish Iago? Or there’s Macbeth, who embodies both extremes within himself, starting out a loyal servant to Duncan and becoming his murderer. Or how about ‘The Merchant of Venice’, in which Shylock is supposed to be the bad guy–but it’s not difficult to see that the ‘Christian’ hordes ranged against him, Antonio in particular, are the real baddies who’ve pushed him over a line. I’d better leave it there and pause for thought, but I’m sure I’ll be back. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Laura! Those are excellent Shakespeare examples you cite! And, yes, sometimes “bad guy” characters become the way they are partly by being pushed over the line. In certain cases, “the oppressed become the oppressors.” The Jewish character Isaac of York in Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe” is reminiscent of Shylock in that respect.

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      • I always loved Shylock. When I was at grammar school we used to read the plays we studied out loud in class. When our teacher was ‘casting’ this play my hand was the first up for Shylock. I didn’t do him justice, but my heart was with him. The greatness of Shakespeare lies in the way his plays can be acted ‘straight’ – the way they come across on the surface – or in a subtle manner that subverts the obvious reading. I’ve seen ‘The Merchant’ (subtitled ‘The Jew of Venice’, which says something) played this way, and it’s great. I felt so bad for Isaac in ‘Ivanhoe’ too; as you say, the oppressed become the oppressors, and it isn’t their fault.

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      • Not to mention that Jewish characters were often written in that stereotypical way in the 19th century. I love the way Eliza Davis took Dickens to task over his portrayal of Fagin, and how he eventually took responsibility and toned it down.

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        • That’s nice that you had a soft spot in your heart for Shylock, Laura! And, yes, the 19th century was not a good time for Jewish characters in literature, as also exemplified by Charles Dickens in “Oliver Twist,” as you note. Good that Dickens was pressured to tone that down in a later edition. One of the few authors who created sympathetic, three-dimensional Jewish characters in the 1800s was George Eliot in “Daniel Deronda.”

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          • One of your favourite texts, as I recall, and that’s part of the greatness of George Eliot. I’ve always had a thing for tragic characters like Shylock, and I somehow knew even before I’d read the play that he was the most interesting character. I disliked Jessica, not the least when she eloped and took the ring that his wife-to-be had given him before they married – a small peep into his heart before it was hardened by abuse and mistreatment.

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  23. I love how you use reading, writing, books to discuss complex issues, Dave! I have found that the books I have read served as powerful tools in articulating moral themes by providing relatable characters and narratives that reflect ethical dilemmas. Storytelling is the most powerful way to explore complex moral issues and gain insights into different perspectives and values. I just revisited “In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson which recounts the career of the American ambassador to Germany, William Dood, during the years of 1933 – 1937.

    This is non-fiction, but riveting in every page. Right and wrong are flexible concepts in many respects.

    “I have always wondered what it would have been like for an outsider to have witnessed firsthand the gathering dark of Hitler’s rule. How did the city look, what did one hear, see, and smell, and how did diplomats and other visitors interpret the events occurring around them? Hindsight tells us that during that fragile time the course of history could so easily have been changed. Why, then, did no one change it? Why did it take so long to recognize the real danger posed by Hitler and his regime?” Erik Larson, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin

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