Working for the greater good is a theme which presents itself in many texts. It is a broad idea which often causes the audience to question the morality of actions. This theme is evident throughout my chosen texts. In “Department 19” by Will Hill, the agents have the job of removing vampires so as to protect humans from them. Allen Zadoff’s “Boy Nobody” follows the story of a boy whose job is to assimilate into others’ lives in order to assassinate them or someone close to them.
Half Bad” by Sally Green uses the symbols of White and Black to represent good and evil, yet we see those known as White committing evil in order to protect themselves and their community. In “The Darkest Minds” by Alexandra Bracken, children have been locked away in fear of the damage their abilities can do. The greater good is something which looks to better the big picture. These novels all have varying representations of it, the common element being that it is believed to be right by the implementers. All of the novels feature a teenager as their main character.
In “Department 19”, this is 16 year old Jamie Carpenter and his friends. Boy Nobody of “Boy Nobody” is 16 years old. The novel “Half Bad” follows Nathan Byrn’s life from 14 to 17 years old. In “The Darkest Minds”, Ruby Daly is 16 when she escapes. By using young people as the main characters, their stories appeal to the novels’ intended audience as Young Adult Fiction. Teenagers can empathize better with people their own age and this means they begin to think, often subconsciously, about the morals the story presents and how this relates to them.
While these teenagers’ stories aren’t something which we see in everyday life, the underlying morals and ideas are ones which we can understand in our own lives. In simplifying their stories, they show situations which many teenagers are familiar with. This is most obvious in “Boy Nobody” and “Half Bad”. Boy Nobody never stays in one place for long and is under constant pressure and surveillance from his ‘parents’. Nathan is persecuted for being different, even though this is simply how he was born. Jamie is processing the kidnapping of his mother and is desperate to get her back.
Ruby has spent the last 6 years in fear of the PSFs and their ever watchfulness, the surveillance of her being even more restricting than that of Boy Nobody. In “Department 19” and “The Darkest Minds” their situations are more difficult to relate to, likely because the circumstances are dependent on the supernatural aspects of the texts. The novel “Department 19” is about an organisation titled under Department 19 in the classifications of British Governmental departments, this clandestine organisation is known as Blacklight.
The Blacklight agents have a job of removing vampires to protect humanity. They hunt vampires and kill them whenever possible, no matter who they are or what they are doing. “Department 19” adapts the theme working for the greater good into committing crimes for the greater good. The Blacklight agents kill vampires to protect humanity. Early on we see a contrast to this when Jamie befriends Larissa, a vampire, and convinces Admiral Seward to allow her to become a Blacklight agent. Larissa is portrayed similarly to the other characters and there is a feeling that she is as human as them.
She has done her best not to hurt others and is genuinely upset about the times where she has; “I’ve never killed anyone. Never hurt anyone, until the soldier and the boy in the garden, and I didn’t mean to hurt them. ” This contrasting action of having a friendly vampire on the Blacklight team compared Blacklight’s task of eradicating vampires, causes the audience to think about what makes someone human and whether an action can really be entirely for the greater good. In the novel the greater good is defined as the destruction of vampires to stop them from harming humans and to stop humans from knowing about them.
On the surface this seems like the right way things should be done, because most depictions of vampires throughout time show them all as evil, bloodsucking menaces. However, the character Larissa exists to show the audience that vampires are not dissimilar to humans because, like humans, there are good ones and there are evil ones. By making vampires human-like, the reader connects with them, sympathizing with their story. This is the opposite of Blacklight’s task and shows the complexity of the situation. Blacklight works from the stereotype, passed down through generations, of vampires being evil.
Their limited view of the situation makes them to believe that what they are doing is for the greater good. Whereas with Jamie only recently becoming aware of vampires and Blacklight, he views the situation from an outside perspective which allows him to see the good in Larissa and form a friendship with her. Their task for the greater good, killing vampires, is shown throughout the novel and they all do so willingly. However, the friendship between Jamie and Larissa makes the reader question whether the ‘greater good’ really is for the greater good. This theme relates directly to the novel “Boy Nobody”.
This novel also has killing for the greater good, but in “Boy Nobody” it is Boy Nobody assassinating people for the greater good of the world. The novel follows his assignment of killing the Mayor of New York. The Boy has been a part of the organisation since he was 12 where he follows the instructions of his handlers, known to him as ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’. He trusts their instructions and although he says that emotions are foreign to him, he justifies his actions by it being for the greater good. In trying to justify it to himself, he thinks; “My job is not to investigate or understand the big picture.
I have a name, I have a target, and I have my training. That should be enough. ” The Boy trusts that what he is doing is right and on finishing a mission he often sees the implication of why it was important. At the initial meeting between the Boy and his mark, the Boy finds that the Mayor reminds him of his deceased father. This causes him to question his actions, and for the first time he delays his mission – going against the orders of his handlers. The reader is made to question what the greater good is and how it is decided.
People working for the greater good are often blindly following the instructions of people in positions of power whom they trust. This suggests that the ‘greater good’ could be used as a way to manipulate and control others, an idea evident in the White witches of “Half Bad”. The big picture is bigger than Boy Nobody, and likely bigger than all of them, therefore to say that one is working for the greater good would suggest an all-knowing being, which, in human society is impossible. The idea of working for the greater good is portrayed differently in “Half Bad”, with it being shown through the use of the symbols White and Black.
In reference to their world of witches, a White witch is good while a Black witch is evil. Witches inherit their colour from their parents and the only visible difference between them is the colour of the flecks in their eyes. As a Half Code (Half White/Half Black), Nathan is viewed as a danger to the White witches. The Council of White Witches keeps tabs on Nathan by making resolutions which restrict his movements, and when it becomes apparent that he is defying them he is taken and held captive.
To the White witches, holding Nathan captive is the safest thing for their society due to the danger he could present if his Black side became dominant. Although the Council of White Witches is the main antagonist in the novel, to them their actions and beliefs are synonymous with working for the greater good. The rest of the White witches accept this because they have been brought up through many generations to believe that Black witches are simply evil. This prejudice against Black witches simply because it has been taught is similar to the persecution of vampires in “Department 19”.
Both novels portray the ‘evil’ group as favourable characters with their stories appealing to the reader who can sympathize with them. The idea of persecuting a group for the greater good is one found often in our society, groups of people are stereotyped as evil from the actions of a few people. In today’s society, even though we say we are about equality and removing racism, minority groups are targeted due to the actions of a few radicalists. One such example is the perception of Muslims because of terrorist groups who justify their actions through their religion as Muslim.
Because of this, Muslims in Western Society are targeted and viewed as lesser. Racial discrimination is a factor which often appears with the idea of working for the greater good. The novel “Half Bad” portrays the idea that the ‘greater good’ is not necessarily what is right and makes the reader question the motivations behind the initiators of ‘the greater good’. Similarly to “Half Bad”, “The Darkest Minds” portrays the idea of working for the greater good as the role of the antagonist – the adults fear the damage that the children could do with their abilities.
Fear is often a strong instigator towards taking an action because people find it easier to convince themselves that something is right when they feel they are protecting themselves or others. The fear of the unknown potential that the children’s abilities had and their destructive nature made it an easy step to bring the children into camps where they could be kept until a cure could be found. The general public were in fear of the children’s abilities which led them to agree to the removal of their children.
They were never scared of the kids who might die, or the empty spaces they would leave behind. They were afraid of us-the ones who lived. ” When Ruby is 10 she unknowingly removes her parents’ memories of her, which, to their society, served only to reinforce the fact that the children were a danger to society. The adults genuinely believed that it was for the greater good of society for the children to be locked away. While they might have known that something was wrong, they chose to ignore it. Cate says to Ruby “I think they want to trust that you’re all being treated well.
Honestly, there are…. there are so few of you left now. ” This indoctrination continued into the camps where the children were held. Ruby is adamant that she is a danger to others saying “I’m a monster, you know. I’m one of the dangerous ones. ” Fear of something often leads to steps being taken to prevent the worst case scenario. In “The Darkest Minds”, these steps are to imprison the children to prevent them from harming the adults. Fear is a catalyst in all four novels’ beliefs of the greater good. In “Half Bad”, fear is an instigator of the imprisonment of Nathan.
The White witches fear what a Half Black witch could do in their White witch society. The forming of Blacklight in “Department 19” was due to the founders’ fear of the vampire they had discovered. In “Boy Nobody”, fear is less obvious. The most prominent example being the assassinations for the ‘bigger picture’ which are done in fear of the reactions from events that would occur if a key person involved was not stopped. Over all four texts the theme of working for the greater good is portrayed as something which is believed in full by the implementers of it.
However, the main characters are either actively working against what is thought of as the greater good, like Nathan against the White witches’ rulings in “Half Bad” and Ruby and friends against the President and PSFs in “The Darkest Minds”, or their actions cause the reader to wonder whether what they are doing for the ‘greater good’ is actually the right thing, like Boy Nobody questioning his mission in “Boy Nobody” and Jamie befriending a vampire in “Department 19”. Throughout all of the novels, it seems apparent that working for the greater good is merely a way of attempting to justify one’s actions.
These four texts made me think about what the greater good actually was. While it appeared to be something which required committing crimes for the big picture, I also found that it was flexible and the definition of it was something only of personal opinion. Most people follow and accept the greater good purely because they are told it is right in the big picture of things. This need to believe in a cause is overpowering and leads to situations depicted in the novels where the greater good belongs to the antagonists.
