What do You think about The Devil And Miss Prym (2006)?
*WARNING FOR SPOILERS*Are human beings inherently good or evil? "The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation," by famed author Paulo Coelho, is intended to be an exploration of this theme, with various legends introduced into the conversation throughout the book. One of these legends involves a man traveling with his horse and dog when he is struck by lightning and killed. Not realizing he is dead, the man continues his walk, but eventually the group becomes thirsty. They come across a gateway which leads to a fountain overflowing with water. The guard at the gate tells the man this place is Heaven and he is allowed in, but only if he comes alone. The man, not wanting to abandon his animals, instead continues on walking and comes to another gateway, where everyone is allowed to drink from the nearby spring. The man asks this guard where he is, and the guard replies, "Heaven." The place with the fountain was actually Hell, prompting the man to exclaim that it is wrong for them to be trying to trick people into entering their gate under false pretenses. The guard replies, "On the contrary, they do us a favor, because the ones who stay there are those who have proved themselves capable of abandoning their dearest friends." To me, this story served as a warning, as I wondered, what would I have done? Dying of thirst, would I have proved to be selfish and unknowingly entered through the gates of Hell? Even though I consider myself to be a good person, could I have made one bad choice that would have forever changed my fate? For those of us looking for assurance about our own goodness, though, "The Devil and Miss Prym" does not provide any conclusions. Through his exploration of the origins of the town of Viscos and its later struggle between Good and Evil, ultimately Coelho tells us there is no answer about whether humans are good or bad, but rather it is all a matter of individual choice.First, Coelho makes it clear through his discussion of the town of Viscos that nobody is strictly Good or Evil but instead these forces struggle within each of us. Viscos began as a town inhabited by the dregs of society, including bandits, smugglers, prostitutes, and murderers, and the "wickedest" of them all, an Arab named Ahab. One day, St. Savin comes to Ahab’s house and asks if he can spend the night. Ahab laughs and decides that he will kill the man that night, sharpening his knife over the sleeping St. Savin. But the next morning, when St. Savin awakens, Ahab is in tears and tells him, "For the first time ever, someone spent a night by my side trusting that I could be a good man . . . Because you believed I was capable of behaving decently, I did." Later, we learn that Ahab’s transformation had really come earlier when he asked St. Savin a series of hypothetical questions. For example, if St. Savin was tempted by a beautiful prostitute, would he see her as ugly? What would he do if he was offered gold? Or could he love two brothers equally if he knew one hated him? In each case, St. Savin acknowledged he would be tempted by Evil but that he would try to control himself. Ahab then realized St. Savin wasn’t so different from him – they both struggled with Good and Evil – just as everyone does: "It was all a matter of control. And choice. Nothing more and nothing less." Ahab then transforms Viscos into a peaceful trading post. But that doesn’t mean the people of Viscos are, by nature, good people. Good and Evil still struggles within each of them. Some realize they can't abide by the new rules and leave town, while others decide to stay. It is their individual choice about which path they chose.While most of the “good” people decide to stay in Viscos, leaving it as a peaceful place, its inhabitants are eventually tested many years later when a stranger comes to town and offers them gold if they will murder a fellow citizen over the course of the next week. The stranger tells Chantal Prym, the local bartender, that he used to be a good person, but since his family was murdered by a group of terrorists, he has been tortured with questions about why the terorists did it and whether it is proof that all people are Evil. Viscos will be his testing ground for Good and Evil. If someone in the town is murdered, that will prove his theory that humans are inherently Evil. In fact, this town of honest and decent people initially succumbs to temptation, agreeing to murder one of its elderly citizens, forcing her to take a drug to sedate her, and dragging her across town, where the townspeople plan to shoot her. Before the shooting actually takes place, though, Chantal speaks up, telling them the exchange of the stranger’s gold for actual currency is going to be messy and asking whether they can really trust the other townspeople not to divulge how they got the gold to the bank. In the end, the townspeople agree they cannot trust one another, and they return to their lives without accepting the stranger’s deal. Chantal, who has made a separate deal with the stranger, receives the gold instead for her willingness to go along with the stranger’s game. Seemingly, then, there is no resolution the original question posed: Are humans good or bad? In making his original proposal, the stranger had told Chantal, "If you steal the one gold bar but the village resists temptation, or vice versa, I will conclude that there are good people and evil people – which would put me in a difficult position because it would mean that there’s a spiritual struggle going on that could be won by either side." So the final answer then is that there is no answer: there is Good and Evil struggling in everyone, and it is our own choice about what we do. The terrorists who killed the stranger’s family chose Evil, but the people of Viscos chose Good. Our ultimate path is not pre-destined. It is up to us and the choices we make whether we choose a path of Good or Evil.Through his exploration of the origins of the town of Viscos and its later one-week struggle between Good and Evil, author Paulo Coelho tells us there is no answer about whether humans are good or bad, but instead it is a matter of individual choice. In terms of conclusions about Good and Evil, then, everything is left to the reader. When Chantal is thinking about stealing the gold, the stranger asks, her, "If you had to write a book about your experiences, how do you think most of your readers would react – given all the difficulties they have to face, the injustices dealt to them by life and other people, the struggle they have in order to pay for their children’s schooling and to put food on the table – don’t you think that those people would be urging you to take the gold and run?" When Chantal tells the stranger she doesn’t know what readers will think, the stranger answers, "Nor do I. But that’s the answer I’m looking for." The fact that ultimately no answer is given by the author is disappointing, but as readers we can in fact answer this question for ourselves. Were we, in fact, hoping Chantal would steal the gold? Or, drawing from the earlier example, would we have stopped at the Gates of Hell to selfishly get our own water and abandon our friends? Does that say something about our own struggle between Good and Evil? While Coelho may come up short in providing answers about the struggles between Good and Evil that are happening all over the world, in reality, he is still providing a service by asking the question in the first place. Books are meant to spark discussion, and that is exactly what "The Devil and Miss Prym" does by asking readers to question where they stand in their own struggle between Good and Evil.
—Krenzel
هل النفس البشرية خيرة بطبيعتها أم الظروف تجبرها في بعض الاحيان ارتكاب الشر ؟ يحل غريب بين أهل قرية بسكوس المقيمة على استقامة أهلها وطيبتهم . وعلىميراث من الخرافات الهجينة القديمة . و بصحبة الغريب الشيطان وسبائكه الذهب .ورغبته في امتحان طبيعة البشر - هل ينزع الإنسان الى الخير أم ينزع فطرياًالى الشر؟- وهل يمكن ان يكون الخير و الشر في طبعه خالصين ؟ الآنسة شانتال بريم نادلة في حانة ، والعجوزبرتا تشتركان في فعل الفداء الذي يأتي منه الخلاص . شانتال التي هي الوجه الأونثوي ليهوذا. وبرتا التي تقيم على عتبة حياة متصلة بالموت ، والغريب الذي أوقعته المأساة في التجربة لكي يهتدي الى ذاته.و تسرد هذه حكاية الصراع الأزلي بينالنور والظلمات تحمل قصة فكرة فلسفية بسيطة جدا ، و حكايةغير معقدة التفاصيل لتنشغل بيها ! لم أستطيع تقييمها أكثر من 2.5اقتباسات : " إن للخير والشر وجهاً واحداً , كل شيء يتعلق باللحظة التي يلتقيان فيها بالكائن البشريوهو في طريقه " " الانتصارات و الهزائم هي جزء من حياةكل انسان إلا حياة الجبناء لأنهم لا يربحونو لا يخسرون اطلاقاً " " ليست الرغبة في الخضوع للقوانين هيالتي تلزم الجميع بما يفرضه المجتمع ، بل الخوف من العقاب كل منّا يحمل مشنقة في أعماقه " " لا تصدّقي الوعود، فالعالم مليء بها : ثراء، خلاص أبدي، حب سرمدي. يعتقد بعض الأشخاص بأنهم جديرون بإغداق الوعود . ويتقبّل البعض الآخر أي شيء يضمن لهم أياماً أفضل " " هناك نوعان من الحمقى : أولئك الذين يعدلون عن فعل شيء لأنهم تلقوا تهديداً , و أولئك الذين يعتقدون بأنهم سيفعلون شيئا لأنهم يهددون الغير "
—بــدريــه الـبـرازي
52.tThe Devil And Miss Prym, Paulo Coelhoشیطان و دوشیزه پریم - پائولو کوئیلو (کاروان) ادبیات نخستین اسطوره شکاف، در ایران باستان زاده شد: ایزد زمان زروان - پس از خلق گیتی، هماهنگی گرداگردش را دریافت، اما کمبود بسیار مهمی را احساس کرد - یک همراه، که در این زیبایی با او سهیم شود. یکهزار سال برای آوردن پسری نیایش کرد. ... اسطوره میگوید، از نیایش آغازین خدای زمان، نیکی (هورمزد) پدید آمد و از پشیمانی اش، بدی (اهریمن) جفت همزاد هورمزد شد. یاداشت نویسنده
—Ahmad Sharabiani
