Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Term Paper

...Children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate -- died of malnutrition -- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot."(Steinbeck, 391) Thus, Steinbeck makes a cogent commentary on the corruptibility of the human being under the influence of power and economical profit.

Arthur Miller's All My Sons also exemplifies the way in which power can determine unethical acts and abuse. Thus, the protagonist of the story, Joe Keller is a corrupt manufacturer who, in the past, has taken advantage of his power and has knowingly killed over twenty army pilots when he sold defective equipment for the planes. Just as in Steinbeck's novel inhumanity was shown to be the main consequence of the abuse of power, in Miller's play the question of honor is raised. Joe Keller, in spite of the fact that he is not an evil man, has acted dishonorably putting the material profit above all else. As Miller shows, honor is no longer considered a value in the modern, profit-oriented society where the American Dream of economical power and success have taken the place of morality: "He used to shoot a man who acted like a dog, but honour was real there...But here? This is the land of the great big dogs, you don't love a man here, you eat him. That's the principle; the only one we live by - it just happened to kill a few people this time, that's all. The world's that way..."(Miller, 77) Power therefore can cloud the judgment and corrupt all the moral principles.

In the short story called the Women Warriors, there is also an example of power that is used abusively.This time, it is directed against the freedom of women. As it is well-known, throughout the centuries, women have suffered greatly from the roles they have been constrained to by the patriarchal society. The story is an example of discrimination and the abuse of power of men over women as it recounts the way in which two Indian women who had refused to marry, as society would prescribe it, are forced by one of the male leaders to go to war along with the men. Helped by the Spider woman, the two sisters manage to stay safe and actually achieve glory in the battle, thus showing a happy example of the way the power abuse can be overturned.

Finally, P.J. Gibson's Long Time since Yesterday analyzes the importance of power investigating classic issues related to it such as racism or the independence of women. The women that reunite at the funeral of a former school companion are all examples of success at first sight, but, on the deeper level, it is obvious that their lives have been dedicated to the desire of attaining power through a good social position and a prosperous financial situation.

Thus, the four texts demonstrate that power is a corrupting force that transforms the moral principles into economical and political ones, leading to inhumanity and unethical behavior.

Works Cited

Hammond, Susan Hazen. The Women Warriors.

Gibson, P.J. Long Time Since Yesterday. New York: Samuel French, 1985.

Miller, Arthur. All My Sons. New York: The Modern Library, 1987. Steinbeck, John.

The Grapes of Wrath. New York: New Directions, 1988......