The Negative Attribute of Greed in The Pardoners Tale, a Book by Geoffrey Chaucer
Greed is both a positive and negative attribute to contain. Honestly, greed is more of a negative quality to hold. Being assigned four different essays, each essay assigned explained how greed was a negative quality. The essay which commonly demonstrates greed is negative is “The Pardoner’s Tale”. Being greedy can cause individuals to discover the person, of which retains this quality, less attractive. Possessing this quality, greedy people would rather choose to have money then to have trustworthy friends. Although, some people may argue greed is a positive characteristic to hold, but the truth is that greed is a negative feature. Greed is a negative attribute to own. Greed is a terrible trait to possess; it brings out a horrible quality that people find conceited and egocentric. The first reading assignment assigned was “” by Geoffrey Chaucer. This example is a story about three men and how greed was the reason of their death. Underneath a tree is where they established the treasure. Seeing how all three men were greedy individuals, the men let their greed take over their better judgments; it ended up killing each of them. Greed can cause self-indulgent people to murder to achieve their desires, and greediness can cause people’s appetite for money to make them lose friends and acquaintances.
The next reading assignment assigned was “How Spider Got a Skinny Waist”. This story demonstrates how greed can causeharm to someone who’s overly greedy, and how in the end the person who consents greed to take over their lives only instigates harm or death to themself. A plump, round spider wants to eat at two different places at the same time, so he composes a strategy for him to eat at both events. Proceeding to place his children on either side of him, the children were ordered to yank on their side of the rope when they begin eating. The obedient children both yanked on the rope at the same time and the father didn’t make an appearance at either event. Realizing something must have happened, they both went back to where they had departed with their father. The greedy spider was lying on the ground with the rope still tied around his waist. The children untied the rope only to find that the spider now had a skinny waist. The moral of this story is that when an individual allows greed to take over their life, they are allowing themselves to windup hurt. The third reading assignment assigned was “The Parable of the Rich Fool”. This story teaches a moral about not being greedy with one’s possessions; however, being overly greedy for your love of God is acceptable.
In this story it states, “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Jesus is trying to teach him that he shouldn’t be greedy with possessions; especially, since the items won’t help anyone in their after lives. Focusing on his love for God will help this greedy man in his afterlife. Being greedy won’t help when death knocks on the door, but one’s love for God definitely will. Understanding there’s completing views, some people might argue greed can occasionally have a positive outcome. Greed can help motivate individuals to work more durable, but if they receive a great amount of currency then they will begin to believe people owe them. An additional argument might be that greed is good because without it society wouldn’t be what it is now. In today’s society, people are more spoiled than past generations have ever been. Today’s generation of people are materialistic, because they have the power to purchase many items and then become greedy with their possessions.
The stories: “The Pardoner’s Tale,” How Spider Got a Skinny Waist,” “The Parable of the Rich Fool,”and “Greed is Great” help references how greed is a negative quality to possess. Greed has torn families apart for plenty of generations. A real life true story is about a family nearby that stopped communicating with each other even though they live right beside each other. They clashed over who would receive their father’s possessions after he passed away. Having been absent in their lives for nearly a decade, this family is at this moment starting to converse together again. Greediness and selfishness can cause a great deal of strain on many relationships. If greed wasn’t an aspect this disconnected family would still be close like they once were. It’s difficult to mend relationships; especially, if greed is a factor in the argument. Although greed can be good to a certain point, most of the time people let it go too far so it becomes a negative quality to hold.
