This past week, I went and saw a unique movie, mother! and read From Death’s Duel by John Donne. Both the movie and the literary piece left me questioning life, death, and the evil nature of humanity. In mother!, the director gives the audience a grotesque plot that describes humankind’s relationship with Mother-Earth. The main characters represent God and Earth. The God character is a creator and a poet, and Mother-Earth is his wife. The couple opens their home to strangers in need, but the strangers 
turn out to be dear fans of the poet. By the end of the movie, strangers flood the home and ruin everything pure about the perfect paradise the couple live in in hopes of pleasing the poet. The crazed mob even murders the wife’s new-born baby. The strangers had no intention of hurting the baby but show no remorse when the hellish mentality that results from the instinctive nature of humans allows the baby’s neck to be snapped. In mother!, the infant was born into the chaos and brutality of the strangers, and he was immediately murdered by actions that the mob believed were justified, for they believed it followed the teachings of the poet. The crowd then feasts on the baby which the strangers hoped would be seen as a respectful gesture due to their selfish flaw in thinking, but the mother is mortified at the sight of her baby being eaten. The plot of mother! alludes to people being born on this Earth and then ruining everything pure about this world in order to please a greater creator. John Donne also sees the horrible nature of humans and uses it as fuel for his works. Donne allows people to see that damnation is a part of life that starts even in the womb ,and he makes the claim that, “in the womb we are taught cruelty, by being fed with blood, and may be damned, though we were never born” (1423). Donne implements the idea that simply being in the womb allows a human to be evil. We start our lives with the potential to kill our mothers, and if the mother and child make it through labor, both the mother and the child are still doomed to die. After the child is in the womb (which Donne considers a tomb) he will be birthed into a world of evil and hate where the only way out is death, and if you live a life aimed to pleasing God your death can lead to an ultimate life in heaven. From Death’s Duel and mother! both discuss humanity and it’s drive to please a greater being in order to reap a reward. Though these works have many similarities, the main difference is the debate between nature verses nurture. As you read From Death’s Duel there is no question that the nature of a human is evil. From the moment of conception, humanity feasts on the blood of another and lives solely to die, but in mother!, the evil ways of humanity is a result of nurture and group mentality. The wife’s baby was born into the world as a pure child, but when introduced to the crowd of strangers, the baby’s innocence was ruined and the destruction of innocence led to the baby’s premature death. My question to the reader: do you believe we as humans were born evil and can do nothing to combat our instincts, or do you believe the choices we make and the lifestyles we are taught after birth determine whether we are evil and corrupt or pure and innocent.