Literature Review Sample on Unethical Behavior

According to many studies shown in the United States, a child is abused or neglected every 47 seconds in the U.S. This trauma can affect a child psychologically and lead them to do things an average child wouldn’t do in their adolescence and or when they become adults. But what are their motives that cause them to retaliate? It shows people in their youth who have felt abandonment or mistreatment are often mad at the people who have caused this pain to them, which leads to unethical behavior in their foreseeable future. It can be seen in the works of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly,  the novel and movie Animal Farm by George Orwell, and the movie Antwon Fisher directed by Denzel Washington.

There are many ways in which abusiveness can lead to frustration and a perfect example of this can be seen in the nonfiction story called Animal Farm written by George Orwell that is about Russia and the Soviet Union under Communist Party rule. In one part of the story, Napoleon, the leader of the farm, changes one of their commandments which says, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This shows the first step of Napoleon showing his cruel and unjust behavior to his fellow animals that he is leading. On top of that another example of mistreatment can be seen in the beginning of the story when you see all the animals gathering together complaining about the mistreatment from their humans. At that moment you see the oldest animal named Old Major say, “Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.” It signifies how the animals were all suffering and weak because of the way their humans were taking care of them. Additional evidence that can be seen in the movie can be seen in the beginning of the movie with the humans on the farm. The humans would forget to feed the animals and if the man was drunk, he’d abuse the animals. This caused the animals to feel anger at their mistreatment which caused them to revolt and take over the farm.

When someone is left hopeless and with nothing they tend to grow up having anger management issues which continues to their adulthood. The perfect example of this is found in the movie Antwone Fisher, a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by and starring Denzel Washington. At the end of the film Antwone Fisher decides to listen to his therapist and goes to talk to his former foster care mother after all those years of abuse in order to search for his biological father’s name. After a couple minutes of talking, tension between the two rose and Antwone exploded and yelled, “It don't matter what you tried to do, you couldn't destroy me! I'm still standing! I'm still strong!” This presented significance to the movie because  all the frustration Antwone Fisher felt on her former foster care parent was being used with his words after finally stepping against her. Even when everything was going well for Antwone Fisher, he was always given another situation in which he became angered. After completing his Japanese class, his therapist Dr. Davenport told him that their sessions together were finally over. This enraged Fisher and he showed his anger by punching walls and saying, “Everybody's always leavin' me! Hey, my mother left me! My father! Jesse and you! Cowbells ringin' in my f***in' head! Cow bells? But I keep trustin' people! Trustin'...”. You can see his PTSD kicking in and all the anger he had of someone leaving him again. He was completely angered and couldn't handle letting someone leave him again. Moreover, another big part of the movie was when Antwone finally met his mother after all the years of suffering she caused him. He tells her how he always used to wait and see if she’d ever come to find him when he was little in hopes of one day being able to live with his mother.

Lastly, an example of the unethical behaviors in adults based on the way they were raised can be seen in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly when Victor Frankenstein creates life to a creature out of nothing and abandons it shortly after. This led to the monster becoming depressed and miserable about his life when the monster spoke to Walton told him, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.” after Victor died. The creature didn’t even want to love and he felt like he was given an unwanted life for no reason at all. In the story other signs of depression can be seen with the creature when he was alone talking to himself. He talks in frustration when thinking about Victor  and says, “Why did you make such a hideous creature like me just to leave me in disgust”. You can see the agony the creature was suffering because he was left abandoned by his creator. Other ways we see the effect of the abandonment that the creation suffered can be seen throughout the story. The creature is angered that he was left all to himself by Victor and begins to seek revenge on Victor by killing the people he cared for and or loved.

To conclude, people who have experienced abandonment or mistreatment as children are frequently enraged with the people who have given them harm, which leads to unethical actions in the future. The significance of the concepts of abandonment or mistreatment is that it always leads to someone becoming emotionally damaged and doing things that they can’t control. It leads to things such as mood swings and anger towards others in society.