How Far is Too Far?

    “It is only a means to an end.” That is the excuse people frequently tell themselves and others for their actions. They are doing something they know they shouldn’t, with good intentions of course, as a way to reach some goal. Everyday people do this, as well as world leaders. My own dear mother, French Revolutionaries, and animals representing Communist Revolutionaries have good intentions, but the actions they use to reach their good-intentioned goals are less than good. They hurt themselves and those around them when the actions they take have unpleasant, unforeseen consequences.   
    My mother, who I love very much, is up to her neck in debt, as are many other American families right now. Her goal is to get out of debt so that my sister and I may live a better life, a very commendable goal. The means to reach this goal is a second, part-time job. Now, there is nothing wrong with having a second job. The extra cash does help my mom put a little more effort into getting out of debt. It also turns her into another person. On the much rarer occasions I get to spend quality time with her she is tired and much grouchier. The slightest things will set her into a rage! This second job punishes her mentally and physically and this not only hurts her, but also myself and others around her.  She knows the cause of her exhaustion and she keeps telling herself and me that she will cut back the work. I encourage her everyday to quit the job. Her means to get out of debt so that my sister and I can have a better life just aren’t worth what she is going through.
    In Animal Farm, by George Orwell, Napolean goes too far. His goal to oust their oppressive ruler, Mr. Jones, is good but his uncontrollable lust for power turns him into a tyrant. His goal was for the animals to follow “these Seven Commandments, now inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which all animals on Animal Farm must live forever after,” but it was met and surpassed. He alters the laws continually for his personal benefit. He learns to walk on two legs which was the first thing originally banned from the animals. He wears clothes which were also banned and moves into the Jones’s house. This breaks three of the original commands. He goes from rebelling against the humans’ corrupt gluttonous ways to adopting them for himself. At the end of the novel, “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
    In A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge cruelty goes too far in her passion to avenge her family’s deaths. Getting revenge on the direct descendant, Charles Darnay, of the man who murdered her father, brother, and sister is understandable, but trying to kill his wife and child is going too far. They had absolutely nothing to do with the incident and their deaths in no way punish the Evremonde family or the man who committed the crime. Charles Darnay’s father is dead and so is the Marquis, Darnay’s uncle. The only thing Lucie and her child’s death would have accomplished is satisfying Madame Defarge’s bloodlust and desire for revenge. A personal vendetta is a bad reason to end the life of a fellow human being. To save a life, worse means are acceptable. Sydney Carton drugging Darnay is a fine mean to an ends, especially when that ends is the end of a man’s imprisonment and saving his life. Cartons actions, though not flawless, saved Charles Darnay and his family’s life. In this regard the end does justify the means.