Can Good Choices And Bad Choices Be Equally Likely To Have Negative Consequences?

The premise that good choices and bad choices are equally likely to have negative consequences is an irrevocable falsehood. Although some would zealously contend that both choices can have negative consequences, these romantic critics are too dogmatic in their provincial view. Good choices often lead to happiness. Two prominent paragons that show this are: I. M. Altamirano’s The Zarco and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

Set at the end of the 19th century in Yautepec, Mexico, The Zarco’s characters Manuela and Pilar show how good choices tend to have positive consequences. Nicolas, the blacksmith, loves and wants to marry Manuela, a beautiful young woman. Although he is handsome and has good affluence, she despises him for his indigene nature, a wrong choice. Ultimately, Manuela chooses to flee with the Zarco, a bandit of vulgar nature. This decision leads Manuela into a horrible life that she abhors. Nevertheless, Pilar, her sister, chooses to marry Nicolas, which comes to be a virtuous decision. Hence, there is a great gap between the results of good and bad choices.

Another paradigm that displays the detrimental effect of bad choices in contrast to virtuous’ is The Scarlet Letter. The paths that Hester and Dimmesdale took (confessing and not confessing their sins) ultimately lead Hester to a virtuous life and Dimmesdale to insanity. This shows how good choices are likely to carry a positive result while devious’ tend to carry negative results. Hester’s confession of her sin permitted her, although in reclusion, to live a life of virtue with her daughter Pearl, her only treasure. Meanwhile, Dimmesdale tortures himself with his guilt that his sin is unknown and unforgiven to the eyes of god. He makes a terrible choice in silencing his sin because that broke a rule of the Puritan society that he lives ion. The opposite choices (good and bad) that the chose show the contrasting result that both tend to have.

In summation, the cynical tenet that all decisions are equally possible to have deleterious consequences is a fallacy that will often end in disappointment. Only by taking good decisions is that one can achieve happiness.

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