Maybe Evil Isn't as Evil as You Think

*Author's Note: This is a Point of View piece I wrote to show the difference it makes when put into another POV.*

In Forge, an historical fiction book written by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story takes place in the middle of the fight against the British. Curzon, a runaway slave, finds himself entering the war to fight. Even though it was tough being a soldier, Curzon thought it was better than not being able to do anything with your own free will. His luck didn’t last, he was located. His master had found him, and ordered him back to being his servant. So when Curzon returned to his “home”, he was surprised to see Isabel there. They had just attempted to run away months ago, but disagreed on where to go, so went their separate ways. Now here they are, back to the beginning.

Curzon expressed his hatred for his master openly, and made all the punishments the master gave him worse than they were, and exaggerated also when he punished Isabel. What if we saw those punishments from the master’s eyes? No one knows how he was thinking when he gave it to them; maybe he had a reasonable explanation to why he did such a thing.  Isabel and Curzon are supposed to be working for him, but have attempted to run away multiple times. He has a reason to be on edge since they could attempt to run away again at any given time.

Since the most recent runaway, Curzon and Isabel decided to go their separate ways after an argument on where they should be headed. Isabel wanted to go and find her sister, but Curzon believed that is where the master would search for them first. So they went down different paths, and once both were caught, Isabel showed her anger toward Curzon, she felt betrayed that he left her to go where he wanted to, but he felt strongly about his decision. If Isabel told this story though, maybe she felt even stronger on her choice of destination.

Also, the whole entire story would change if Isabel was the narrator, readers would see her adventure and how she had gotten caught and brought back their masters home. If it was told from her point of view, I bet I would support every decision she makes, just as I did Curzon. That’s the point of books, right? To support the main character through their journey, so of course reader’s opinions would change if the story they once read was told by a different character.

No matter what book you may read, who the story is focused on plays a big part in how readers choose to see the rest of the characters. In Forge Curzon shows us how he see’s others, so that’s the only way readers are able to see them too. How he handles situations is different from others also, so he shows us his personality, but others will always seem worse than him. HE takes readers through his journey of loss, failure, but later success.