A Perpetrators Decision

"A perpetrator holds both gun and briefcase, sees both paper and blood." (Written as the review "Gun and briefcase" by Timothy Snyder for the book The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Little). We are to decide on how we are to carry something along. In The Kindly Ones Little introduces a character that is supposed to tell everything as it happened during the war. He would not mind how harsh or absolutely peaceful the event may have seemed, but told it exactly as it was. Many times we want to do something, and so we go ahead and use whatever our method is to actually make it happen. In this case it's saying that a perpetrator must always have a Plan B. He can do things in a more peaceful way by talking things out and getting to an agreement, or he can also carry them along by using more violent methods where one of the two might end up hurt in some way. That is what the briefcase and the paper symbolize in this case, meaning a peaceful way in which to do something, while gun and blood symbolize a more crude and violent method. This choice is expressed in Shakespear's Macbeth with the decisions Macbeth and Lady Macbeth must take. Macbeth wants to become king, and so he must choose a method to do so. Since in the story he is predestined to become a king, his method to become one could be more simple than he could possibly think. That's the problem with destiny, it makes us think on doing the easy stuff because we will get to the same outcome anyway.

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But what if even by knowing we are going to get somewhere we decide to take the harshest path? Macbeth didn't even think on doing things in a more civilized and peaceful way, but decided to go after the violent and dangerous path. The plan he came up with alongside his wife was one which involved the murder of the king in order for him to become one. Why would he decide to inflict pain and spend more time on this plan then just wait for the right moment if it was predestined? His choice was one which would be almost contrary to what destiny is supposed to cause the people who believe in it to act according to. When we choose whether we use a peaceful or a violent way in which to do something we are always influenced by what we personally want to do. Macbeth, being a general in war, may have found this an easier way for himself to treat the matter, since most of his experience is related to violence. So both Macbeth and the main character in The Kindly One are to decide on how to carry something along. One may choose to do something according to your experiences, as in Macbeth, or one could also choose to do something in a way in which we decide to be indifferent on the method we choose to apply.