Luca Bonini

Ms. Thompson
Honors Brit Lit, Skinny A, Block 3
11-1-14
Greed Draft #1
Greed is a very dangerous thing. Greed has lead to famine, death, and so much worse.
Greed is an emotion so strong and dangerous it has been labeled one of the seven deadly sins.
The sin of Greed has been the cause of many events that have lead to global change and it will
continue to do so. In Geoffrey Chaucers book The Canterbury Tales he has a story known as The
Pardoners Tale which is a great example of how deadly Greed can be as it is the cause of some
pretty horrible tragedies.
In The Pardoners Tale three young men, who are consumed by sin, are told by a boy that
their friend was slain by a shadowy thief known as Death and they set off to kill him to avenge
their friend. On the way to trying to find Death they meet a kindly old man whom they
immediately treat with much disdain. The man then proceeds to tell the young men that Death is
in a grove up ahead, and the men immediately rush over. Upon entering the Grove they discover
not Death but a large amount of gold coins. The young men forget completely about their
mission to kill Death and instead plan to take the gold into town during the night so that people
do not think it was stolen.The youngest does not tarry and goes to town to get food and wine but
meanwhile they other two sneakily decided to betray him. The two young men who stayed
behind agree to ambush their comrade and kill him so they can get more gold, but the youngest
one is also planning against them. The youngest man decides to prevaricasciously poison the
other two so he can get all the gold. Then when the youngest goes back to the grove he is

ambushed and killed, and to celebrate the other two men drink the poisoned wine. In the end they
fell victim to Greed and truly did find Death.
But Greed has not just played a role in stories it has also played a role in everyday life. It
has been the cause of empires to fall because often times those in power get too Greedy which
subsequently leads to those in poverty and such to rebel and overthrow the government. Another
way is that a country could try and invade a location because they are Greedy and then end up
fighting a war in which they lose and the empire falls to it. Imperial Japan suffered from this
when they tried to invade China but were stopped by the Allies, and Napoleon and Hitler both
fell victim to this example of Greed when they attempted to invade Russia but ended up losing a
large majority of their armies which made them vulnerable to assaults by other countries.
Greed is not a force to be taken lightly. Similar to all the seven deadly sins, Greed can
lead to much human suffering, and the Greed of one man alone can change the course of the
entire world. All of humanity should be wary of Greeds temptation and succumb to its promises
of riches beyond one's wildest dreams for what appears to be a stairway to Heaven can often be a
bloody path straight to Hell.