Philosophy 101
December 18, 1996
Silence of the Lambs
The Battle Between Two Evils   
	In the novel, Silence of the Lambs, we see two different extremes of
evil.  Dr. Chilton is evil in one respect, while Dr. Hannibal Lecter is evil in
his own unique way.  Dr. Chilton is the man with bad morals and feels the
need to control people.  He manipulates people into thinking and acting the
way he wants them to.  Basically he is the type of guy who takes advantage
of his job position, who thinks of himself before others and only acts in ways
that will benefit himself.  Dr. Hannibal Lector, unlike Dr. Chilton, is unable to
control his evil even if he wanted to.  Dr. Lector is insane and feels the need
to kill people just because he thinks they are boring and from his point of
view, they do not seem suitable to be human beings.  He understands the
things he does are evil, but they do not phase him since he is insane.  There is
no question, Dr. Lecter is a truly evil man, but Dr. Chilton is the worse of the
two.  
	Dr. Chilton must morally change and take responsibility for himself. 
Dr. Lector is not able to take control of his evil because of the way his
distorted mind thinks.  Although his mind is distorted, it is still a very
powerful mind which he uses to see into the minds of others.  He gets into
their heads and plays with their minds, internally torturing them.  He is a sick
man and needs therapy and constant care in a hospital because he is too sick
to help himself.  On the other hand, Dr. Chilton is capable of changing, if only
he could realize his evil ways.  He is blinded by his own power and greed
which he obtained through his job.
	Unlike Dr. Lector, Dr. Chilton has total control of his actions.  Another
difference between the two, Chilton does not set out with doing evil in his
mind.  He has become so evil that he is not even aware of his evilness.  It
almost seems like a natural and everyday thing to him.  This is why Chilton is
the more evil between the two.  We, the ordinary people, almost have to
sympathize with Lecter because the man is so sick in the head.  It seems like
he wants to make jokes about his killings and no sane man could do that. 
This is why we see Dr. Chilton as the evil man, because Dr. Lecter does not
know any better while Dr. Chilton should.
	  Dr. Chilton is the prime example in Xunzi's argument that the "nature
of man is evil."  He is an evil person who does nothing to change this about
himself.  Chilton is envious of others and possesses physical desires, exactly
how Xunzi explains evil people.  According to Xunzi, the evil of man must
depend on teachers and laws to become correct and achieve righteousness
and become disciplined.  Dr. Chilton is the law who refuses to learn from
anybody.
	In Xunzi's essay, "Human Nature is Evil," Xunzi goes on to say that
man desires.  This is obvious in Chilton's case as he tries to control people
and have all the power that he possibly can get.  If one follows his natural
feelings, like Chilton, he will have no deference or compliance.  Chilton does
have one exception to Xunzi's beliefs, and that would be how Xunzi says that
all men desire to be good.  Unless Chilton's definition of good is to have
everything that he needs for himself no matter how he obtains it, he does not 


seek for himself to be a good person.  According to Xunzi, mad desires to be
good because he can see that nature is evil and one must strive for the
opposite.
	Xunzi would say that  Chilton is a blind man who cannot see his own
evil.  He needs to wake up to the world around him and not to his
administrative position.  Xunzi also says that man must rely on the
government to result in good order and to be in accord with goodness. 
Chilton is actually part of the government and this is a possibly reason why he
cannot see how the government should be helping him.  The same rules that
the government expects people to live by do not pertain to Chilton, in his
eyes, because he on the inside.  The government spoils those on the inside
and only truly enforces the laws to the outsiders because they can not see the
internal flaws of the government.
	In this story we are confronted with  two unique evils, Dr. Chilton's
and Dr. Hannibal Lecter's.  Dr. Lecter's is the more common evil.  When we
think of pure evil, Dr. Lecter's style of evil comes to mind.  But if we were to
search further into the meaning of evil, we would see that Dr. Chilton's more
subdued evil ways or even more mischievous.  After examining Xunzi's
essay, "Human Nature is Evil," we get a better understanding why Dr. Chilton
is truly an evil and devious man.  So when we think of evil, the most obvious
form is not always the most wicked.