Banality of Evil and the Role of Judgment

This exhibit displays moments in Robert Cormier's work where evil is shown as banal or ordinary. Related are episodes of peer pressure and how individual judgment can help one dodge pathways that lead to participating in evil acts. The exhibit features youth voices and takes up questions of peer pressures, the dilemma of sympathy for a "bad guy," the role of choice in the enactment of good or evil, and the role of repentance. Artifacts include marked draft chapters of Tunes for Bears to Dance To, letters to and from Robert Cormier, student papers analyzing Cormier’s work, and scripted oral presentations of Literature-N-Living students.