Revenge Tastes Oh So Sweet!

Books have the power to make readers lose their perception of reality and enter into a world of novelty. Since the seventh grade, I have been recommending the book The Count of Monte Cristo  by Alexandre Dumas to all my family members. The book starts off with an innocent man being convicted of a crime by anonymous figures, who are revealed to be his resentful allies. He eventually stormed up a plan of retaliation that took years to implement. The process leaves you in suspense, wondering if he calculated his revenge correctly. He took the role of God and placed his enemies' fate into his own hands. He did not only see himself as God, but also many different identities: Dantes disguised himself as an Italian priest, who traveled back to a town very familiar to him. This gave the now Italian priest leverage to collect valuable information to frame Caderousse, one of the Count’s former cunning friends. This may have been looked upon as vengeful, but one cannot stop but feel impressed. Dantes, who through acquired riches worked his way into a Count, took every aspect of life into consideration and planned accordingly. The Count succeeded in utilizing his assets of patience and practicability. When I read this book, I found myself contemplating the idea of good versus evil. As a reader, one always roots for good to prevail and punish the bad. However, the author leaves you in a grey area, where you see Dantes developing into what one might consider evil. This strangely lures me towards him even more. Unconsciously, I no longer saw Dantes as a fictional character that the author created to publish a book; I saw Dantes as a representative for whomever has been taken advantage of. Strangely enough, I put myself into the Count's shoes, and thought of myself as the real Dantes, who was capable and intelligent enough to prevail in such an ingenious and somewhat dark project. 

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