Antonin’s Greed: A Double-Edged Sword
Greed is both necessary and destructive at the same time; it is an irreplaceable part of human nature. An instinct is essential for survival and prosperity.
Many associate greed with desire, the wish for food, wealth, greatness, and power. But doesn’t everyone have the desire to be great? Even the pious want to be God’s favorite. Human beings cannot forgo desires; we are wired this way. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to survive. You cannot water other plants while the leaves of your own are withering.
However, greed is not just a desire; it is a distorted, disproportionate tendency that forces people to do the most detestable things to others and themselves. Antonin does the same; even though he rises from nothing and gains power, it is not enough to satiate his hunger, humongous ego, and, most importantly, his need for control.
Again, the loop continues…
Was it not his greed for a good lifestyle, power, and comfort that initially brought him to power? Then what happened? Aritra explains Antonin’s rise and fall from an ordinary clerk to a leader and then a failed addict in her novel, “The Destruction of Time.”
The Initial Phase Of Antonin’s Greed
Antonin always dreamt of becoming a billionaire without doing anything. He thought that a pay raise at work would help him achieve his dream. He is greedy for the luxury that his parents and grandparents afforded without working themselves to the bone. For this greed, he resorts to blaming, cursing the system, inflation, and foreigners – who are hardly a handful percentage of the whole population. After witnessing the manipulation of democracy in the recent elections, he concludes that power is the answer to all his problems.
The Rise of Antonin’s Greed
Antonin becomes a part of the League of Fighters, and soon, he climbs ranks with his smear campaign against the foreigners, aka the infiltrators. His greed to sabotage their rights and gain power over them was his speech for his new community. He turned himself into a victim and the foreigners into villains. Antonin believes his suffering is caused by other groups, ironically, among his rank.
The Effects Of His Greed
Going above his deserved rankings, Antonin feels good and paranoid simultaneously. He is happy that others are with him, but with each win, he is closed off from them more. He believes everyone around him is a threat, which is not a lie, as most founding members of the league defect at this point in the novel, given his discriminatory ideologies fueling a future riot.
Antonin’s recovery effort from the deteriorating citation of his country might look good on paper and in the eyes of nationalists. But it is a horrible approach. Although it is sugar-coated to reduce the eventual consumption in the region, it means eliminating the infiltrators advocating for ethnic cleansing.
The Downfall
Antonin’s greed was never the solution to the looming crisis. It was only aggravating it. He had much of the country’s control in his hand, dividing the league into five separate identities that would later throw him out like a useless pawn of a failing game. His greed strips him away from any power he has, pushing him towards drug addiction. From living off luxurious patronage to empty pockets, Antonin grew to consume his conscience and achievements individually.
But there is much more to his story.
Read about Antonin’s tumultuous journey that teaches a great deal about life in Aritra Jana’s thought-provoking book, “The Destruction of Time”—an open letter to this generation about how the end of the world may look like.
Grab your copies today.
