Good versus Evil

The primary plot throughout the entire novel is that of good versus evil. Biblical symbolism can be found throughout the book. Each of the characters experiences an inner struggle with good versus evil, but the struggle is especially strong within Willie Sutton himself.

Sutton struggles with the good and evil of committing crimes. The way he presents the struggle, or the way that he rationalizes his crimes in his own mind, is that Sutton became desperate. The desperate times always pushed him from trying to do the right thing, in finding a job, into committing crimes, such as robbing jewelry stores and banks. He also struggles with having to sacrifice his own wants and needs as a typical teenage boy and young man to become a hardened criminal.

The reporter and the photographer also struggle with the good and evil of Sutton's crimes. The man that...