Nature versus Nurture

The age-old debate over whether the personalities of individuals are most influenced by inherited tendencies or by external influences is a regularly explored theme in this collection. Often, the protagonists in these stories seem to be on the verge of escaping a cycle of damaging behavior and turning over a new leaf. It is clear that they have within them the potential to be more or better than what they are, yet each glimmer of hope is snuffed out, either through the malign influences of old mates up to no good or through what appears to be the inability of the protagonist to change. This pattern causes the question to arise of whether a character's continual backsliding is just the nature of the person. This would be considered an innate weakness, symbolic of what Christians would call original sin or the result of being too easily...