Reader question:
Please explain “nature of the beast” in this sentence: “The majority of the racial problems are just the nature of the beast…”
My comments:
To paraphrase:
Race problems are hard to resolve, because racial prejudices die hard.
And that’s jus the way it is – or has been so far.
Yes, put another way, the nature of the beast means it’s just the way it is, the way things are, even though they are very unpleasant.
Now, definitions. Nature refers to the inherent character or characteristic of a person or thing. Beast, on the other hand, is a fierce animal. Or when we talk of a person as a beast, we refer to the beastly characters of the man, his baser sentiments, that is, characteristics usually associated with lower animals. Humans are supposed to be noble as a species but we still have the beast in us, and that’s a fact of life. The beast in us is something we have to keep under control, constantly.
When that part of us gets out of hand in some people, it turns them into the worst beasts and even worse – as it turns Henry Jekyll into Edward Hyde.
Oh, by the way, have you seen the movie Beauty and the Beast? That title is a handy example to illustrate our point. Beast is the very opposite of beauty.
Hence, you see, the “nature of the beast” as a phrase always points to the ugly and unpleasant aspect of something or situation.
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