Struggles

So, I'm reading this book from a great series by Lisa Wingate. It's called Good Hope Road. Anyway, on the first page the girl talks about a butterfly on her windowsill trying to emerge out of its caccoon. She thinks its so sad that it has struggled for hours and yet it has only gotten two legs out. However she later goes on to talk about how the butterfly must endure that because it's body is swollen and fat and there is no blood in its wings. Its struggle to get out is how it survives. If it didnt struggle the blood would not go to its wings so then it couldnt fly, so therefore it would quickly die. So my question is this...Often times in our life we go through struggles that seem never ending, all to reach a goal. Is the struggle worth the reward? And would we as a people not survive in the "real world" if we do not go through hard times as teenagers, when we are merely PREPARING for the "real world"?

Self-Esteem or Ego?

okay, so I'm reading this book called a Seperate Peace. The guy....we'll call him...Dan. anyway he has a best friend named Phineas who is crazy athletic and popular. However, he is also a really great guy. Anyway Dan gets it into his head that Phineas is trying to make him (dan) fail his class so that he (Phineas) can be more accomplished. Later on Dan finds out that that wasn't Phineas' intention at all. He just wanted to hang out w/ him (dan) b/c he was his best friend. So my question is....Do we create silent competitions w/ someone b/c we think they want to be better than us and we're trying to boost our self esteem? Or, do we create silent competitions w/ someone b/c we think we are just that awesome that someone would Want to Try to be better than us? Is it our self-esteem or ego?

Did Evil Posses?

In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth starts saying crazy stuff. She even goes to say she would kill a baby. Furthermore, she frames two innocent men for murder, and volunteers to go back into the dead king's room to plant the evidence. Death seems to have no effect on her. Previously she gave herself to evil and asked it to consume her. Has evil already consumed her? or is she simply doing whatever it took to get what she wanted?

Also, Macbeth asks for the ability to murder and not feel remorse. However, daggers soon start appearing in his mind. It was at this point that Macbeth realized murder was not only in his mind...it was festering. Was God trying to save Macbeth from murdering? Or was Macbeth simply starting to lose his mind?