Gargoyles

"Gargoyles" by Ben Hecht is a story set in the early 1900s about a young man named George Cornelius Basine, as he navigates the murky waters of right and wrong, and the lies people tell themselves. After leaving a brothel one morning with his friend Hugh, Basine's story considers how tricky it is to be good, and points out how often people don't live up to what society expects of them. Basine tries hard to act like he's a good person, even though he feels guilty on the inside. The story questions how well we really know ourselves, and asks if people can ever truly be good or bad when the world around them is so confusing.