For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God -Exodus 3

In The Night of the Hunter we can find a character with the name of Harry Powell, who is a priest. Harry is a murderer and Ben Harper´s cell mate. The novel describes the priest as malicious men who has tattoos. The most important of this being love and hate tattooed on his knuckles.

Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos since the age of the “Icemen.” The word tattoo comes from the Tahitian "tatu" which means "to mark something", another definition of the word tattoo is the act or practice of marking the skin with indelible patterns, pictures, legends etc., by making punctures in it and inserting pigments (Dictionary.com, 2016). Prison tattoos differ from normal tattoos. The inmates make their own designs and the meanings are varied (Denton, 2015).

As I mention, Harry Powell has a legend on his knuckles; “love and hate”. The meaning of love according to Dictionary.com, love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person or a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend (Dictionary.com, 2016). On the other hand, hate means to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion or hostility toward; detest (Dictionary.com, 2016).

The meaning of “love and evil” according to Harry Powell is a sermon about the eternal struggle between good and evil. He believed that he was spreading the gospel by killing widows and stealing money (The tattoo forum, 2008), however Love and Hate together has several meanings. People used to tattoo the legend on the knuckles so it would be easier to read. It also means good and evil. Love is usually tattooed on the right hand, that is the one that does the Gods work that it is explained in Psalm 110:1: “The lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” While Hate is on the left hand as a reminder of punishments or hatred of evil or sinners. This means that the right hand does good work and the left hand does evil. However, it can also mean that you are in balance with your feelings.

In conclusion, “love and evil” is simplified as God Vs Evil. Harry Powell was in constantly struggle with doing right or wrong. He was a priest and he needed to do God´s work by taking the life of sinners. Through time the Bible has record that God literally wiped out entire nations including women, children, cattle, etc. In addition to that, God killed every living creature upon the face of the earth with the exception of eight people and the animals on the ark (Genesis 7:21-23; 1 Peter 3:20). On the other hand, according to Romans 3:23, God did not kill innocent people, they were all sinners (Parker, 1973). God just killed sinners and that´s what Harry Powell wanted, he wanted to be like God.

References

Denton, A. (2015, Octubre). Lifestyle. Retrieved from Hidden Meanings Behind Prison Tattoos Revealed: http://guff.com/hidden-meanings-behind-prison-tattoos-revealed

Dictionary.com. (2016). Diccionary.com. Retrieved from Hate: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hate?s=t

Dictionary.com. (2016). Dictionary.com. Retrieved from Love: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/love

Parker, J. (1973). Knowing God. InverVarsity Press.

The tattoo forum. (2008, December). The tattoo forum. Retrieved from http://www.thetattooforum.com/tattoo-forums/uk-tattoo-and-piercing-artists-and-parlours/17045-what-meaning-love-hate-tattoo-knuckles.html

Dictionary.com. (2016). Dictionary.com. Obtenido de Tattoo: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tattoo