Humanity will always struggle with what they want to do opposed to what action they need to do. Humans are inclined to do what they want rather than what is reasonable. For example, the weatherman says that is going to rain today and he advises everyone to wear a rain jacket or carry an umbrella. There will be someone who doesn't want to wear a rain coat or carry an umbrella. The reasonable decision would be to take the coat or the umbrella. A student may have fought whether to do this paper over the weekend or do this the night before the due date. The want for most students would be to do the paper the night before. The reasonable decision would be to do it over the weekend. That will allow more time for revisions. Victor Frankenstien of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein fought with want vs. reason. A passion for something usually causes what humans want to do. Victor's want to create life came from his passion for science. Absalom of Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country, fought as well. He wanted to impress his friends and it got him in deep trouble. Reasonable decisions will keep trouble away.
Victor used reason to stop a potential problem. Victor broke his promise to The Monster of creating the female mate saying, "Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness" (Shelley 206). Victor feared that The Monsters would produce offspring. Victor didn't want "little devils" that would walk the earth, causing trouble like their parents. Victor did not want to make the female for The Monster. Victor saw the reasoning in The Monster's argument so he made the promise. He realized the potential danger if he went through with his promise so he scrapped the project. Victor's reasonable thinking stopped a problem in the long run.
Absalom made the fatal mistake of choosing want over reason. Absalom informed his father Kumalo about what he did saying, "I told them I was frightened when the white man came.