Barbara Ascher On Compassion

The author gives humanistic reasons on why people are compassionate. For example, a poor man was in the way of a mother and her baby so the mother scrambled around her purse to find change to give him. After the money was given to him, he stood there not knowing that taking the money and saying thank you was the end of that situation so he just stares at the baby, until the mother gets impatient and scrolls away. “Was it fear or compassion that motivated the gift?” In the passage she explains to the audience of a fresh bread shop and an old man. Entering

It is important to mention that being homeless in the USA is tightly connected with confrontation not only with people around, but also with uneasy mental challenges about the explanation of existence and self-esteem. The article encompasses the negative attitudes and reactions homeless people face every day, as well as it gives the reader some kind of positive perspective of the situation. Once in a while, the roofless see acts of kindness toward them. According to the statistical data provided in the article, that process reaches its climax during the Thanksgiving and Christmas time. Nevertheless, the homeless are constantly up against the problem of existential purposes and intentions either by knocking together causal

Ascher uses compassion to make us feel sad for the homeless man at the end of the story by showing us a great deal of pathos. This is when she really starts to get you thinking. She says “Could it be that this was the response of the mother who offered the dollar, the French woman who gave the food? Could it be that the homeless, like those ancients, are reminding us of our common humanity? Of course, there is a difference. This play doesn 't end- and the players can 't go home” (3). Following this, she is trying to get us to understand where these people really trying to do acts of kindness or were they just trying to get this poor man out of their heir. She makes you think how their expressions and actions tie into this and if they are a trying to get him out of the way, why? We need to help them. Another way the author makes us feel bad for the homeless is by saying “His hands continue to dangle at his sides. He does not know his part. He does not know that acceptance of the gift and gratitude are what make this transaction complete. The baby, weary of the unwavering stare, pulls its blanket over its head. The man does not look away. Like a bridegroom waiting at the altar, his eyes pierce the white veil.

One of the appeals that Asher uses is pathos, the appeal to the audience's emotion. In paragraph nine, Ascher writes, "They chase the homeless from their midst with expletives and threats". This helps the audience sympathize with the homeless because it shows how poorly they are being treated. In the same paragraph, Asher writes, "Or does she simply want to rid her shop of his troublesome presence?" This further emphasizes how badly homeless people are treated, and makes the audience care. It demonstrates to the audience that people will only do what is beneficial to themselves, without caring about what happens to others.

Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune. Ascher appeals to pathos in her essay in order to compel the readers to feel compassion towards the victims. She contributes to pathos in her quote, “The man’s grin is less the result of circumstance than dreams or madness” (46). The audience feels for this young man and the tough “circumstances” he is going through. The man is dressed so poorly that he is being mistaken as a mad man by the spectators. The readers instantly feel empathy for this man in the form of compassion. Ascher appeals to logos in order to define compassion in her quote, “For the ancient Greeks, drama taught and reinforced compassion within a society” (48). Ascher includes the real facts about the Greeks in her essay. When she includes these facts, it enables the readers to validate that compassion is something that is taught, whether it is through plays or having to see someone in a worse condition than they are, compassion is still attained.

Rhetorical questions such as, “twice I have wondered, what compels this woman to feed this man? Pity? Care? Compassion? Or does she simply want to rid her shop of his troublesome presence?” (57) makes the reader question themselves and figure out why people would be compassionate. Asher is able to bring out the audience’s feelings about homeless people and why people are kind to them by describing other people’s questionable actions. Phrases like, “his eyes fix on the baby” (57) confuses the reader about whether the mother gave the homeless man money out of “fear or compassion” (57). Her words are delicately planned out to make the reader feel puzzled about whether humans are actually compassionate or if they do things for other reasons.

“A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal”. This quote by Steve Maraboli may be hard to understand, but the Holocaust texts: Night by Elie Wiesel, “A Three Year Old Saves His Mother” by Peter Gorog and “Jakob's Story” by Jakob Blankitny are great examples of where compassion is necessary to fight the despair in heartbreaking situations. In each work, compassion shows up from unexpected sources, helps motivate people to survive, and creates greater unification.

Ascher’s essay describes the ways she has seen compassion showed, through voluntary donations, food, shelter. She openly questions what drives humans to be compassionate to each other. As a successful author who

In this segment from the earlier paragraphs of “On Compassion”, Ascher evokes some early sympathy in the audience towards the homeless man described through the implementation of contrast. Referencing the objects contained in the mother’s purse doesn’t just contribute to a more descriptive passage; it also highlights the poor situation

Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering (Dictionary.com). In the Annex you can see that many people are very compassionate towards each other. One example of this is when Peter’s cat gets lost and cannot be found. You’d expect for him to get told to suck it up and that it’s just a cat, and they’ve more important things to worry about. Instead of this you see that they try to find his cat and calm him down, which I think is very compassionate of them to think of Peter and how much he loves his cat instead of telling him to suck it up.

Ascher believes observing the adversity of homelessness is a necessity in learning compassion because “Compassion is not a character trait. . .It must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our windows” (Cohen 42). Ascher believes we can learn and grow from others' adverse experiences without being a part of it. Although Ascher would have us believe we can learn compassion simply through observing adversity at our windows (homelessness), Eighner would likely disagree because he has struggled in adversity and learned the importance of true sentiment first hand, not through observation. Eighner writes of the importance of having an intimate connection with adversity in his own homelessness, “Once I was the sort of person who invests material objects with sentimental value. Now I no longer have those things, but I have the sentiments yet. . . .The things I find in dumpsters, the love letters and ragdolls of so many lives, remind me of this lesson” (Cohen 157, 158). Eighner has grown and holds sentiment in those lessons because he had those experiences, not because he has simply observed others. Ascher gives us a lesson in learning from adversity but does so from an outsiders' point of view while Eighner's personal experience contrasts to shows us that much can be learn from experiencing adversity more intimately.

Compassion has little to no boundries. In almost every great story there is a specific character or a group of characters that help the protagonist because they feel bad for them. Compassion is the most important aspect of a functioning society; therefore, Elie Wiesel’s Night, 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, and the generosity of spirit shown by the average citizen after the recent shooting in Las Vegas are all perfect examples.

Elie Wiesel talks about compassion because the lack of it caused the Holocaust. Compassion was needed during that event because no one felt for the Jews. If the Germans showed sincerity and empathy, the killing wouldn't have happened. Also, he talks about compassion because he wants the new generation to know about it. That is because the new generation will be the next generation of people in the world. So they must know to care for others during dark times. Finally, he talks about compassion because it is an important part of humanity. For us humans to live peacefully, we must show compassion.

The word “homeless” is used to describe many different kinds of people with a variety of problems; the “homeless” includes veterans, the mentally ill, the physically disabled or chronically ill, the elderly on fixed incomes, men, women, and families that have lost their source of income, single parents, runaway children who’ve been abused, alcoholics and drug addicts, immigrants, and traditional tramps, hobos, and transients (Martin, 1999). In “Helping and Hating the Homeless”, Peter Martin claims that although these people all have different backgrounds, histories, and reasons for not having a “home”, they are categorized and stereotyped by society and all looked down upon for being “homeless”. He addresses his readers, those that pass by

Everyone has difficulties and tragedies in life, some more than others. Though when people show compassion, it makes your spirits rise and make your challenges more bearable. In the short story, “Thank you, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, a woman whose purse has been an attempted target by a boy, shows the theme of compassion with an overflowing amount of it. The boy, Roger, learns throughout the story that compassion is very important, and his true personality is revealed by some woman he doesn't even know.