Theme Of Altruism In Good To A Fault

Can a hypocrite be virtuous? The short story, “Good People” by David Foster Wallace is about a young individual that has to decide this very thing. At the young age of nineteen Lane Dean got his girlfriend, Sherri fisher, pregnant. When the day came for her to get an abortion she changes her mind deciding to keep the baby, and relieving Lane from any obligations. Lane’s internal conflict of whether he is virtuous or a hypocrite, and if he’ll stay or leave his girlfriend directly reflects his struggles in his faith. Though Lane battles with his feelings for his girlfriend, virtue and hypocrisy, and earthly and heavenly love: he chooses the honorable road, and decides to stay with his girlfriend. Through out the story Lane repeatedly says that he doesn’t love

   In "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor, the masked truth is reflected unequivocally through the reality in the story, its equal counterpart. For every good or evil thing, there is an antagonist or opposing force. Each character has a duplicate personality mirrored in someone else in the story.

We each have different ideas on what the right or wrong thing to do during a difficult situation is. In David Foster Wallace’s short story “Good People” a young religious couple are hesitant on a decision of abortion when discovering they are expecting an unplanned baby. Not only are they struggling with the situation, they are also having a problem within their relationship. The couple has to face their fears and thoughts on what they were going to do. This is very similar to when I had to make a difficult decision, when I became pregnant with my son at a young age.

“Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.” - Eric Burdon. The theme of good versus evil can be applied to almost every novel but in different aspects. In the novel, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, plays a good and evil side at the same time. This book is in the time period of WWII in Paris, France following a blind girl and an intellectual boy. The girl, Marie-Laure, is our good side of the story, for instance, always wanting to help her father with what she can, listening and knowing what the right thing to do is, and taking action when needed, adding to her blindness to not let that stop her. The German boy we follow, Werner, he is wanting to help others as well, but not for the right reasons, he lets the evil, in this case, the Nazis, take control of him and use him for his brain.

The movie is about two marines indicted for the murder of a fellow marine in their platoon. Private First Class (PFC) William Santiago died because of lactic acidosis triggered by the assault inflicted by Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and Private Lowden Downey. This assault was the result of a direct order by the platoon commander Lieutenant Kendrick. The order was to train Santiago to respect the Code of the Marines and the chain of command. Private Santiago had broken this chain and written directly to the NIS asking for a transfer, in exchange for offering information about an illegal fence-line shooting. When Colonel Nathan Jessep, commander of the marines stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, learned of this letter, he ordered the

In Wallace’s short story, “Good People”, a couple is sitting in a park near the lake on the day of their abortion appointment trying to decide whether or not they should go through with it. There is other people sitting in the park as well, but they are much further away allowing the couple to talk about the topic without a worry however no talking is really being done.

Lane A. Dean Jr. and Sheri Fisher, a young couple, are sitting together on a picnic table near a lake. Sheri has her face buried in her hands while Lane seems to sit paralyzed from his own overthinking because they have recently found out Sheri is pregnant. Originally Lane seems to try and convince Sheri to get an abortion despite their religious backgrounds, but Sheri will later change her mind and decide she has no choice but to keep the child. This fictional story, “Good People” by David Foster Wallace, is through the point of view of Lane. Considering a large portion of this story is made up of Lane’s thoughts, feelings, and worries, his character can be easily depicted. These depictions will also show that Lane is not to be considered good people.

Throughout the play A Few Good Men, there are multiple ethical issues taking place which involve different characters. Some of these ethical issues include, having a lazy work ethic and not caring how personal actions affect other people. In addition to this, other ethical issues include not thinking decisions through fully, and even choosing to follow a superior’s orders when following personal morals would be the better choice. Multiple characters in the play are involved in more than one of these ethical issues.

For centuries many philosophers, as well as most individuals, have pondered on the question what is good and what is evil. More-so philosophers of all ages have also stumbled upon a more in depth question which is if the intuitive knowledge of man's nature is good, or if it is evil. Many have claimed to have an answer to these puzzling questions yet most of their answers were found to be incomplete and inadequate at a later date. Religion also tried to provide a solution but to my understanding only caused more of an entanglement if anything.

Underneath a good moral, there could be a hidden truth. In, “The Possibility of Evil”, Shirley Jackson shows how the protagonist, Miss Strangeworth presumes she is protecting her neighborhood by eliminating the evil that exists within her community, but ironically, she is the most evil neighbor of all. In the beginning, the community considers Miss Strangeworth an old, caring and respected woman. Throughout the story, a handful of community members realize Miss Strangeworth is a bitter, insensitive woman, who is creating more evil in the neighborhood. In other words, Miss Strangeworth’s intentions to rid her neighborhood of evil, ultimately has the opposite effect and ironically creates more dilemma.

David Foster Wallace’s “Good People,” is a very touching, powerful story about a young, unwed, Christian couple facing an extremely difficult decision and the moral and religious implications that may result. As the story begins, we are allowed into the head of Lane Dean, a college student, as he sits on a park bench with his girlfriend, Sheri. Lane and Sheri find themselves faced with an unplanned pregnancy, which causes them to battle with several moral and religious dilemmas. Both of them are devout Christians who have built their moral beliefs upon God and their religious upbringing. Although torn Sheri schedules an abortion, which weighs on Lane deeply. Lane, frozen in fear and not having the courage to freely talk to Sheri about

Good people do bad things. Doing a bad thing does not make someone a monster. For example, if a young boy was raised in the ghetto where he and his family never had enough to eat he might have to steal to get for his family. Even though he has done something illegal and immoral that does not make him a bad person. He was just doing what he had to do to get his family food to eat. Even if he kills someone in the process of sealing the food it does not make him a monster. This kid just made a bad choice in an awful situation but he made the choice for the right reason, to feed his family. Victor Frankenstein’s creation, the “monster”, was not all bad. The made some bad choices because of how he was created and how he was treated by Victor after he was created.

Do you feel an obligation to think about other people’s welfare? If you do, how far does that responsibility extend? Are you responsible for a sibling, a neighbor, or even a stranger across the world? The short stories I read help me think about the world around me and enlighten my understanding of my personal responsibility to others. First, these short stories show personal responsibility by describing to what degree we are responsible for the weaker or oppressed members of society. Second, the short stories I read helped me think about to what extent should we be driven by personal responsibility to act with compassion, empathy, and concern for others. Finally, short stories exemplify how we are personally responsible for our friends and how we live our own lives.

Each of us has the capacity for virtue or vice, and our daily actions reflect the combination of both.  In literature, however, people are sometimes depicted as being completely one or the other, giving us inaccurate views of human nature.  We identify better with characters who are more like us--neither completely good nor bad.  Meg, Jo and Amy March in Alcott’s Little Women do not flatly portray complete good or complete evil, but their realistic dual natures increase their believability and intensify their moral influence on us.

Both of these stories, prove that despite completely different time periods and cultures themes such as religion and the idea of good versus evil still ring true. Ideas of this magnitude spread from generation to generation and culture to culture. No matter where a person looks religion and the struggle of good versus evil can be found within any socialization and that is why I chose to write about them. These stories are as relevant today as the day they where written because of the themes they focus on. There will always be religion in the world and there will always be people who are good and who are evil.