What Does Compassion Mean To Me

The purpose of this essay is to question the readers. Ascher wants the audience to analyze themselves to determine the reason behind why people show kindness, whether it is out of fear, pity, or compassion.

Often when using the words of empathy and compassion, many people envision them as having similar meaning. While they may share similar circumstances, they are actually quite different. Empathy is more of an emotional response with an understanding of a person’s particular situation; whereas compassion is an emotion that arouses an active response to alleviate a distressful situation. Nevertheless, these dissimilar expressions are paramount in the way people respond to the individual needs of others and how they reach out to others in their local communities. Barbara Lazear Ascher’s essay “On Compassion” not only creatively offers a very detailed description of the day in the life in New York City, but effectively draws a picture of

I think Elie Wiesel was talking about compassion for many reasons. When I think of compassion, I think of sympathy. Sympathy is very important to people in rough times. Elie Wiesel is talking about compassion because it is important to understand what the victims of the Holocaust felt and went through. Since Elie Wiesel survived the Holocaust, he understands what others went through including him. He wants others to realize that it is very important to show compassion to prevent another Holocaust from happening.

Being compassionate means you must always be sympathetic to people and people's stories. Although in some cases you can't pity someone but can be compassionate towards them. If someone is going through a hard time and you are not sympathetic to them or compassionate you may hurt their feelings. You must be willing to be encouraging, help someone know they can do it. You must also show respect and consideration. Being compassionate is not something everyone can do. It is something that develops overtime, and not everyone is able to be sympathetic when needed. Allowing someone or helping someone have a good day maybe heroism to them.

It’s a feeling of empathy and/or sympathy. You may or may not understand what the person is going through, but you’re still there for them. Even if they have never experienced what they're going through, you are still there. Compassion isn’t a right made by Government law. But we, as the human race, have the right to feel compassion for one another. Sometimes we feel compassion almost on instinct. So I guess it’s a right, just not an official right.

Thesis Statement: Compassion is human capacity that has evolved with our species,which has wonderful psychological and physiological effects on both a receiver and a giver.

Are people born with a complete quandary when it comes to compassion or is it something that has always been there? Barbara Lazear Ascher, born in 1946, writes, “On Compassion.” Having lived in New York City, Ascher is able to take first hand examples from the city to show the affection people have towards each other. Ascher is able to illustrate that compassion is something that has to be taught because of the adversity at people’s heels by including tone, persuasive appeals, and the mode of comparing and contrast in her essay, “On Compassion.”

Everyone is flawed and should not judged as one dimensional beings and it isn't as formulaic as Ascher presents it to be: “[Compassion] must be learned by having adversity at our windows, coming through the gates of our

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.

“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.

To me compassion means to care and love one another. If you hate or dislike someone, that is not showing compassion. Compassion also means to understand if they are upset, for example if your friend has a breakup. I would want to help them get through the breakup and make them happy again.To love someone is a huge part of compassion. Love can make someone feel super special and have compassion. One other definition of compassion is to forgive someone. if you forgive someone they will be happy with you. Being happy is great and it shows compassion.

Within literature, Compassion has been described in many ways though very few descriptions have agreed on how it is best identified (Volpintesta 2011). Crowther et al (2013) describe compassion as a deep emotion that is felt by the individual practitioner allowing them to understand what the patient may be experiencing. Nussbaum (2003) argues that compassion goes beyond just understanding and identifying that emotion, it requires the practitioner to produce a response to the feeling or emotion in order to improve the situation. Dewar (2011) points out that compassion is not only about the recognition of the patients suffering but includes small

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.

In her essay, Rachel wrote “My definition of compassion is forgiving, loving, helping, leading, and showing mercy for others. I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go

Compassion, though seemingly straight-forward, is actually a complex beast, springing from a variety of sources, including some less than flattering ones. These sources can include pity, fear, and self advancement, which are rarely associated with something as “good” as being compassionate. However, in “On Compassion”, by Barbara Ascher argues that compassion is something that must be learned through experience, not something one is born knowing, by giving examples of the actions of those who have enough towards those who do not, in order to stress the importance of taking note of others and their situations.