What Is Gadfly's Definition Of Compassion Is Making People Feel Good

Barbara Lazear Ascher writes a well formed essay on the concept of compassion. Compassion is something that we do for others out of the kindness of our hearts. She focuses more on the poor, just how we show them sympathy, why do we do such things. Is showing empathy from our hearts or just for them to go away. I enjoyed this essay due to the fact, that she gives humanistic reasons on why people are compassionate, she doesn’t sugar coat anything, and lastly she breaks down the compassion that she sees everyday.

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.”

Compassion is learned through experience and seeing those less fortunate; it brings out sympathy because one cannot ignore it when unfortunate people are everywhere.

Would you risk your life for someone else’s? Would you give up the only thing keeping you warm to keep someone else warm? If you had little food would you give some to keep someone else from being hungry? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, you are compassionate. According to Webster's Dictionary, compassion is defined as literally, suffering with another; a sensation of sorrow excited by the distress or misfortunes of another; pity; commiseration (Webster's Dictionary). Throughout the novel The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, the personality trait compassion was magnified. During the toughest of times, Markus Zusak showed that hope and goodness could still be displayed while the worst of people were being

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.

Compassionate or kindly forbearance shown towards: an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence.

The definition of compassion in the oxford dictionary is ''sympathetic pity and concern for the suffering or misfortunes of others''. Oxford dictionary (2013) However senior lecturer Penny Harrison says there is no accurate definition for compassion as it is a word that can be understood in different ways. Harrison, P. (2009)

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 impels us to work to alleviate the suffering of our fellow man, to remove ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, and to honor the sanctity of every single person treating everybody, without exception, with justice, equity and respect.

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.

Compassion means empathy to me, which is being in another person’s shoes. The reason why a person shows compassion is because they feel for another person. I think compassion also means to do the right thing. That is because compassion is to be sincere and that is a good thing. Showing compassion must give you the warm feeling in your heart, which is good. Compassion should be a human right that all humans should use. It is an important part of humanity and it is the virtuous thing. So let me tell you how compassion is related to the Holocaust and how it is important.

Compassion represents an “acknowledgement of another’s suffering and is accompanied by the expression of a desire to ease or end that suffering.” (Van der Cingal, 2009, p. 124) This is a fundamental characteristic usually found in health care workers and nurses especially. In one twelve hour shift, a nurse’s job can change from taking vitals and administering medications to performing life saving measures

With compassion it allows the government to have a concern for the victims and figure out how to react without the quick decision making.

The concept of compassion is also significant in the work of Carter in his discussion of how the African-American Spirituals told a story of a slave's life and how he was identified with the spirituals to give him power to overcome obstacles in his life. Joe Carter was a singer to religious spiritual music based on human suffering. The spirituals brought people together to fight for their freedom, give faith, hope and become stronger along the way.

We all have the ability to be compassionate towards others and forgive. Humans are born as narcissistic beings; from the moment of birth we are selfish to our own needs. Perhaps, it has survival value. We cry when we are hungry. We do not know or care that our parents might be busy, in a literal sense, we are capable only of thinking of and responding to our own needs. We are, as infants, not even capable of realizing that other people have needs, desires, or a life outside of us. As we grow up over time, ideally, we learn compassion it becomes natural to most of us, but only to a certain point. As such, most people never genuinely become good at it. Compassion is the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes, imagine things from their perspective, and then to feel kindness for them and seek understanding of them even if what they do is harmful to us. This usually goes against our needs and desires, and is at odds with our own experiences.