Morality And Sympathy In Jonathan Bennett's The Ethical Life

Huck sees Jim as just property and an ignorant slave who is below him. He does not really care about him very much, but we see that he cares enough to risk helping a black man get to the free states. We see Huck play a trick on Jim when he puts a snake next to Jim when he is sleeping and scaring him half to death when Jim woke up.. Huck just sits there and laughs at Jim. This is the typical 14 year old who loves to play tricks on the adults.

Huck had a plight while on the run with the runaway slave, Jim. Harvesting and helping a runaway slave was a crime, but Huck just could not let Jim go. Huck cared immensely for Jim as any friend would. That much was a risk worth taking to Huck. In document E, Huck says, “‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’ -and tore it up.”

Huck is looking for a father, and Jim is looking to join a family. The two complement each other well (4). Helping an escaped slave is a criminal offense during this period of time. It could be argued that Huck is not fully aware of the consequences of his actions, but as the reader sees time and time again, Huck is a very wise, very practical, very street-smart boy.

(pg. 81) In this quote Huck explains his uneasiness with the idea of slaves being freed. Huck’s uneasiness displays how he has matured because he begins to think about what he believes to be right or wrong. In this particular case, Huck is bothered by Jim freeing his family because in Huck’s time society understood slaves to be property. As such, if Jim was to free his family, he would be stealing.

The sympathy we feel for others eventually starts flowing away because of distraction. For instance, the short story "The Veldt" is a perfect example on showing how we lose sympathy for others because of technology. The own protagonists have been brainwashed to the point where they will make many radical decisions. The siblings (Wendy and Peter),have become so distracted with the nursery in their automated house, that they don't care about others feelings. They start disobeying their parents right after they said they would be disconnecting the automated home they live in.

Huck’s inner dialogue signifies that he has been taught that it is normal for men to own another man, his wife, and his children; that it is immoral for a black man to speak of being free and having his family back. Despite Huck’s influenced dehumanization toward Jim, he decidedly doesn’t betray his trust and helps him to freedom, portraying the message that norms can be nullified by individuals to make a

Sympathy for All Bram Stoker says, “Though sympathy alone can't alter facts, it can help to make them more bearable.” Sympathy is feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. In Truman Capote's novel, he shows sympathy towards Nancy Clutter and Perry Smith. Truman Capote reveals many fantastic traits of Nancy to create sympathy for her when she is killed.

In the novel Ethan Frome, the audience feels empathy towards Ethan because of the very serious decisions he has to make; leave Zeena and be with Mattie or to stay with Zeena. The audience conversely condemns him for his decision in “the smash-up”. The two conflicting emotions of condemnation and empathy makes the novel more interesting and teaches the audience that our decisions influence our fate, which is taught in all tragic hero

After Huck finds out that Jim is captive, Huck “set down and cried. [He] couldn’t help it” (210). After returning to the raft and not finding Jim there, Huck is overcome with emotion. The fear of Jim not being around causes Huck to realize how important Jim is to him. The friendship they developed on the river and through their adventure causes Huck to be more concerned for Jim’s safety than society’s need to keep Jim captive.

Huck and Jim’s adventures down the Mississippi make the theme of conflict between society and individual more apparent. During their journey Huck mentions, “Nothing could be better”(Twain 115). Huck is very content with Jim and Huck’s new life on the river, at least at the start. Being a runaway slave like Jim and Huck helping him, Huck questions at many points in the book whether he should continue to help Jim or turn him in and follow society’s rules about slaves. This could possibly be Huck’s most important individual conflict throughout the book, considering he questions his choice many times.

Huck has been burned with the idea that he is to blame for Jim’s escape. Huck ultimately feels guilty because he knows he has not done wrong but he has no reason not to believe what society thinks because he was only taught one way. Huck imagines an alternate scenario, thinking “s’pose [he]’d’ a’ done right and give Jim up, would [he] felt better... No…[he'd] feel bad” (91). Huck is aware that the right decision based on society is to give up Jim.

Have you ever been a place where you can not leave? You would do everything you possibly can to escape and be freed. The poem “Sympathy” is a poem about a bird who is a poem about who is trapped in a cage. As you read the poem, you begin to understand that there is a deeper meaning to the poem. When the poem was wrote in the 1800s, many African- Americans were in slavery, and the poet wanted others to know how many of them felt.

Huck had a good nature, but he was raised in the southern society that had a deformed conscience about African Americans. As Huck and Jim arrived in Cairo, he has to choose whether to keep his promise of his friend to send him into freedom, or to turn him in as a inferior runaway slave. Huck made the decision to not turn Jim in, going against what the society had taught him to do. Although he still felt guilty doing so, he thought that bringing Jim into freedom was the right thing to do: “I will go to hell.” (207, Twain).

Specifically, through the controversy of slavery at the time, Huck learns how to listen to his intuition and conscience. His slight hesitation escaping with Jim makes him question the authenticity of his morality. He says, “I begun to get it through my head that he was most free--and who was to blame for it? Why, me … But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could ‘a’ paddled ashore and told somebody”

Discussion question 8 discusses how Schopenhauer believes that compassion is the true and only basis of moral action and not religion. Why does he believe that? Do you agree with him on this point? Why or why not? Describe Schopenhauer’s notion of justice and provide a reason or two to why you would agree or disagree with such an account.