Because we have had so many absences recently, this post is due to be answered by Friday, January 22.
The last three stories we have read, "The Taste of Watermelon", "Secrets" and "On Her Knees" have all been concerned, in their own ways, with ethical (moral) questions. Discuss how these three stories deal with ideas of "right" and "wrong".
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Ethics/Morality
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“The Taste of watermelon” deals with ideas of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ by how the narrator should steal the watermelon and if this is a good thing or a bad thing to do. He thinks it’s a right thing to do because he is proving to his friends and Mr. Wills how brave he is, but after he did it he sees how upset Mr. Wills gets when he finds out that someone stole his seed melon. The narrator realizes then what he did was really wrong, and that he should never have done it. “The taste of watermelon” deals with ideas of forgiving by at the very end Mr. Wills forgiving the narrator for what the boy did, and actually partly blames himself for it. Then the narrators atonement to him was promising to help him with planting the seeds the following year.
ReplyDelete“Secrets” deals with the ideas of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ by how the narrator when he was a little boy gets very curious of a bunch of letters his Great Aunt Mary told him not to open and read. When he opens them up he doesn’t care if it is wrong or right, even if he knows that he will be scolded, the temptation takes over and he forgets completely what she told him. And then after he was found out and learned his lesson from her, he realized what a wrong thing he did, and that when it comes to people's personal issues, you should just let them be. "Secrets" deals with forgiveness when Great Aunt Mary sees what he did and tells him that she would never forgive him for this. And then at the present time right after her sudden death, he thinks about what she said and regrets greatly what he did, thinking that she never forgave him and still, even now dead, doesn't like him for it.
"On Her Knees" deals with the ideas of 'right' and 'wrong' by first of all, the main theme of the stolen earrings, concerning stealing, which is definitely wrong and illegal. But it also deals with the truth and honesty showing how the cleaner, the narrators mom, did in fact NOT steal the earrings, and that the woman who accused her for it, was wrong. Other concerns of rights and wrongs is how the narrators opinion of rich people is. He thinks that THEY are just always wrong, and that they are greedy, selfish people who put false accusations on services, people they hardly know etc. "On her knees" deals with forgiving when the narrator goes snooping around the rich person's house trying to find a reason to dislike her, but then sees no evidence of her being particularly bad, but instead sees her as a normal, innocent person who looks like one you wouldn't dislike. This way he kind of forgives himself for being so angry at her, but still stays mad that she made such an accusation on HIS mom. By the end of the story the reader wonders if she afterwards called back to the narrator's mom to forgive her for accusing her of stealing a pair of expensive earrings, or if nothing happened and both of them just moved on in their own lives.
Argh Sara you got in before me :P
ReplyDeleteThe taste of Watermelon brings in the idea of illegality as well as a kind of understanding amongst ‘farm folk’ at the time. The boy decides to steal a very large seed watermelon from a ‘Mr.Wills’, which is technically illegal. However, at the time stealing watermelons from other farmers was a kind of sport or pastime, but stealing a seed melon that was as big as the one Mr. Wills had was definitely crossing the line with regards to watermelon stealing. The story also has an element of rightness with regards to the same incident. After the boy steals and subsequently consumes the seed melon, he is wracked by guilt and gathers up the remaining seeds to go and apologize. He promises to work for Mr. Wills and try to repay the damage he had done. Mr. Wills forgives him as well as accepting half of the blame. ‘The taste of Watermelon’ deals with both right and wrong, forgiveness and an understanding at the time that stealing a single watermelon wasn’t morally wrong.
"Secrets" has a strong sense of wrong but not an illegal wrong, more a personal type of wronging. When the main character gives in to the curiosity and decides to take a peak at the letters she explicitly told him not to. Finally his curosity is satisfied as he knows he is doing something he souldnt be. However he doesn't know just how much trouble he would be in when his aunt returned and found him. Here she states that he did something that was so wrong to her that she called him dirt, and said she would never forgive him. When someone you know tells you not to do something, it is generally for good reason and it means they have placed a certain trust in you. It is morally wrong to break that trust without good reason, and "Secrets" shows the consequences.
"On Her Knees" addresses right and wrong in several ways. First there is the fact that Victor's mother was accused of stealing a pair of earrings, which is against the law as well as being wrong on a more personal level as the accusation was false. Then there is The point where Victor's mother needs to go back to the house she supposedly stole from (why would you ask someone that you thought stole a pair of your earrings back to your house while you weren't there is beyond me, unless you know they didnt steal anything) to keep up her reputation. During Victor's wandering around the house, helping his mother clean, he tries to find something to hate the woman for wrongly accusing her. He finds some personal items which from the view of some countries and people would be morally and ethically wrong, for example her collection of erotica and the Kinsey Report. Then on a more potentially illegal level, he finds a small amount of drugs in one of her drawers, which he shrugs off as if he's used to it. "On Her Knees" has a multitude of wronging, both against the law and on a personal level. Even when Victor takes 'revenge' by placing the found earrings in the cat litter, there is a sense of wrong. However in the end, they both leave the house with the earrings left with the 'lump-sum' on the counter, rather than taking any action.
Ethics/Morality
ReplyDeleteThe taste of Watermelon shows understanding among people who life together. It shows how people understand other people’s actions forgive easily. In the Taste of Watermelon, Mr. Wills, a farmer has had his watermelon stolen. But the people who stole the watermelon and the time that they stole it changes everything. Firstly they stole it in a “time” where stealing watermelons was fun and like a sport. It shows a teenage boy crossing the lines to impress a girl. After he does this he is then sad and goes to pick up all the seeds he stepped on and he went to apologize and tell Mr. Wills what he had done to the watermelon. He then promises to help Mr. Wills and try to repay the damage he had done. Mr. Wills forgives him happily as he knows he didn’t do it on purpose. ‘The taste of Watermelon’ shows both the bad and the good I people, the good is separated from the bad, but sometimes they can mix and help each other, I guess. He forgives, which is a good thing, the acts of the kid, which aren’t so good, and combines it with forgiveness and help from the boy.
“Secrets” shows both the ideas of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ by how the boy gets curious and looks through is grand aunts secret drawer of private letters. He was not meant to go and look but curiosity took over him and he looked. This made his aunt angry, if he knew that he would have been hit, he wouldn’t have done it because he doesn’t want to live with the guilt and the pain of the hit. Unfortunatly for the boy she never forgives him, well we don’t really know, nobody does except her and maybe god. This really hurts the boy when he grows up and his great aunt dies. He will live with the guilt forever.
“On Her Knees" deals with the ideas of 'right' and 'wrong' as well. Firstly the theme of the story is that earring that cost 500 dollars were stolen by a poor maid. The maid knows that she didn’t steal them but she is still blamed. She then cleans the house again and finds them. She gives them to the owner, not in person, but in the envelope full of money she was meant to take as her payment. This story also deals with truth and honesty as is shows how the cleaner did not steal the earrings but is blamed for it. The boy, Victor doesn’t understand rich people as for they are not the same as he is. Victor knew when he threw the earrings in the cat litter box that he was doing wrong but he really wanted to do it to let his anger away. Then he is taken by forgiveness and he forgives the owner of the earrings and cleans them and then puts them in the envelope. It shows that he had a lot of love and forgiveness in him, and he knew that what he did was wrong, so he forgave the woman and continued with life.
drattA fellaciM xaM - Max Micallef Attard :p
Ethics/ Moral Issues
ReplyDeleteIn The Taste of Watermelon, the topic of Ethics is addressed by using the topic ‘Theft’, and intertwining it with ‘Coming of Age’. The main character in this story, the sixteen year old, stole the largest melon, on a bright night, right out from under Mr. Will’s nose, to impress his friends and Willadean. This is illegal, but in this story, it isn’t seen as harshly as it would be if it were written in an urban area in modern day times. The boy apologizes in the end, and offers to help out Mr. Wills with his crop next year. He wasn’t forced to apologize to Mr. Wills, and he wasn’t forced to, but he felt that it was morally right, and so he did. In this story, the stealing of the melon was seen as morally wrong, but the boy told the truth to Mr. Wills, and admitted to stealing the prized seed melon, so he had offered to help, because of him stealing the melon.
In Secrets, the topic of ethics is addressed by using ‘Theft’ also, but it is not seen as a fun sort of stealing, but is seen as nosy, and very rude. The main character of this story, the narrator, who is having a flashback to when he was a child, of around age 10, and is remembering his life with his great aunt, who is dying in real time. The child decides to read his great aunt’s private letters when she is out at concessions. He finds out about her love, who was a soldier, and as he reads through, he finds out that he loved her greatly, and as he works on, he eventually gets hospitalized, and we presume that he passes away in the hospital. His great aunt finds out about his sneaking around, and she calls him ‘dirt’, and tells him that she will never forgive him for what he has done, and will remember this until the day that she dies. When she has died, he asks his mother if she said anything of him before she died, and when his mother replies no, he realizes the extent of his punishment. He realizes that when he was younger, he didn’t get the full extent of his punishment, and now that he is older, he gets his punishment.
In On Her Knees, the topic of ethics is addressed by quite a few ways. One of these ways is the illegal act of the theft of a pair of earrings, and how the mother gets blamed for it, when she actually didn’t steal them. This is against the law, and also hurt the mother’s feelings. In the story, Victor, the son, and law student, looks around this person’s house, finding a reason to not like her, and also to find out why she would have blamed his mother for the loss of these earrings. He finds a small stash of drugs, and also the Kinsey Report and a collection of Erotica, and this may be seen as morally wrong in some places. In the sense of being angry at this woman, Victor takes the found earrings from the bed, and throws them into the cat litter box, out of frustration. But when he sees his mother talking about her last job, and how she was in a way, getting the woman back by doing a great cleaning job, and leaving the money. So, out of guilt, Victor moves the earrings from the cat litter box, and puts them right next to the money, to have them out on display sort of.
“The Taste of watermelon” deals a lot with ideas of right and wrong, by the narrator stealing the poor watermelon. By this the narrator had thought that it’s the right thing to do since, he is proving to his friends, Mr. Wills and to his girl that he likes how brave he is. But as soon as he did it he seemed upset because of Mr. Wills when he got to find out about his stolen watermelon. The narrator then, realizes what he has done and apologizes in the end to both Mr. Wills and his daughter. So the story deals with a lot of right and wrong, however this is a very good way of writing a story because there might be young readers reading this and thinking they have to do it as well, but then in the end when he apologizes for what he has done, this might get the reader thinking if he should continue doing it or not even bother.
ReplyDeleteThe story “Secrets” deals with the ideas of right and wrong by how the narrator as a child, finding letters and reading them when his Great Aunt told him not to. As soon as he opens the letters he doesn’t think of if it is right or wrong thing to do. In the end, he had learnt his lesson not to touch other peoples stuff without asking or knowing not to touch them. This story deals with mostly forgiveness as well as curiosity.
The story "On Her Knees" deals with the ideas of right and wrong by the main turn in this story which is when the part of the stolen earrings came up. When thinking of stealing, into our minds comes up the word ‘illegal’. In the end, we found out that the cleaner did not steal the earrings and put them on the table as soon as she found them. This shows truthfulness as well as honesty. "On her knees" deals with forgiving when he does not find evidence for the rich woman to be bad, by this he forgave himself for thinking otherwise.
By Christina Lomakina
Ethics/Morality
ReplyDeleteThe Taste of Watermelon has a lot of things that is right and some things in the story are wrong. Because it is about a boy who want to fit in steal a watermelon what is wrong. But the boy thought that is was right because he wanted to let his friends and a girl who he likes he wanted to show that he is very brave to do that. But Mr. Wills saw that his big watermelon was gone he was very angry and upset about it. The boy who is actually the narrator sees what he did wrong because he didn’t want to upset Mr. Wills that much and he apologizes to him. So it ends very good that what you do wrong you have to apologize from what you did and that you have to think before you do something. So this story shows some right things like the apologizing of the boy and wrong things which are like stealing of the boy.
Secrets is also a short story who deals with right things and wrong things. It is about a boy who goes back to the past and he is 18 there and he thinks from what he did when he was younger. Because he did a wrong thing when he was younger because he had read some letters from his aunt who is dying now and he is thinking about how she was getting mad and she said to him that he didn’t forgive him till she dies. And he is thinking about that and the right thing is that he now when he is older he realizes that you don’t can go in peoples stuff and just read someone’s letters so that is a good thing.
So these two stories have some things what are right but there are also things that are wrong in the stories.
Anne-Mieke
In Taste of Watermelon, the writer deals with what is right and what is wrong by having the narrator steal a prize watermelon. This in theory is illegal but stealing watermelons is considered a natural occurrence where this boy comes from. The problem is that this watermelon was huge and was treasured by Mr Wills, an aggressive man who guarded this watermelon day and night with his shotgun. He then decides to admit to what he has done. This shows signs of maturity and coming of age as it takes courage to admit to someone tough like Mr Wills that you were the one who stole his treasured watermelon. There are also elements of forgiveness and understanding.
ReplyDeleteIn Secrets, there is a big theme of right and wrong. A boy at the age of 10 decides to collect stamps. He asks his great aunt who is dying if he can have hers. When he reaches for a certain pile, she tells him not to take those letters. Instead, when his Great Aunt is gone, the narrator reads through the letters. This is considered morally wrong as the letters were personal and should not have been read by the narrator. We find out how personal these letters were to the Great Aunt. Other than the content, his Great Aunt refers to the boy as dirt for reading through the letters. The narrator realises that if you snoop through peoples personal belongings, the consequences can be serious.
On Her Knees addresses the topic of right and wrong in several ways. Once Victor's mother is accused of stealing a pair of earrings, he becomes livid. He especially cannot believe that the woman wants her to come back one more time to clean the house. However, he reluctantly decides to help her. He finds out that this woman doesn't seem to be the person to make accusations like this as she seems to be very intelligent. During the time they spend clearing up, the earrings are found. The boy decides initially to put them in the cat litter. However, his mother convinces him to leave them on a table with the money. This is to show that they found the earrings and implies that they didn't steal them. The narrator learns to do what is morally right instead of getting revenge.
Ethics/ Morality
ReplyDelete“The Taste of Watermelon” deals with Morality and Ethics. The boy in this story steals a melon. This is against the law, though in this story, stealing melons wasn’t really a criminal act. It was just the fact that this melon was the biggest ever and the owner got really mad. So the boy apologized in the end. He didn’t have to commit that he did it, but he told it anyway, because he felt that it was morally wrong what he had done. The man kind of forgives the boy and the boy also wants to help the next year to make what he did wrong better again. So in the story we can see, that stealing was “wrong”, but saying the truth was the “right” thing to do. Then the boys were also wondering if the gun was filled with real ‘Double-Ought Buck Shot’ but it was only filled with salt. I don’t know it, but probably it would have been against the law to have a gun filled with ‘Double-Ought Buck Shot’. So it was something “right” that he did just fill his gun with salt. The story is also a lot about growing adult and this is often connected with mistakes, right and wrong, because in that age you learn a lot and do a lot of stupid stuff which you better wouldn’t have, but you also learn a lot.
In the story “Secrets”, the narrator, has read private letters of his aunt when he was younger. This wasn’t good, because his aunt saw him and got really mad at him and shouted that she will never forgive him for what he has done, and will remember this until the day that she dies. Probably what he has done wasn’t legally wrong, but still it was morally wrong to read private letters of his great aunt. So it was something “wrong” the boy did, and he never knows if his aunt forgave him. And later, the great aunt dies and she didn’t say anything about forgiveness to him. So he was even crying and praying to God that his aunt forgave him. We can clearly see that looking into private letters was a “wrong” thing to do. He wasn’t punished by anyone else, just by himself with feeling that he has done something wrong and someone probably has never forgiven him.
“On Her Knees” is also about Ethics and Morality. A cleaning woman got fired because the owner thought she had stolen golden earrings. But the cleaning woman was always so honest, that it just couldn’t be true that she has stolen them. And the owner did not even call the police. And then the owner did not just fire the cleaner but also said she shall come back one more time and clean again, and then she was fired. The cleaner’s son, Viktor, said that she shouldn’t go back because she hasn’t stolen the earrings and she should be angry with the owner for blaming her for something she hasn’t done. But the cleaner came back and cleaned the house very well. Her son came with her. He was looking for something that would have shown him that the owner was a bad person. Looking around in personal stuff is, like we have seen in the story “Secrets”, wrong. But firing someone for something she hasn’t done is even worse, so this time it’s not really bad or wrong when he wants to find out more about the owner. In the end, the son found the earrings. He first put them into the cat litter box because he is angry with the owner. The owner has punished his mother and in the end the earrings were somewhere on the floor. So it was the owner’s own carelessness. But then he thinks more about it and puts them next to the money.
I think that the owner will feel very bad, when she finds the money and the earrings on the table. She will see that she has done something “morally wrong” and probably will take the cleaner back.
In Taste of Watermelon is about what is right and what is wrong by having the narrator steal a watermelon. Actual this is done by this by this boy to show that he has guts and i think he is trying to prove that he his changing form a boy into a man. There was one problem which was that the watermelon was very big and was loved by Mr Wills, an old man who guarded this watermelon day and night with a shotgun. He then decides to admit that he stole the watermelon. This shows again that he is growing up to own up to ‘scary’ Mr Will’s. He forgives him
ReplyDeleteIn Secrets there is also right and wrong. A boy decides to collect stamps. He asks his great aunt who is currently when the story is told to us dying if he can have hers. When he reaches for a certain pile, she tells him not to take those letters. Instead, when his Great Aunt is gone, the narrator reads through the letters. Of course this is wrong as they are the personal belongings of his aunt. We later on find out how much these letters meant to Great Aunt. His aunt finds out and she calls him dirt and feels very bad about this. He is sorry and upset that he did this.
In On Her Knees it was right of the boy to be annoyed at the rich woman to accuse her cleaner of stealing her ear-rings as it does make sense and the boy knows that his mother didn’t do it but does the rich woman know this, no so he is right and so is she. Wrong is when the boy goes through her stuff without permission.
Ethics & Morality
ReplyDelete‘The Taste of Watermelon’ deals with a ‘Right or Wrong’ situation because the teenager who was stealing the watermelon from Mr. Wills thought it was the right thing to do, as he was trying to prove something to his 2 neighborhood friends and Mr. Wills the farmer himself. He wanted to prove to Mr. Wills that he is brave, and ‘not at all scared’ of the shotgun he had next to him which was loaded.
He was also doing something very wrong, as stealing will always be considered wrong. It was not the right thing to do to steal the watermelon seed that Mr. Wills grew and cherished for a long time. I think that the narrator knew that it was the wrong thing to do, as later in the story, he begs his father to help him confront Mr. Wills to apologize for his actions from the night he committed theft.
‘Secrets’ deals with a ‘Right or Wrong’ situation because the narrator was very curious when he was of a very young age and would read letters of his aunt that he was forbidden to do so. When he used to open them, he wouldn’t care at all whether he was doing something wrong or whether he would be punished for his actions. This boy was obviously a little stubborn as his aunt had already warned him.
He eventually learns that what he had been doing was wrong as he was punished by his aunt, and he had learned that he should control his temptation for some situations. His own aunt had called him ‘dirt’ which obviously suggests that his actions were very wrong from her point of view.
‘On Her Knees’ deals with a ‘Right or Wrong’ situation because Carol Lang was accused by the rich house owner of stealing her 500 dollar ear rings off the desk in the area where she was cleaning. This links to something that was the wrong thing to do because she had accused Carol Lang of stealing them when having no proof whatsoever, and decided to fire her. Later in the story we find out that she didn’t commit any theft as although she was poor, she wasn’t a thief or the kind of person to commit those actions.
The right thing Carol Lang did was that even though she was going to be fired, she still went to clean for her. When she went to clean for the rich owner, she had found the 500 dollar ear rings in the litter box, and before leaving, she put them on the table where they were last located. She didn’t accept the money that she was offered after a hard day’s work of cleaning. Her son, Victor, also did the right thing, by helping his mum out during that day with all the cleaning, but did something wrong but convincing her to steal them. However, since she was poor, in the end she took the ear rings and left the money. Her son had managed to convince her to take them due to the circumstanced they were in when it came to finances and payments.
Ethic and Morality
ReplyDelete"Secrets"- Deals with Right and Wrong situation. Once the boy read really prived letters of his aunt and found out her secret. In the same day aunt caught him and was really angry. Boy thought that his aunt will never forgive him for this.He was feeling guilty for what he has done. Also he understood that what he did is wrong. He wanted forgiveness but he can't have it because his aunt is dead.
"The taste of Watermelon" - Deals with right and Wrong situation. One boy To prove himself decided to steal the biggest watermelon from Mr. Wills’s farm on the full moon night. Also he wanted to do it for Willadiene in which he was in love. His plan success he stole watermelon after what his friend and he ate half of it. On the way back home narrator saw Mr. Wills crying in the middle of the farm on the place where melon was growing. He felt that he did something wrong and on the next day he brought to Mr. Wills seeds to say sorry. Boy wanted forgiveness and for this he came to Mr. Wilson despite of his fear.
Right and Wrong situation in the story called "On her knees". Hard-working, honest women was fired from the job and blamed in stoling the earring. She didn’t call the police. The women will not want any forgiveness of Victor and his mother “These people, they never call its how they’re brought up." Victor and mother know it and that why they are leaving this woman's house leaving earring and money behind. The earring was on 3 different places. First when they found them mother put earrings on the pillow near the bed to be seen. Saying "I found it were they were". Next place where Victor put them was a Litter box. Like saying "You lost them so find them by your own" also shows anger to women. Last place was on the table near the money. Lie saying "Take your job take your money. We don’t need any of it". I think that if she stole the earrings she would never act like that. So it was a good move because they left house and didn’t make feel bad the owner of the earrings.
Polina
ETHICS AND MORALTY
ReplyDelete“The Taste of Watermelon" deals with ethics and morality because The main character the teenage boy steals the big watermelon from someone’s farm. It is quite obvious that stealing is wrong and the boy didn’t really have a reason to steal the watermelon and when his friends and him couldn’t finish the watermelon the stamped and crushed the thing. Yet to the main character he felt like he had to do it and it seemed like the right thing to do. In the end he did own up to the crime and told the farmer and was forgiven.
In "Secrets" it is was very wrong for the boy to open the letters when he was told not to read them, but is it his fault all he wanted to know was more and his aunt didn’t want to tell him. However he should have listened to her. The aunt also did something wrong because she got really angry and told the boy that he is “dirt” “and always will be dirt” she also struck him across face which is like child abuse. From the letters we are told that she had a forbidden relationship with someone which was obviously wrong of her. Yet in the end the boy was still worried about her forgiving him and really did want forgives.
"On Her Knees" is very interesting . In Victors case he hates somebody before even knowing them which isn’t really right just because they accuse your mum you hate them it is understandable though then he takes it further and looks into the womans stuff to find something he can hate her with. The lady of the apartment also does something wrong because she accussesx the mum of stealing 500 dollar earrings and she also had weed in her office. The mum didn’t do anything wrong and to prove it she found the earrings and left them with the money . The Lady fired the mum and told her to come back the week after instead of reporting the inciedent to the police which was a crime and should have been reprted. In the end even thought Victor wants to get revenge and put the earrings in the cat litter but then he picks them up and puts them next to the envelope.
Evita
Taste of Watermelon is about what is right and what is wrong where the narrator steal a watermelon. Actual this is done by this by this boy to show that he is macho, and he is brave and not scared of being shot by the farmer and that he is trying to prove that he is a man now. Because he knew that the farmer loved this water mellon, in the end he decides to admit that he stole the watermelon. This shows again that he is growing up to own up to Mr Will’s for what he did, even though this was petrifying.
ReplyDeleteIn Secrets a boy decides to collect stamps. He asks his great aunt who is allmost dead if he could look after her stamps too. When he goes to get them, his aunt tells him not to take the letters next to them. Instead, when his Great Aunt is gone out of the house, the boy reads through the letters. This is wrong as they are the personal belongings of his aunt and she asked him not to. We later on find out how much these letters meant to Great Aunt. His aunt finds out that he read them and she calls him dirt and gets really angry at him. He is sorry and upset that he did it really though.
Ethics/Morale Essay
ReplyDeleteIn “Taste of Watermelon” the idea of right and wrong come into the idea of theft as the main character steals a large melon in the dead of night right under Mr.Wills’ nose, just to impress his friends and Willadean, Mr.Wills’ Daughter. Now this was definitely wrong as we see Mr.Wills go haywire about it and throw a fit and destroys the other melons. Now in the end the teenager goes back to Mr.Wills and apologizes although he doesn’t have to because they don’t know its him yet but he felt it was his duty to tell the truth and it terms that was the right thing to do along with saying that he would help re-grow the crops next summer. Another sense of wrong was that certain people thought that Mr.Wills’ shotgun had double ought buck shot inserted into it, now shooting someone with ammo that might kill them is wrong but we find out that he only has salt in the gun so the assumption is lifted.
In “Secrets” the idea of right and wrong is portrayed by the idea of curiosity which eventually leads to the wrong thing. A boy of about 10 years old likes to collect stamps and asks his aunt if she had any that he could have, after letting him to have her stamps from the postcards he decides to have a peek at her letters and when she says No he becomes curious. When the boys aunt goes to church he goes and takes a look at the letters and finds out about his aunts personal life and sees that his aunts lover was in the war and presumably died or he became a priest, when the boys aunt returns and finds out about his ‘snooping’ she calls him DIRT and never wished to see him again. The boy now a teenager asks his mother if his aunt said anything about him, she replied no and he realized that what he had done when he was younger now gave him great guilt and acted as a punishment for what he had done.
“On Her Knees” has a few right and wrongs, the first is that it is illegal to steal anything and it is wrong to even accuse anyone of stealing without the evidence to back it up in this case it was the mother of Victor who was accused of stealing. Victor does a little bit of snooping around and comes across books, that are of the sexual nature like Erotica and the Kinsley Report, this type of genre is illegal in some countries while others it is not but this is still wrong as Victor then proceeds to find drugs in a drawer and this is illegal and wrong. When Victor finds the earrings he chucks them into the cats litter box as he is angry at the woman for accusing her mother but when Victor sees that his mother did not take the money he felt that it was wrong to leave the earrings where she could falsely imagine that Victors mother had just replaced them and he then places them next to the money in the kitchen in an act of guilt but also for pride.
Ethics and Morals
ReplyDeleteThe Taste of Watermelon is a story written is written by Borden Deal. The story deals with “right” by having the narrator feel guilty and going back and to admit that he has stolen the prized watermelon. The story portrays right as having a conscience; admitting to something you have done wrong. The narrator deals with “wrong”, by writing about the stealing topic. The narrator steals the prized watermelon which was wrong.
Secrets is a story written by Bernard MacLaverty. The story deals with “wrong” when the boy reads the letters which his great aunt had told him not to read. She finds him reading them and scolds the boy saying that she would never forget it as long as she lived. The story deals with “right” when the narrator feels guilty of reading the letters and does not read them after his great aunt had passed on and he was at “liberty” to read them.
One her knees is a story written by Tim Winton. The story deals with “wrong” when the narrator's mother a cleaning lady is falsely accused for stealing a pair or earrings. Stealing is wrong, however the way the cleaning lady was treated was also wrong. Some people believe that because they have money they have the right to treat people in anyway way they like, which is very untrue you must stay humble as people are people everywhere you go but the value of money changes. The story also deals with “wrong” when the narrator goes through the women's house in pursuit of finding “dirt” on her. The story deals with “right” when the narrator's mother stays composed and still returns to clean the apartment and try's keeps her pride, she knew she didn't steal the earrings, but she did not wish to ruin her good name. The mother doesn't take the money after she finishes the job and leaves the earrings on the bed under which she found them.
By Valentina Spiteri
In ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ the boy decides to steal this large ‘Seed melon’ from Mr. Wills. Melon stealing is technically illegal but it was popular among young boys. Even though this is true, it was very bad for him to steal this seed melon and it was incredibly important to Mr. Wills. It always seems as if it isn’t very frowned upon on when boys steal melons, even the main character’s father stole melons when he was younger. It seemed to be a much different matter when Mr. Wills screams and cries when he sees his melon was stolen. There seemed to a “rightness” in stealing melons but not Mr. Wills seed melon. It also deals with forgiveness, an important matter. Even thought this melon was important to Mr. Wills, he still forgives him showing that it could not have been so important. There is also the matter of guilt, after he eats and smashes the melon, he gathers all the seeds in a bag and gives them to Mr. Wills. This story deals with lots of rights and wrongs such as stealing which are almost always a wrong is turned into a right in this story. It also deals with forgiveness and the way stealing can be in different types, sometimes even used as a pastime.
ReplyDeleteIn the story ‘Secrets’ it deals with a very serious type of wrong, not illegal though. It seems very morally wrong to go through these private letters when his aunt told him not to. When she finds out she is very angry as she told him not to look through these things. The story ends with him praying that she had forgiven him; he was obviously full of guilt that he did this. He seemed to know this was wrong before she tells him off, as he is scared about it. It seems that the wrongness in this story is greater than that of ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ even though it is technically legal to do what he did, not illegal like stealing.
In ‘On Her Knees’ it deals with stealing, truth, honesty and as stated by the mother “Personal pride”. When the owners of this house accuse the mother of stealing these earrings, she is upset because she is a very honest person and didn’t actually steal them. Obviously, the owner of this house would not have asked her to come back after firing her if she knew she had stolen the earrings. Knowing this, and still firing her is morally wrong, she should have told the truth. What she did lost her the best cleaner in town. Stealing earrings, these $500 earrings especially is defiantly morally and legally wrong. By accusing the mother of stealing when she knew she didn’t is obviously wrong in many ways and almost had the same effect as stealing the earrings. The mother, being a very principled person was very upset when accused of stealing but still stayed strong when it came to dealing with the owner. Also truth comes into this as well, the owner had no proof that she stole the earrings and, we gather, didn’t listen to the mother say she didn’t. This story deals greatly with morals, pride, truth and illegality.
In ‘The Taste Of Watermelon’ the ‘wrong’ thing that happens is when the main narrator charecter who is a young man at the time steals the biggest watermelon out of Mr.Wills field, this would be concidered as illegal but in that time stealing watermelon’s was more of a hobby. This story shows ‘ rightness’ when the main charecter feels guilt after stealing, eating and destroying the watermelon, so he gathers up all the seeds and goes to Mr.Wills house to apologize and say that he will work for him as repayment and Mr.Wills then forgives the narrator. Therefore ‘The Taste Of Watermelone’ deals with both right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteIn the story ‘Secrets’ the wrong thing is quite big and upsetting but only to Great Aunt Mary. The narrator as a young boy is told not to go into a drawer where Aunt Mary’s letters are kept. After a while he becomes interested in these letters and begin’s to read them only to find that Aunt Mary has found him and scolds him harshly. She then goes on to tell him he is dirt and that she will never forgive him, probably because he had broken the good trust she had in him. It doesnt really show much right in the story but when Aunt Mary passes away the narrator wishes for her forgivness because he knew how much he had hurt her.
Many ways of right and wrong are expressed in ‘On Her Knees’. The first wrong thing we pick up is when the narrators mother who is a maid, is accused of stealing a very exspensive pair of earings, but is told to come back to work one last time the following week for some unknown reason. This is quite odd because no one would let someone they think stole from them, back into thier house again would they ? So there we can hint that maybe the women who is accusing the narrators mother is lying about it, which is another wrong thing to do. The third wrong thing is when the narrator goes with his mother to the house, and starts to snoop around the women’s house, which is an invasion of someones privacy, but the narrator finds the earings in the end. The right thing’s in this story would be when the mother actually goes back to clean the house even after being accused of such a thing, she cleans it perfectly and well and doesnt bother to confront the women when the earings are found, she simply places them next to her pay check ( which she doesnt take ) and leaves the house. That is a very noble thing to do.
Ethics and Morality
ReplyDeleteIn ‘The Taste of Watermelon’, the thing that was wrong to do was that the main character stole the best watermelon in the country right out of the field. It is a wrong thing because it is stealing but it is not TOO bad because stealing watermelons was something people did in their teens, but this was no ordinary melon, and that is why it was bad of him to steal it. Another thing that was wrong of the main character and two of his friends to do was to completely destroy the watermelon they could not finish eating by stepping on it. The result is the watermelon being wasted because only the heart meat was eaten anyway. The right thing that was done in the story was for the main character to go and tell Mr. Wills that he stole the watermelon, because it was being honest, which is a good thing. Another good thing in this story was that Mr. Wills loaded his shotgun with salt and not real bullets because real bullets would have been lethal, and it would not be good to kill someone just because they stole your best watermelon.
In the story ‘Secrets’, the wrong thing that was done was for the boy being the main character to look through the letters that his aunt told him not to look at, and he did this while she was out of the house, so it was sneaking about without her knowing. A wrong thing that the aunt did was to tell him that he is dirt and he will always be dirt. This is wrong because little boys like looking through stuff because they have a lot of curiosity, and he should not be shouted at like that because getting shouted at really hurts the feelings of a little boy and he may even cry. Another wrong thing is that the Aunt and boy seem to have not talked much after he looked through her letters, and this is wrong because the boy or the aunt should have said sorry to each other and forgotten about the small incident. A right thing that was done in this story was for the boy to try and put the letters back where he found them when he heard his aunt coming in, because this reduces how angry his aunt will get at him when she eventually sees that he had been looking at her private letters.
In ‘On her Knees’ the wrong thing that is done is that the main character’s son goes around the house that he is cleaning and finds things that belong to the owner of this house. This is wrong because he is not meant to look at other people’s things, because as he figured out, they may be private. Another wrong thing was for the house owner to accuse the main character of stealing her earrings. A right thing that was done was for the boy to go with his mother to clean the house, and for the mother to go back and clean the house even though she was accused of stealing something from there. Also, not taking the money the house owner left was a good thing to do. Another right thing that was done was when the boy found the earrings, they did not just leave them there as a punishment to the house owner for accusing the main character, but they actually looked for the other one and left them next to the money that they did not take either.
In the Taste of Watermelon it shows how it is right and wrong by the narrator stealing a watermelon. This is done by this boy to show that he has the balls and I think he is trying to prove that he is changing form a kid into a man. There was one problem which was that the watermelon was very big Mr Wills loved it, he guarded this watermelon day and night with a shotgun. The boy then decides to admit that he stole the watermelon. This shows that he is owning up to ‘scary’ Mr Will’s who then forgives him.
ReplyDeleteThere is also right and wrong in secrets. A boy decides to collect stamps. He asks his great aunt who is currently when the story is told to us dying if he can have hers. When he reaches for a certain pile, she tells him not to take those letters. Instead, when his Great Aunt is gone, the narrator reads through the letters. Of course this is wrong as they are his aunts personal belongings. We find out later on how much these letters meant to Great Aunt. His aunt finds out and she calls him dirt and feels very upset about it. He is sorry and upset about what he did.
In On Her Knees it was right of the boy to be angry at the rich woman to accuse her cleaner of stealing her ear-rings as it does make sense and the boy knows that his mother didn’t do it but the rich woman didn’t know this so he is right and so is she. Wrong is when the boy goes through her stuff without her permission.
by mike cini
The Taste of the Watermelon deals with ethics and morality in a very straight way. The thing is that it is very wrong to steal someoneelse's seed watermelon that was protected ith a gun, meaning that it was very important. The narrator did this because he thought it was right, and something very brave to do, but as e get to know later on he probably regrets that he did it. Any kind of robbery is wrong, even if you acually need it. At the end of the story the right thing is that the narrator actually tells that he is guilty, and works over the summer.
ReplyDeleteIn the Secrets i think that both of sides are a bit wrong, because the boy was wrong because he was told not to touch the letters, but he did. And the aunt was wrong that she always kept it to herself and did not speak about it with the boy, she could have forgiven him, but i guess the letters and her past life was more important than the boy and her real life, and this is wrong too. It is right that she actually found him reading the letters, because otherwise he would do omehting wrong and then just walk away. I think that she should have forgiven him,, but it is just my opinion.
In On Her Knees there is a lot of ethics and morality going on. It as wrong that in general thelife was unfair on the narrator's mom, she was a cleaner and that was not her dream job. The other wrong this was because the woman blamed the narrator's mom for stealing her earrings, and since his mom was very honest it was wrong. It as also wrong that the narrator was looking for the ways to dislike the woman, but in a way it was right, because the cleaner was his mom after all, and he wanted to protect her. The most right charcter int he story was the narrator's mom, because she had a hard life, she was honest and she was not respected he way she should have been. The wrong thing about the bo is that he was looking through the woman's personal belongings, when he just had to clean a bit. At the end of the story we don't know whether wrong or right thing is going to happen.
All of the three stories deal a lot with wrong and right stuff, in different ways.
Taste of Watermelon is about proving something and also about right and wrong. The main point in the story is that the boy that steals the watermelon is trying to prove that he is not affraid to do it and also i think that he is trying to prove that he is not scared or immature and that he is a man. The boy proceeds to steal the watermelon but what he does not realise is that it is loved by Mr Wills and that it is very big and importnat. Mr Wills is an old man who guarded the watermelon day and night with a shotgun All day and night. After the boy steals the watermelon He then decides to admit to mr.WIlls that he stole the watermelon. By doing this i think the boy is trying to show that he is matture and not scared to show himself and give him self in, i also this he has a lot of honour.
ReplyDeleteSecrets is also about right and wrong. A young innocent boy decides to start collecting stamps. He approaches his great aunt who is in the middle of reading letters when the story is told. She agrees to give him some of hers and When he reaches for a certain pile he sees the letters and she tells him not to touch those letters. Curiosity takes him, and when his Great Aunt is gone, he reads through the letters. That was wrong of him to do, as they are personal belongings of his aunt.
later on we find out how much these letters meant to Great Aunt. His aunt walks in on him reading the letters and she called him certain words and said that she will never forgive him. Even on her death bed she does not say anything about it.
On Her Knees is quite similar to the other two stories but this time the narrator was right to be annoyed at the rich woman because she accused his mother who was the cleaner of her house, of stealing her ear-rings. The narrator obviously knows that his mother didn’t do it but does the rich woman know this? no so dosent. he is right. But then he does Wrong, when he goes through her personal belongings without permission.