Some People Put Themselves

In The Things They Carried, characters Tim O’Brien, Lieutenant Cross, and Norman Bowker deal with guilt in various ways, much like soldier might experience. In the chapter Ambush, O’Brien felt completely guilty by killing a Vietnam soldier with a hand grenade, where he possibly could’ve let the soldier pass by. In the chapter In the Field, Lieutenant Cross felt guilty by leading his soldiers into an unsafe place, that lead to Kiowa’s death. In the chapter Speaking of Courage, Bowker feels guilty by letting Kiowa, a good friend of his, die in the mud field. All three soldiers have had different circumstances, but all three feel guilt in different ways.

The Unbearable lightness of choosing “Because you are in control of your life. Don't ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made.” -Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000 I personally agree with the writer Jon Spayde on all the aspects he has mentioned in this paper. The writer has discoursed various facets regarding the importance of alternatives in one’s life. But, a very significant point mentioned in this article is, that when a certain individual is in a position to make his own choices or take his own decisions he must keep in mind that he alone will not be the one to face the consequences, but many people will be a part of his decisions. So one must give a serious thought when making a choice, which may have an impact not just on one life but, on the lives of many others. Mr. Spayde points out the fact, that having a choice is the luxury of the privileged class. The unprivileged class cannot afford the luxury of choice. Now the situation is not that bad but we all know that they have limited choices and this lack of choice causes a problem for them in certain situations. According to my own experience, though the lack of choices may cause hurdles at times, still, there deficiency is sometimes ‘a blessing in disguise’. When a person is confined to a certain number of options he has no other way out, but to choose amongst them. This might be the making of an individual. Like we consider an example of a

In different circumstances, people have to risk other people's lives to save their

Although influences beyond one’s control as well as limited options command one’s decisions, it is the individual’s choice to “jump”. The act of being “pushed” is beyond Super’s control, whereas the act of “jumping” is a willful decision. Thus, explains MacLeod (2008), “in the end, perhaps the fairest account is that Super was pushed into jumping” (p. 257). While the argument can be made that the act of jumping is an individual’s choice due to individual agency, MacLeod contends that consideration must be given to the comprehensive push and pull components which inform a person’s judgment. This perspective is comparative to the rationale that some people inevitably are victims of their own circumstance.

Regretful, ashamed, and sorry. Feeling responsible for a specified wrongdoing. Guilt. Have you ever felt guilty? Do you ever blame yourself, or wish you could turn back time to change just the smallest of details, knowing that your life will be so much better because of it? Yes or no, or whatever your answer may be, many people, and many characters have. The Book Thief is a prime example in which many of its characters experience guilt. They blame themselves for the fact that someone died while they are still alive, yet they find many ways to deal with this guilt. Throughout The Book Thief, the author demonstrates how survivor’s guilt continues to provide motivation for the characters to alter their lives in many ways.

In the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, a short story ‘The Man I Killed’ clearly develops the idea of guilt. The author O’Brien describes what the man he killed would have been like before the war. The man he killed in the present and how his guilt prevents himself for carrying on the man’s life story into the future. I will be analysing the idea of guilt through these time periods. O’Brien rails through and uses specific techniques to convey his experiences into the short story, such as repetition. O’Brien also raises some key questions. ‘Was it worth dying for the war?’ ‘What were the soldiers like before the war?’ ‘Who is to blame for how the war started?’ The Man I Killed is a short story about the actual author Tim O’Brien,

While writing "The Power of The Situation" Lee Ross and Richard E. Nisbett explains, there are no indicators on a persons reaction given a certain situation ( 149). Ross and Nisbett continue to say, a person 's past cannot determine how a human 's actions will take place in a future scenario, even if the human has a kind heart, they may not always be willing to help a person in need. Leading into this Ross and Nisbett state, " Social Psychology has by now amassed a vast store of such empirical parables" (Ross and Nisbett 149). Many people believe a past of a person will help them to identify or interpret how a person will act; However, Ross and Nisbett believe for this to be a fundamental attribution error (149). The power of a situation causes people to act in ways they may not have ever dreamed of, for instance The My Lai Massacre. "The My Lai Massacre: A military Crime of Obedience" written by, Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton consists of a small series of crimes committed by our own military ( Kelman and Hamilton 131). During the massacre military soldiers were humiliating and dehumanizing the enemies simply because their leading officer commanded them to do so (140-141). As their once simple actions became an everyday routine, the soldiers never questioned the unjust commands given by the authority (140). Dawson and Downey followed the orders given by their superior in command without a hesitation to stop and think whether or not the actions soon to be taken were

A lack of personal responsibility can cause many problems. Not only for the person who is making the choice not to take personal responsibility but for the people around them. One such example related to law enforcement could be if an officer with a department vehicle doesn't get the

Imagine you are one of the highest mountains in the world. You don’t care about the risks because there are rescue services to help you. But what if one day they all decide to quit or they don’t come to you in time? There are amazing climbers who are still willing to make the climb but when they make a mistake there won’t be someone behind you to bring you back up when you fall.There are people in this world who are willing to take risks and reach their own Mount Everest but sometimes the price can be too high to bear. For example, having the person who rescued you died trying. That person is part of the rescue services. When climbers are putting their own life on the line, they shouldn’t be demanding the rescue services to save them when they are putting themselves at risk.

Williams also delivers the idea of agent-regret which, to him, matters to the person in the unlucky case more than any extrinsic moral judgments. Agent-regret is defined as “thought being formed in part by first personal conceptions of how one might have acted otherwise”, (Williams, p.27), and required “a first-personal subject-matter” and “not yet merely a particular kind of psychological content, but also a particular kind of expression”, (Williams, 27). Hence, even if the driver A is morally treated as equal as driver B, the agent-regret of guilt may follow him to the

However, this cannot be said for all victims of guilt as the author makes sure to heed the consequences of

Have you ever wonder how you'd respond in a life or death situation.Mostly likely you wonder you’d survived and if so you were to survive would you think it'd be fair to be charged for it.Charge for survival doesn't seem just does it well that leads me to my reason for this writing.The debate being “Should people be responsible for their problems if they survive”.Well there are three part to this debate or problem;the first one being most life or death are natural,the second is we are fit to survive and the third is some people know the risk of things but still do it

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: One is always accountable for their choices In Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning he states his idea of choice and the idea that even in the harshest circumstances, like a concentration camp, one is responsible and accountable for their own choices. Frankl’s idea of choice is right in my opinion for three main reasons. First, one’s responsibility choice is not and cannot be based on circumstance. Second a person always has the ability to choose the attitude they have each day and they are accountable for the choices they make because of that.

While the narrator regrets his actions he doesn’t really feel bad about them, though he feels he should. This is the real guilt that results in an intense self-hate that leads to narrator maiming and killing those close to him.

For the purposes of this essay the assumption will be that there is no after life or god. Eliminating the concept of god in a sense dissolves the issue of sinfulness and blameworthiness. Therefore a relativist stance will be adopted and the absolutist stance rejected. The issue of cowardice also should be addressed as arguably a soldier going to certain death is not a coward and few people would be able to harm him/herself. The taking of life can be considered under three categories, as an exercise in rational philosophical thought, as an action that has boundaries proscribed by the law, and lastly in a theological sense. It also is worthwhile and imperative to allude to the fact that suicide is only one form of extinguishing life, and