Comments Week Three; Morality

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Morality and Immorality are Essentially the Same Thing When It Comes to Society

Can someone make a moral decision and an immoral decision; is there a definite line between right and wrong? After The First Death, by Robert Cormier, is an action filled novel about a terrorist, Miro, who contemplates whether or not he is making a right or wrong decision throughout this story. Miro is a very complex character most see as an extremely immoral character, however he is not immoral. There are many instances where we find Miro making moral decisions, as well as immoral decisions; the moment he is given the mask, instances while he is on the bus, and when he kills Kate.

When Miro is given the mask, it is an empowering part of the story. Miro is contemplating whether or not killing the bus driver is the right thing to do; “Sometimes, however, he brooded about the mask. He had the feeling that he must be doing something dishonorable if the operations and confrontations had to be carried out with faces hidden. If what we are doing is heroic, to deliver our people and restore our homeland, why must we hide who we are? He once asked Artkin. And Artkin had told him that there were many laws in this world, good laws and bad laws, right laws and wrong laws. According to the wrong laws, their mission, their work, was condemned. But their enemies had made these laws. So they had to disguise themselves to remain free under the wrong laws,” (41). Miro does not believe that if he has to hide who he is to follow through on his actions then they can not they be moral. When we are heroes we are happy about what we are doing and want people to know who we are, and in this quote, Miro shows us that he feels the same about that; but if he is doing this for his civilization there is a possibility that Miro is being moral and heroic.  

Another instance where we see Miro being immoral, along with when he is given the mask, is while he is executing his terrorist attack on the bus. We begin seeing Miro is terrified when he is walking onto the bus; “Miro entered the bus and removed the mask. His skin was hot and flushed,”(104). The fact that Miro is flushed shows us as readers that he feels very uneasy about what he is doing from the start. As time passes on the bus we see numerous occurrences where Miro keeps talking about the girl, and he frowns every time he looks at her. The sadness and apprehensiveness we see displays Miro’s conscious side, showing a sign of morality. We also see Miro being moral when he says; “I accept mistakes because humans make mistakes. And the the young are expected to make mistakes. But to be careless is different. To be outside the bus with the girl inside, that was more than a mistake,”(165).  Miro validates that he is a scrupulous person with this quote because it is showing his thoughts to himself; ultimately making him a moral character because even though it is wrong to him, he is still following through with the attacks for his society.

            Along with the moment Miro is given the mask and instances while he is on the bus, lastly we see Miro kill Kate. This event was extremely appalling because at the moment when he shoots her it is completely unexpected. As Miro is mourning over Artkin we see a nurturing side to Kate; “ Kate cradled him, moving one free arm to embrace him. His wailing formed a word now as it rose from the hiding place, bursting out of the enclosure. Aaaarrttkinnnnnnn! Rising and then dying in the air lingering as only a faint echo in the ears. Kate rocked him gently, the way she had rocked the children on the bus, crooning softly, a song without tune, words without meaning, but sounds to bring him comfort and solace. She closed her eyes enfolding him, enclosing him with her body, with her warmth and her breath, her sweat and her urine. When he squeezed the trigger, the bullet smashed her heart, and she was dead within seconds,”(220). As we see Kate instantly die without Miro even contemplating whether or not he should, he just does it. Perhaps, he killed her so he could stay content within his society, if nothing was holding him back he could easily forget and continue more deaths after the first death. By doing this for his culture, this still makes him a moral character because in his civilization, what he did is morally correct.

The Nurture vs. Nature debate explains that our minds begin as a blank slate, if this is true then can a true moral really exist, the answer is no. Different people, different countries, and different ethnicities all have clashing morals and this is because we believe something is wrong due to what our society tells us. In Miro’s society it was perfectly fine to begin a terrorist attack and take innocent peoples lives because that is what he had to do to defend his homeland. In the end of After the First Death we see Miro finally choose the immoral side, the dark side; but essentially Miro never did anything immoral because killing people is considered honorable in his mind. It is up to us, as readers to decide whether Miro was a moral or an immoral character, and in the end Miro was a moral character because he knew what he had to do was technically bad, however he had to do what was best for his country, which makes him an honorable character. 

Week #2 Comments

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When we must walk alone, we have our moral compass with us: Blog Post # 2

“Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.” This quote is said by Marcus Aurelius. When we cannot find our selves we use our moral compass to get us back to who we truly are. Your savior, your moral compass, consists of what you truly believe to be the most significant points in your life. My moral compass consists of love, friends and family, education, and happiness.

Love is my first point on my moral compass because without love your life would be nothing. No, love is not just about a boyfriend and girlfriend or husband and wife; it is loving life, nature, and most importantly yourself. Love is everything, why else would people crave it so much; it is so special and endearing. When all else fails, love will always be there to pick you up; whether it comes from a friend, a family member, a flower, a dog, it can truly be anything. Beauty is found within love, and that is where we find our self-esteem. If you do not love who you are can you truly love something else? You must find your love within. 

Happiness, smiling, and laughter is the next point on my moral compass, which also explains my quote to live by; “
Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing;” said by Mother Teresa. This quote is extremely important to me because when someone smiles at me it completely brightens my day. You never know if someone is having a horrible day, and if you smile at a stranger at his or her darkest moment, you could just be that one light that makes them strive to keep moving forward and ultimately brighten their day. A day without smiling or laughing, to me, is a day of misery and a complete waste.

Family and Friends is the third point on my moral compass. The day we come into the world our family is standing right there beside us welcoming us into their family. When there is no one there for you, your family will always be there to pick you up when you have fallen down at your weakest moments. They say we do not choose our family, but our friends are the family we choose. Friends, like family, help you through so many difficult times in your life, that without friends, life would be almost impossible to live. Our friends and family can always make our days better.

Lastly on my moral compass is education. I find education to be one of the most beneficial morals to my life. Without education, we could not go any where in life; we would not know how to read, how to write, how to correctly speak. Education is the building blocks to our future, every day we learn new things; not just things in school, we learn about others and ourselves. Education builds us the pathway to success and only sends us in a beneficial direction for our lives. Without these morals in my life, I would not know who I was or where I would be in life.

My 5 Comments on Classmates Blogs:

My five comments i made on my classmates blogs: 

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What Is Morality? Blog 1

What Is Morality?

Mark Twain once said; “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” This enlightening statement stands out against many other quotes because it questions the morals people have. Twain is saying that numerous people have the ability to physically do things due to the fact that we do not have anything to stop us; however it is seldom that people choose whether or not to do something based on the idea of what if you are doing is wrong? Morality, to most people, is the ability to know right from wrong; however it is much more than that. Morality is the guideline to our lives, an essential way to think so we can live our lives without doing wrong to the world. Having your own beliefs is your form of morality; it is your state of mind. If we want to do something, despite the circumstances, we will usually make our minds think it is in fact morally “right”, when it could really be wrong. People do not have morals because it is a rule; people have morals due to the fact that they have a conscious. Unscrupulous people do not have the same morals as a scrupulous person. Your conscious helps you decide if you are following your morals, if you go against them you will feel corrupt after, and if you follow what you believe in you will feel virtuous after. The author Ernest Hemmingway also agreed with how making decisions about your morals will make you feel; “About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.” Someone with morals can absolutely make an immoral decision. Being moral does not mean you do not make bad decisions; being moral means when you do something you know if it was wrong or right. Morals are not based on what you do physically; it is how you feel about the decisions you made. Morals are a very diverse subject because everyone has different morals. No one thinks alike, that is why we are humans, and we are our own persons. Morals are not just things we do; it is what goes on in our minds. Our thoughts can be as immoral as an action; just because you did not do it does not mean you did not want to at one point. Our morals make us who we are, they are much more than a simple thought, idea, or rule; morals are our state of mind and our human nature. What does it mean to be moral? It means you know how to shape yourself into the best person you can be.

1.     "Twain, Mark. "Moral Quotes - BrainyQuote." Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote. Web. 07 Sept. 2011. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/moral.html>.

2.     Hemmingway, Ernest. "Morals Quotes - BrainyQuote." Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote. Web. 07 Sept. 2011. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/morals.html>.