The Ramayana Ethical Dilemma

In everyday life, we must overcome the challenges that test our strength and will as well as to accept the ramifications that come in handling the situation. These events are known as moral and ethical dilemmas and in certain reading selections, the main characters are faced with fulfilling a parent’s desire, putting your life at risk, challenged to explore who you really are, and choosing to whether or not disclosing or doing something is the right thing to do. To begin with, fulfilling a parent’s wish could not only put you in danger, but others as well. In “The Ramayana”, Rama’s decision to go into exile for fourteen years in the forest not only created his path of fulfilling his duty, to defeat demons and other supernatural creatures

It is an ethical dilemma because his decision in being a good son caused his wife, Sita to be kidnapped and entrusting his role of battling demons and supernatural creatures. As for Sita’s decision to step into the circle of flames, it can be seen as a moral dilemma and that is because she made a choice to see if she is right and that Ravana did not do anything to her and that her heart is pure. These decisions are how Rama and Sita overcame their dilemmas that came across their path. As for Odysseus’s decision to return back home is that no journey is a safe ride, something or someone will try and stop you and in this case it was the other gods. In addition to that, no matter how many allies you have, if the world is out to get you, they will make sure that your goal is not completed. Thus Odysseus should not have left Calypso’s Island despite being offered to return home because it was Zeus’s plan all along; to test him on how he fared against the power of

In “The Analects” written by Confucius a master answers multiple questions on whether a person should be a “Gentlemen”, someone who treats his elders and the people he rules over with the respect that he wants. Confucius stresses the need of making the right choice in certain verses in his book. For instance, in book one verse two, Master Yu said, “A young person who is filial and respectful of his elders rarely becomes the kind of person who is inclined to defy his superiors and there has never been a case of one who is inclined to defy his superiors stirring up rebellion” (Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, 3). Another is when you realize that your choice you made is actually wrong. The Master stated, “People are true to type with regard to what sort of mistakes they make. Observe closely the sort of mistakes a person makes-then you will know his character” (Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, 11). Finally, in book fifteen verse eighteen, The Master clarified, “The gentlemen takes rightness as his substance, puts it into practice by means of ritual, gives it expression through modesty, and perfects it by trustworthy. Now that is a gentleman!” (Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, 45). This means that someone who makes the correct choices has fulfilled his test of moral character. Dilemmas can express who a person really is through a character’s action. In “The Analects” it