Comparing A Wise Old Woman And Tolstoy's

In both of these stories, “The Wise Old Woman” by Yoshiko Uchida and “The Old Grandfather and His Little Grandson” by Leo Tolstoy, there are characters who mistreat and disrespect others. Eventually, they appear to have a revelation and see what they are doing is wrong. But why did they do these things in the first place? Did they actually gain empathy? Both of these characters had similar motives. Both are very narcissistic and apathetic. Each takes actions that harm others but benefit them. The son and wife did not want to clean food off the table, so the son treated his father like a dog, despite the father’s implied love. The young lord wanted a strong village, but by achieving this goal, he disregarded the elders’ contributions to the village, brought grief upon families, and killed many innocents. Both did such selfish and awful because they were only considering how their actions affected and benefited them, and gave no thought to how they harmed others.

Each had the realization that they shouldn’t treat elders this way as soon as it affected them. The young lord only decided to treat elders well after one helped him keep his rule on the village, paying no attention to pleas for mercy beforehand. The son and wife were only able to have sympathy for the grandfather after they were faced with the idea of themselves being in that same situation. This shows that both characters are unable to feel sympathy unless a situation affects or if they are threatened with being put in that