The Importance of Selflessness
Always put others’ needs before your own. Putting others’ needs before your own is being selfless and is not always easy. In NightJohn by Gary Paulsen, a slave named NightJohn goes to help others even when putting them before himself might not be easy or safe.
One example of someone putting others’ needs before their own in NightJohn was when Nightjohn told the story of how he escaped slavery and came back. “‘You ran and got away?” Mammy asked. ‘I did.’ ‘You ran until you were clean away?’ ‘I did.’ ‘And you came back?’ ‘I did.’” (page 55). In this scene, Mammy was really surprised to learn that NightJohn made it safely and was free in the North, but came back to slavery on the plantations in the South
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“‘I’ll be back,’ he said. ‘Got some things to do and I’ll be back.’ But I knew he was lying… just saying the good things to hear. He ain’t coming back, I thought, and I watched him leave.” (page 81). Even though Sarny thought that NightJohn would be leaving for good, he was instead only leaving for a little while to set up the pit school for the slave children. Yet again, while trying to do something like this he was yet again putting himself in the danger of being caught and punished or sold. On page 85 NightJohn comes back to get Sarny in the middle of the night. He then surprises her and brings her to the pit school. By putting Sarny and the other children's needs before his own NightJohn was able to make the slave children’s lives better. In conclusion, the characters NightJohn and Sarny in the book NightJohn by Gary Paulsen demonstrate that it is important to put others’ needs before your own. Both NightJohn and Sarny put themselves in dangerous situations, but by doing this they were able to benefit others. By living our lives putting others’ needs before our own we can become selfless and more understanding people and affect the world around us for the
one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his
author tried to tell readers life lessons that can happen to anybody. Last but not least is to be
A human being is a complicated entity of a contradictory nature where creative and destructive, virtuous and vicious are interwoven. Each of us has gone through various kinds of struggle at least once in a lifetime ranging from everyday discrepancies to worldwide catastrophes. There are always different causes and reasons that trigger these struggles, however, there is common ground for them as well: people are different, even though it is a truism no one seems to able to realize this statement from beyond the bounds of one’s self and reach out to approach the Other.
Not only was John Brown honest and fair, but also he was courteous and generous towards others even outside his well-taken care of family. To prove his points, the author includes several stories of things John Brown did in his life that exemplify his unselfishness. Upon hearing that a family miles away was starving and living in poverty one winter John Brown went to the man with a business offer to help the man because he wouldn’t accept just donations. The offer gave the man food and clothing in exchange for his labor the next summer. When the summer time came around, John Brown didn’t even let the man work for him. This is showing the good nature of John Brown’s pers...
... noble morality (16). Furthermore, in contrast to the self-contentment of the noble morality, the slave’s lack of outward power led him to direct his power inwards, resulting in man’s first exploration of his inner life.
On the one hand, in order to endure the “pressure of existence,” qualities such as pity, patience, humility and compassion become commendable. In this sense, “slave morality is essentially a morality of utility,” as it promotes qualities that would comfort and placate those who are living in pain. In another sense however, these aforementioned qualities are revered because the people are afraid of one another. The nobles valued and maintained some of “the highest and strongest drives, [which can] drive the individual far above the average and the flats of the herd conscience, wreck the self-confidence of the community, its faith in itself, and it is as if its spine snapped.” Wishing to prevent any possible danger to the stability of the community, the virtues of the nobles, which elevate the individual over the community, are condemned as evil. Since everyone is in fear of each other, slave morality is used to ensure that no one tries to subjugate the
Babies learn everything they need to survive in the culture of today from their parents. Monkey see monkey do. When children's minds develop and grow, all they know is the world of their family and perhaps a few other adults. Everything children catch in their young eyes and ears teaches them another lesson. Adults can teach about how to care for the sick, hospitality, and good manners but they also may pass on racist views and preconceived ideas. They seem to focus on the death, war, and financial problems; all present in every day life of characters in William Saroyan's novel, The Human Comedy. These problems may completely engulf the mind, body, and soul of busy men and women. Adults should take a second and watch their sons and daughters who have much more to teach but not enough pride and experience to lecture their brilliant ideas. According to Saroyan, children are the experts on living life, while adults have the greater knowledge of death. Children take time to recognize the smaller joys of life and therefore can live life with a worthwhile meaning. Adults have gained the experience to educate children on coping with sadness and humbling far out hopes and dreams. Characters such as Mrs. Macauley, Miss Hicks, and Mr. Spangler all play an important role in teaching vital lessons. Adults, in this novel, also state some pointers on how to truly live life, while many adults do not follow these teachings at all. To survive the severe ups and downs of our fluctuating world, adults and children must both teach and learn from each other.
In life, situations arrive that force us to make tough choices. Sometimes those choices are not what we feel are compassionate or morally right. We make these decisions to save ourselves. These are decisions of self-preservation, and they override compassion. Tadeusz Borowski depicts these choices in his book This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. He shows that when people are put in the choice of doing what’s right or preserving their life, one is preferred over the other. Would they rather save their selves or just watch others be sent to their death. In the novel, the narrator wrestles with his decisions and like Borowski suffers from them.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “It 's the action, not the fruit of the action, that 's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there 'll be any fruit. But that doesn 't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”. In other words, Gandhi is stating that change cannot be made if an appropriate action have not commence. For we can’t see change if we don’t make a change in this world. In “The Man Who Planted Trees”, by Jean Giono uses theme and setting, to express human selflessness by appreciating as well repairing the environment. While in “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut uses theme
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
Some people are selfish in such a way that affects only their own selves, but others’ selfishness can hurt those they care about. One of these such people is Brother in “The Scarlet Ibis”. In James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”, Brother is selfish and only teaches Doodle to walk to benefit himself.
Comparison will let us recognize our defects and learn from the good qualities when we take a deep insight into others’ virtues. In “Body-Building in Afghanistan”, Oliver Broudy makes a comparison between our high-quality life and Afghan’s poor-quality life conditions. He begins by asking the audience to think about how we start a new day. In general, when the alarm goes off at eight o’clock in the morning, sleep will pull us back towards the comfortable bed. However, people in Afghanistan get up before the alarm clock starts; around four o’clock in a dry, dirty place. The comparison between the morning scenes implies two opposite kinds of life, the easy and the poor. The poor appreciate what they have while the easy are wasting time on meaningless
We watch death explore the beauty and ugliness of the human race in Markus Zusak’s book The Book Thief. We watch as Liesel, Hans, and Rosa do everything they can to help out a group of people who were treated with such disrespect during this time period. This group, the Jews, were beaten for taking food that was given to them, and when they died no one would even care. But, these few people gave them food, a place to hide, a sense of belonging, and and a reason to live. They have to work day and night, and do everything they can. Even though people aren’t so beautiful at all times, there is still hope. As we have learned in this book that even when 99 percent of humans aren’t so marvelous there is still that one percent that is to delightful that it would touch anyones heart.
An act of selflessness is an act done without thought of one’s own personal gain. The film What Dreams May Come has many prime examples of selflessness and how selflessness comes from love. The first of the three examples comes from the beginning of the film only a few days after the death of Christopher, also known as Christie. The second example comes from a flashback near the end of the film, after the death of Ian and Marie, Christie and Annie’s children. The last example comes from the very end of the film where Christie decides to stay with his wife, Annie, in Hell. This essay will identify and describe the three major acts of selflessness previously listed from the film What Dreams May Come.
When we sacrifice our time to help someone in need, whether it is a great or small need, we become a part of their life and can help alleviate heavy burdens. We feel good for looking outside ourselves and contributin...