One principle that I believe every person should hold themselves to is to respect your parents. Parents teach their kids how to be human. They show them what is allowed and what is considered unorthodox. Parents teach humanity. After they teach you to walk, talk and be safe, they teach you what makes a person human. Parents are the ones that teach compassion, sympathy and empathy. If people were to stop respecting those that make them human, then humanity is lost. If parents are ignored then all the emotions that make a person human would go extinct.
In The Road, the son is the most compassionate character. He was born in an unforgiving, desolate world. If anyone were to be cold and heartless, I would expect the son to be. The only reason that he is compassionate and empathetic is because of his dad. He has no one else at all in his life, and the environment he lives stripes away the humanity of people. His dad is the one that has made him caring, and if it were not for the boy's deep respect for him, the boy would be a heartless survivor.
He respects his father until the very end. I would even go as far as saying the dissent he expresses when the man leaves the thief naked on the side of the road is a sign of respect. He illustrates the compassion of "carrying the fire" that he and the father talk about throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteI think that while respect is important, just because people are your parents does not mean they are respectable. It is true that most peoples parents do a lot for their children, but some parents are awful. Just because you follow this principle does not mean that everyone should follow this principle.
ReplyDeleteI also think that the boy makes the dad compassionate. If it were the fathers choice, he would never help anyone: it is the boy who urges him to do so.
The father may not even help himself.
DeleteI agree with this principle to a certain point. I would follow this principle because I do respect my parents and they are very good parents. But, as Iris says in her comment, not all parents are respectable. It's sad that some parents out there abuse their children or neglect them, but that's just how some people are, and I don't find that respectable at all.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if you wanted to make this more apply to more people, you can say that people should respect the people in their lives who care for them and sacrifice things for them, no matter if it's parents, friends, etc.
Respect is important in life, however I don't think keeping respect for your parents is a principle that is necessarily important. I don't agree with this because your parents are not always the people that teach you these things and though they are the people that brought you into the world they are not exempt from judgement and sometimes do not deserve to be respected. People not only learn form parents, but also others around them. Parents are the first teachers and should teach the three traits you mentioned, but they are only a small part in the large group of people that shape a person.
ReplyDeleteRegarding to the road I feel as if the boy did respect his father, but his father was not the one who taught him to be compassionate and empathetic towards people. The father only seems to be ever compassionate towards the boy and not others and I think if the father was the one to teach the boy these things he'd respond completely differently to the encounters in the book. Like Iris has stated above the boy is the one who actually makes his father do "good" and help others. The boy inspires compassion and empathy into the father.