Sleeping With The Enemy

[ameriken]

I think the captain is the most immoral of all for being so apathetic to this whole story that he didnt even want to be judged by the class.

[Guest pushbrk]

Actually Dennis, i have been pondering this for days...it was really difficult to decide it quickly. My first reaction was Mary was the most immoral, but after some thought about all the characters, I came up with my answer.

 

I reallly dont know what the Chinese way would be, except this: I just showed this to Jie, and her first comment was "Its not possible, Chinese woman would not do that stupid thing, to sleep with the sailor. "

 

As for me, the more I think about it, I think Bob is the most immoral. He offered no help at all for his best friend and best friends fiance.

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Ken,

 

I wonder if your assessment would change if it were clear to you that Bob was never in a position to help Mary get to John. Bob was with John. He was not with Mary, the sailor, the old man, and the businessman.

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Then he was even more immoral......I forgot...he could not help Mary, but was with John the whole time.

 

Then we must assume he was also there when Mary told John what happened.

 

He found Mary to be moral and trustworthy enough that he married her......therefore, he could have helped convince his best friend not to leave her, and that she was good enough of a woman to marry.

 

But he did nothing of the sort and instead chose to "console" (emphasis on the "quotes") Mary and marry her himself.

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I find this all very interesting. Since the story itself is only an exercise, I chose not to read anything extra into it. If it were a real story, we might ask whether Bob tried to convince John to change his mind. Since we can't ask, I'm not assuming one way or another. I've holding each person accountable for their own decisions and weighing there decisions against my own moral values, while at the same time giving each the benefit of any doubts about motives and details not disclosed.

 

I wrote my reasons in a survey thread that never would have functioned properly. Thankfully my request to delete it was honored.

 

I found the sailor most immoral because he took advantage of a distressed person for his own selfish purposes.

 

Mary was second most immoral IMO because she betrayed John's trust.

 

John is a close third for his insensitivity and selfishness.

 

The businessman in next because he was most capable of helping Mary but didn't due to selfishness. He had no way to know what else would happen.

 

The old man is a close 5th only because he was less capable of helping. (benefit of the doubt here)

 

Bob was most moral because the story gives no indication he did anything immoral.

 

Of course the above reflects only my own personal interpretation of the story and my own moral values. I think observing and understanding the differences is the point of the exercise.