“Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” Ethics and Gender Roles

Andy Zhang

Essay 3 draft

English 1121 (Prof.Scanlan)

5/17/2020          

 “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” Ethics and Gender Roles

In Tony Parson’s short story “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,” the central character was Jaswinder “Jazz” Smith, who works as a border examiner at the United Kingdom airport. Jazz dealt with differents passengers and examine their passport and check their reason for entering the United Kingdom. Due to her super sharp sense as a female examiner, and her knowledge in psychology, she was able to discover that the man in black was a drug smuggler and Donald with a forged passport. The strong combinations of feminists, and deontology ethic that Jazz displays when making decisions concerning  Donald, and Megan and other passengers during different situations that each passenger posses perfectly reveals the idea that work ethic can be affected by gender roles. Where work ethic is the principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward. 

In Kirsten Stam, Ellen Verbakel & Paul M. de Graaf’s article “Do Values Matter? The Impact of Work Ethic and Traditional Gender Role Values on Female Labour Market Supply,” Kirsten examines the idea of the explanatory value of work ethic and traditional gender role value with regards to the variation in the female labor market supply. Where the idea that work ethic can precede one’s motivation to work and is able to explain one’s effects in the moral role and gender role. On the other hand, in Kate Krueger article “The Woman at Home in the World: Annie Swan’s Lady Doctor and the Problem of the Fin de Siècle Working Woman,”  Kate explores the idea that a woman would not lose her femininity through work ethic and maintain a public role in support of women’s employment after marriage. While I was satisfied with Kate’s idea that a woman would not lose her femininity through work ethic, I think that Kirsten’s idea of the explanatory value of work ethic and traditional gender role value makes a better claim on the idea that work ethic can be affected by gender roles. In order to show this, I will first discuss how Jazz’s gender role and feminist ethic is affecting Jazz’s decisions concerning Megan. Second, I will discuss how Jazz’s gender role and deontology ethic is affecting Jazz’s decision concerning the Man in Black. Ultimately, I will discuss how the idea of work ethic can be affected by feminist and deontology ethics of a female gender role through Jazz reaction and decision in the short story. 

In Tony Parsons short story “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,” the story takes place at the UK airport, where Jazz examines different people that hope to enter the UK for various reasons. sOne important detail that should be brought up is that Jazz is a female borderline examiner and that her gender played an important role in her work. In the short story when Jazz encounters Megan, her sharp sense and feeling affected her decision that was made toward Megan. After Megan answered her question about the reason that she came to the United Kingdom and her plan in the United Kingdom. Megan’s reply to Jazz’s question triggered Jazz’s sharp sense and that caused her to notice that Megan was lying to her and that resulted in Megan being in the “NOT OK CORRAL” in the airport. From the scene “ Jazz smiled pleasantly. ‘And what are you planning to do in the UK?’ ‘I want to see the wax museum?’ Jazz nodded. Madame Tussauds was a legitimate reason to visit the United Kingdom. Lifelike effigies of Nelson Mandela and Brad Pitt – how could anyone resist? ‘What do you want to see there?’ Jazz said. Megan had not been anticipating a follow-up question about the world-famous wax museum. ‘Candles?’ she offered. Jazz looked at the young traveler. This girl should not be a problem, Jazz thought. But she is….. ‘And I want to try some of that world-famous British pizza,’ Megan said, and jazz got that cold tense feeling that came upon her when she knew that someone was telling her lies.” (Parson, 47). This feeling and the sense of Jazz shows that her femininity ethic and her gender role affected her work ethic and her role as a borderline examiner. From that scene, we can see that her feelings and thoughts were affecting her decision toward Megan. Where Jazz’s feeling and thoughts of her feminist ethic and her gender role caused her to be suspicious of Megan’s answer and that overall affected her choice to keep Megan in the “NOT OK CORRAL” instead of letting Megan pass her examine even though there seem to be no questions to Megan’s answer toward Jazz’s examination. 

Jumping to another scene of the short story, when Jazz was examining the passport of the young man in black. Jazz’s deontology ethic and gender role affected her choices and her work ethic as a borderline examiner when she was examining the passport of the man in black. While Jazz was examining the passport, her gender role served an important role, her carefulness rang her inner alarm bell when she noticed that the biometric data on the microchip didn’t fit and the passport photo of the man seemed different with the man in real life. “Jazz liked to say that it wasn’t her job to refuse entry to the UK. It was her job to have an inner alarm bell  ….. The inner alarm bell rang loud and long when she looked at the passport of the young man dressed in a black T-shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. She looked at him and she looked at the passport and she read the biometric data on the microchip and somehow it did not fit. In the passport, the photo the man looked as though he had had some kind of cosmetic surgery. But in the flesh, he just looked unwell.”(Parson, 46). From the scene, we were able to indicate that Jazz’s deontology ethic seems to be affecting the decision that will be made toward the man in black from her careful observation of her gender role characteristics and her role as a borderline examiner. 

After all, going through different scenes of Tony Parson’s short story “ Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,” we were to discuss how Jazz’s feminist, deontology ethic and gender roles were able to affect her decision made toward Megan and Man in black. It would be a whole different situation in the scene if Jazz would have let the man in black pass the borderline examination because she is not following the deontology ethic and gender role. And Jazz would let Megan also pass the borderline examination because she’s not following feminist ethic and gender roles. From the different scenes in the short story, the idea of work ethic can be affected by feminist and deontology ethics of a female gender role was explored and examined through Jazz’s reaction and decision toward each traveler that was trying to enter the UK in the short story.