Author: Ousain Touray

Megalomania

According to wikipedia megalomania is “an obsession with power and wealth, and a passion for grand schemes.” In other words it is simply a person who is obsessed with their own power. Upon further research I saw that megalomania is actually a psychological disorder. It makes sense, it being an “obsession” with power and wealth. People with this psychological disorder unnaturally want to be in control of everything and I can connect this to Daniel Slater in American Spy. In the novel Slater is a very greedy individual who manipulates people for his own benefit. It’s clearly seen that Slater enjoys being above people and being in control of everything as he was very controlling towards Helene and others around him.

Ideology

According to the Wikipedia ideology is “a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or groups of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which ‘practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones.’” To put it simply, ideology is a set of opinions or beliefs of a group or an individual. Some examples of political ideologies are communism, socialism, and capitalism, democracy, liberalism, as well as conservatism. An ideology in American Spy is that democracy should be spread across the world and communism should be eliminated.

An Ethical Spy

In this essay, I will explore Lauren Wilkonsin’s novel “American Spy.” More specifically, this essay will take a close look at the code of ethics within the characters Marie Mitchell as well as Thomas Sinkara. While there are five codes of ethics (deontology ethics, virtue ethics, utilitarian ethics, feminist ethics, and global ethics), the ones that drives the decisions made by these characters precisely are Utalitarian Ethics, Feminist ethics, as well as Virtue ethics. In order to prove this, I will first break down feminist ethics that is presented in Marie Mitchell’s moral decisions. Next, I will examine the utilitarian ethics that Thomas Sinkara so strongly exhibits, which represents what he stood for, as well as what led to his downfall. Finally, upon the breakdown of these characters I will explain how Sinkara’s drive and influence on people steered Marie to virtue ethic.

Marie Mitchell embodies feminist ethics through her refusal to conform to societal expectations and gender roles. She challenges the patriarchal norms of her workplace and society, refusing to be limited by her gender. She is determined to succeed in her career and refusing to be held back by the biases and discrimination against women. Marie Mitchell originally began working for the FBI in 1983 up until 1987, and was discriminated against because she was in fact a woman; a black woman at that. Her boss Ric Gold was a clear sexist as she mentions “he’d interrupted during a briefing to ask me to run to the kitchen and get him a cup of coffee. Everyone in the room laughed”(20). Her boss would often belittle her and turn her down from high-profile jobs and the particular reasoning behind this circumstance was simply her being an African-American woman. Ric Gold showed a clear lack of respect for Marie and this lack of respect publicly displayed to her caused her colleagues to belittle her as well as “I was deliberately excluded from operational meetings and told it was because men were better at that kind of planning. . . agents didn’t feel safe with me backing them up”(20). . .

  Thomas Sinkara presents a utilitarian ethical framework as he believes that the ultimate goal is to serve the greater good and promote the interests of the nation and its citizens. For this exact reason, the people of Burkina Faso had a deep love for Sinkara. The love for him expanded so far to the point Asalfo (the cafe owner) fixed his radio just so he could listen to Sinkara’s speech. “When he finished his speech, Asalfo applauded the radio. . .  impossible to ignore the effect of sitting with people who saw in Thomas a capacity for a brighter future. . . and felt  myself turning towards him and his revolution” (183). The effect that Sinkara had on his people trickled down onto Marie as well as she grew to be fond of him. Sinkara was a well respected man in West Africa who “. . .strove to make the West African nation economically self-sufficient, promoting local industry and food security, redistributing land from landlords to peasants. He also promoted gender equality, proscribing polygamy and female circumcision. And he spoke out passionately against South African apartheid, and Western meddling in Africa” (Aidi, 1). . .

Marie Mitchell embodies virtue ethics through her dedication to doing what is right, even in difficult and morally ambiguous situations. Throughout the novel, Marie is faced with difficult choices and moral dilemmas. She always acts in accordance with her values and beliefs,  even when it means going against the orders of her superiors or the expectations of society. . .

Overall, the book “American Spy” presents ethical dilemmas that are common in the world of espionage and highlights the personal and moral struggles that come with working in this field. Marie was faced with ethical dilemmas throughout her story as she struggled to be guided by her moral compass. The needle of her moral compass eventually guided her onto the right path as she gave into it instead of rebelling against it. Everything that we do in life is done by a set of codes of ethics, so we should examine our own personal ethics before making a decision.

This first person pov story shows how reading impacted the narrators life in a positive way. He begins the story introducing how much he despised school. Surprisingly he actually tried to flunk out of high school intentionally, only to work the job he loved so much paying him $3.85 an hour. I believe most young people can relate to a certain extent. Many young people, myself included, hated school growing up. I don’t think it was to the point where we’re trying to flunk intentionally but he would grab most readers attention. This story shows how he was lost in life with no real ambition aside from longing for the colonel to hire him anywhere in the world. He was leading himself down a path filled with struggles… He was introduced to reading before college and his life took a sharp turn for the better. He found his love for reading and did everything in his power to attend St Johns college. He had no hope in life until reading and college was introduced to him. It goes to show that in life there is always the light at the end of the tunnel. No matter what you’re going through nothing lasts forever. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and find your purpose and what makes you happy.