Author: Raihanx11

Muhammad Raihan
ENG 1121
Prof. Scanlan
12/11/22

Loyalty in Friendship

In the novel “American Spy” by Lauren Wilkinson I will examine the ethical decisions made by Marie Mitchell and Robbie Young. Marie is a mainly a Virtue and feminist ethicist while Robbie is more of a Utilitarian ethicist. When Marie was young, she felt disdain towards Robbie because of his perspective on life, however as an adult she realizes why she loves Robbie’s personality and tries to find it in others. In order to support this, first I will explore why Robbie was rebellious as a teenager and how Utilitarian ethics drove him to commit crimes. Next, I will compare Robbie and Marie with her overlapping ethics. Lastly, I will reveal how they both have matured and which ethics they now follow.

In order to understand why Robbie is a utilitarian, the environment and era he grew up in must be taken into account. Knowing that utilitarian ethicists do not like follow authority and will make decisions that they think are the most beneficial ones. It can be inferred that Robbie does not admire law enforcement but instead people who are utilitarian like him in the 1970s. One major role model of his in 1971 is the American social activist Abbie Hoffman who also wrote the book called “Steal This Book.” According to Wikipedia the book “focused on ways to fight against the government and against corporations in any way possible. The book is written in the form of a guide to the youth.” This book reflects the content that Robbie would look for and follow. The decisions he would make portray utilitarian ethics because in the novel Robbie steals cash from a pizza place and when Marie scolds him for it he says “‘You got to read Steal This Book. Then you’d understand…. Off the pigs. And welcome to the revolution, baby.’” (69) While it is true that the consequence of Robbie’s crimes would not yield a good result, he truly believes that him stealing is his freedom and revolution and it maximize his overall good because he gains something for free. Knowing that Robbie is a black teenager who is broke as a utilitarian he would think that taking what he needs through theft and also encouraging others like Marie would increase their overall happiness and relieve their pain or unhappiness.

Black Panthers

According to Wikipedia, the black panthers was a self black power and marxist-leninist political organization founded by college students on October 1996 in Oakland, California. Marxists can be seen as communists though because of the classless society belief. They were against police brutality and would challenge the police by practicing open carry in front of cops because they believed in armed self defense. The black panthers party was active between 1966 and 1982. From 1969 and forward they were involved in establishing social programs, such as Free Breakfast for Children programs, community health clinics and educational programs. However the FBI at the time did not differentiate between soviet spies and suspected communist so they sabotaged the Black Panthers with the covert counterintelligence program.

Thomas Sankara

According to Wikipedia, Thomas Sankara was the first president of Brukina Faso (a country in West Africa) from his coup d’etat in 1983 to when he was shot and killed in 1987 He was also a brukinabe military officer and a marxist revolutionary. He was seen as a hero  amongst Africans because he was anti-imperialist, he would not take aid from United Nations international monetary fund and prevented famine and promoted education with his policies. With his domestic policies he also helped vaccinate “more than 2 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles, which saved the lives of 18,000 to 50,000 children annually.” However, In 1987 he was murdered in a coup d’etat organized by his former friend Compaore. Compaoré said that “Sankara jeopardized foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast, and accused his former comrade of plotting to assassinate opponents.”

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost makes me feel a sense of accomplishment. In the beginning it seems a bit lonely and distant with how the roads stretch really far. Being the only traveler there the fork on the road is telling you to make a decision on your own. I’m not sure where the traveler is going and this reminds me of life and a person’s goals and ambitions. Often times you may think you know what you want to do but truth is you are only looking at an empty road ahead of you without much detail to tell you what to expect. This is a bit frustrating because you usually want things to be clear and easy or at least have the impression that they are. Having no guide to advise you to or any signposts leave the burden of the choice to you alone. I don’t know anything about the speaker however his tone gives me hope and makes me want to trust him. He says that he is apologetic and stands at the fork in the road for a while. This tells me that he knows his limits and likes to think carefully by observing before moving on. But at the same time he is curious and trying to explore the path that seems to be unused. After reading it I felt that is wasn’t as musical as the other two poems but it had more of a slow or broken rhyme. It was exactly like he said that he will be telling this poem with a sigh. This is perfect for this poem because after he takes the road, he won’t return and can only look back. As for the setting I can imagine it being fall since the author uses imagery to let us imagine for ourselves before those two roads with leaves on the ground and yellow wood which I imagined to be yellow or orange autumn leaves.

Coffeehouse # 1

This short essay was similar to the first reading but instead of the main character loving books from a young age, this one portrayed the rebellious behavior of a teenager trying to refuse anything that is assigned to him and only doing as he pleases. The story mentions how he was a lost cause to himself and the fact that he would simply swing his eyes across the pages, not understanding what he’s really reading but wasting time in a sense. However, I believe he was doing this because he was searching for something in his teenage life so he could establish a future for himself. He wanted to discover a purpose of his own, he sounds like a person who just likes to “wing it” so to speak, but only when he was the one who made that decision for himself if people told him to do something he would deny it. What he needed was to leave his old environment, get to college and start being an independent adult. One who has to work in order for his body to survive and for his mind to survive he had to marry reading. This really resonated with me because I am also someone who needs a change in environment and some pressure even, all in order for me to actually enjoy what I am doing because it was a choice that I made on my own.