Jose Flores

ENG 2001

Professor Scanlan

Dec 14, 2020

A Sad Man With a Happy Ending

Ethical dilemmas are presented to us everywhere and in everyday life. A lot of the stores we’ve read in class have come up with characters having ethical dilemmas. One story in particular that caught my eye was “A Good Fall” by Ha Jin. This story follows an immigrant, Ganchin, with an expired visa and the dilemma this man goes through. He makes important decisions that lead him to an unexpected end. Ganchin is a monk and because he is a monk the type of ethics he follows is deontology ethics. Deontology ethics is where there is a set of rules one has to follow. Ganchin is a proper man who follows the rules and does no wrong.

Ganchin is an immigrant who works at a kung fu dojo as a teacher. Ganchin is very sick and this prompts the sensei, Master Zong, to fire him. Ganchin is shocked but only asks for the payment of his salary. Master Zong tells Ganchin no and comes up with the excuse that the salary amount was just a “formality” for the visa and that the “board and lodging” provided cost more than the salary he is due. Ganchin goes and meets up with Cindy and tells her of his problems. There she offers him to stay at her place since she is barely home since she is a flight attendant. Ganchin passes up on the offer saying that he’ll stay with a friend who is from the same country as Ganchin. Cindy then tells him “if worse comes to worst, you should consider marrying a woman, a U.S. citizen.” Here comes Ganchins first dilemma. Ganchin is in the U.S. without a passport and an expired visa and his only way of staying legally is by marrying a citizen and becoming a citizen through the marriage. Ganchin is a monk and monks aren’t allowed a wife so Ganchin tells her “I’m a monk and can’t think of anything like that.” Here is a prime example of deontology ethics. The monks have a set of rules and Ganchin follows them through and through in this choice he has to make, even though he knows that marrying Cindy would solve his immigration problems. But in this situation, he decides to decline, because he is a monk. 

After this exchange Ganchin goes to his friend’s home and there Fanku, the friend, lets him stay for a few days. After a few days, Fanku tells Ganchin that he can’t provide him with any more food because he is running low on money. Ganchin, now with no money and no food, decides to head back to ask Master Zong for his money. Back with Master Zong Ganchin tells him “Master, you’ve pushed me to a cliff- I have no way out now and may have to follow Ganping’s example.” Ganping was also a monk under Master Zong’s care and was in the same situation as Ganchin, but he decided to commit suicide because he couldn’t continue living. Here is another dilemma that Ganchin goes through, he has nothing left, no food, no money, no way back home. Here comes the idea that gothic literature is known for. Ganchin has suicide running through his head to force Master Zong to give him the money he is owed. Gothic literature is known to be about death, and suicide is a part of death. The emotions that Ganchin must be going through to come to this conclusion that the ac of suicide will somehow end his pain. Master Zong proceeds to tell Ganchin that he isn’t like Ganping because he has a family back home who are waiting for him. Ganchin then told him “Don’t underestimate me, Master.” Here Ganchin is determined to go on with the suicide to either get his money or to end his life because he has nothing. His last words to Master Zong were “Master, farewell. See you in the next world.”

As we fast forward in the story, we reach where Ganchin is looking where he will commit the deed, suicide. He starts thinking to himself “He wanted to look for a building out of which he could jump and kill himself.” Here we have another example of a gothic definition. Ganchin’s action is having us in suspense, is he actually going to kill himself knowing that he has family back home. After walking around he finds an abandoned building. He drags his body to the top floor of the building, crying. This whole idea of Ganchin committing suicide is a form of utilitarian ethics. Utilitarian ethics is one that takes actions that produce the most good. His actions here, to him, will end his life of suffering and he thinks that will make the most good in life. Ganchin jumps, but because of his martial arts training, his body instinctively adjusts itself and doesn’t cause him to die. He lands on his feet and is in a lot of pain. Some teenagers saw what happened and called for help. In the end, Ganchin is sent to the hospital and has his medical bills paid by a charity organization. His situation came on the news and Master Zong’s temple was exposed for exploiting young monks, he also gets in contact with a lawyer who will help him with his case. At the end he says “I guess I’m not a monk anymore” and Cindy tells him that now he can date. 

Ganchin goes through a series of unfortunate events that lead to an expected end. If Ganchin had never thought of committing suicide this would have never happened. This story is very relatable because there are many immigrants who get exploited and have nowhere to go because they are afraid or have nowhere else to go.

Works Cited:

Jin, Ha. A Good Fall. Pantheon Books, 2009. 

Scanlan, Sean. “A Short Introduction to Five Types of Ethics.” Sean Scanlan, 2020.