Luis Fajardo

ENG2001

Professor: Sean ScanIan

Dec 14, 2020


Proper ethics of a MONK

Ethics is defined as the set of theory of moral principles. There are 5 types of ethics Deontology ethics, Virtue ethics, Utilitarian ethics, Feminist ethics, and Global ethics. Deontology is a set of rules that assess our choices. Virtue Ethics addresses the important question what kind of person do I want to be? Utilitarian Ethics is the moral right action is the action that produces the most good. Feminist ethics is ethics that value non-masculine traits. Global Ethics is about equality for all. In the story “A Good Fall,” by Ha Jin, I ask myself what types of ethics does each character follow. I am also going to go into details of each character’s important scenes and determine their ethics. Then I will be talking about Ganchin’s gothic actions. I will also start off by giving a small summary of the story.  

The story “A Good Fall,” by Ha jin, published by Pantheon books in 2009, takes place in Flushing Queens New York where we meet the main character Ganchin who teaches Kong fu and is a monk for the Gaolin temple. Some of the other characters in this story that play a role are Master Zong, Cindy, and the owner of Teng’s Garden. We learn that Ganchin is fired by Master Zong because his visa expired, and Master Zong refuses to pay Ganchin his salary. Ganchin needs the money to pay off his debt back in China and threatens to kill himself if Master Zong does pay his salary. Master Zong kidnaps Ganchin and tries to send him back to China but Ganchin escapes and makes his way to Tang’s Garden where the owner tries to convince from committing suicide. Ganchin jumps off a building and survives and the whole Chinese community realizes that Master Zong is a fraud.

I will be discussing the following major scenes in “A Good Fall,” and discussing the characters ethics. The first major scene is when Ganchin is fired we learn what type of person Master Zong is. The second Major scene that I want to focus on is when Ganchin goes to Teng’s Garden and meets the owner in which he tries to convince Ganchin from committing suicide. The third major scene is when Ganchin jumps off the building and breaks his legs when can determine that Ganchin’s ethic has changed as the story goes along.  

The first major scene is when Ganchin is fired from his Job because his visa expired, and we learn that Master Zong is refusing to pay Ganchin his salary even though they have a contract. In this first scene I will focus on Master Zong ethics. Master Zong is the master for the Gaolin temple and has a “wife” although he’s not married because he swore to not take a wife when he became a monk. Master Zong has a brand-new BMW and a brand-new house in Long Island. Master Zong told Ganchin “From now on you’re on your own, and you must move out tomorrow. I don’t care where you go” (345). Therefore, Master Zong doesn’t follow the rules of being a monk because he breaks so many rules like not showing compassion the Ganchin and not paying him what he owes to him. The type of ethics that Master Zong follows is Utilitarian ethics because he doesn’t care about being a good person as long as he’s making money and living good.

The second major scene is when Ganchin arrives to Teng’s Garden and asks the owner to pass along a message to Master Zong in Ganchin tells the Owner “Tell him to say prayers and make offerings for soul tomorrow before sunrise” (353). Basically, implying that he’s going to die tomorrow in which the owner seems puzzled by his request. In this scene I will focus on Teng’s Garden Owner’s ethics towards Ganchin. The Owner decided to listen to Ganchin’s problems in order to hear his pain/struggles and try to convince him not to commit suicide by telling him to think about all the good things in life. The owner tells Ganchin “Young Brother you shouldn’t think like this You mustn’t give up so easily” (354). Basically, telling him that giving up isn’t the best thing to do because it won’t resolve to anything and that he should continue fighting for what is owed to him. The owner also shows his kindness when he offers to make Ganchin a meal and not charge him for it. Ironically, this would have been Ganchin’s last meal if he were to have died from jumping off the building. The type of ethics that owner of Teng’s Garden is Virtue ethics because he tries to persuade Ganchin to not killing himself by telling him “to think about all the good things in life” (355). By doing so the owner asks himself what sort person I should be when he’s listening to Ganchin’s troubles because he could have easily not given any care about a Ganchin’s troubles and not provide him with free food but instead he decided to be a good person and try talk Ganchin out of doing something bad.

The Third major scene is when Ganchin jumps off the building and his ethics changed from the beginning of the story. So, let start off by talking about Ganchin ethics in the beginning of the story and then his ethics in the end of the story. In the beginning of the story Ganchin follows Deontology ethic because he follows the rules of being a monk. Ganchin never has a girlfriend or gets married and Ganchin never has eaten any types of meats because monks need to be vegetarians. When Cindy jokily said, “If worse comes to worse, you should consider marrying a woman, a us citizen” (346) and Ganchin’s response is that he can’t because he’s a monk is a prime example of him following the rules of being a monk. Now let us talk about Ganchin’s ethics changing as the story goes along. Ganchin’s ethics change to Virtue Ethic because he starts to question what sort of person I should be. Ganchin begins to ask himself how he’s going to be able to live in America without knowing English. When Ganchin moved in with a “friend” named Fanku he started to eat meats like pork and seafood because that’s what Fanku would bring back left over from when Fanku when go to work. Therefore, Ganchin really didn’t have much of a choice because if he didn’t eat what Fanku brings him then he won’t eat anything that day. So, he had to decide if he wanted to starve or eat meat even though he was a monk wasn’t allowed to eat meat. Next, he starts to question his worth of living because being a monk and working for the temple is the only thing he know how to do. Then he goes to Master Zong and threatens to kill himself if he doesn’t pay his salary. Then he goes through with his plan to commit suicide and jumps off a building and breaks his legs. Ganchin jumps off the building because he feels like a disappointment because he wasn’t able to send money back home in China to help pay off debts. In the end of the story one can assume that Cindy and Ganchin get together therefore breaking another rule of being a monk. When Ganchin tells Cindy that no other temple will ever take him as a monk anymore Cindy tells Ganchin “That also means you’re free to date a girl” (357) Ganchin replies with “Well, I hope that’s something I can learn” (357). Therefore, Ganchin realizes he can’t be a monk anymore and question his future of what kind of person he can be. Ganchin is basically reinventing himself and moving away from being a monk and having a normal life.

A gothic action is defined as doing the forbidden, acting irrational and/or going against prohibition. Ganchin begins to act irrational after confronting Master Zong about being fired from the Gaolin temple. Ganchin threatens to kill himself if Master Zong doesn’t pay him what is owed to him. Ganchin tells Master Zong “Master you’ve pushed me to the edge of a cliff—I have no way out now and may have to follow Ganping’s example” (349) Ganping being a monk that killed himself because of unpaid salary. The reason this is an irrational act is because an average person wouldn’t threaten to kill themselves after not being instead, they would threaten to sue. But Ganchin is hoping that by saying this Master Zong would have a change of heart and pay Ganchin his money. The second irrational act that Ganchin does is when he jumps off the building breaking his legs. This is an irrational act is because you don’t gain anything if you kill yourself and, in the end, if Ganchin were to kill himself Master Zong still wouldn’t pay Ganchin anything because he won’t be alive and there would be no one to prove that Master Zong owes money to Ganchin. Also, he knows that nothing will probably come from this if he were to have killed himself because when Ganping killed himself for the same reason Ganchin wants to kill himself there was no positive result that came out of that for Ganping. Master Zong wasn’t held response and the media never knew the real reason why Ganping killed himself. But In the end, everything worked out for Ganchin as Master Zong was exposed for being a bad monk that doesn’t pay his employees. 

Inconclusion I discussed the important main character in “A Good fall,” by Ha Jin, and their decisions in which I discuss the characters ethics. I also discussed the charters important scenes and Ganchin’s gothic actions.

Work cited

Jin, ha. (2009). A Good Fall AGoodFall-Globalization.pdf (cuny.edu)

ScanIan, S. (2020). A short introduction to five types of ethics. https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/profscanlan-english2001-fiction-f2020/files/2020/11/Five-types-of-Ethics-fall-2020.docx

ScanIan, S. (2020). Gothic Definitions  Gothic Definitions