Author: Jose

We have read a lot of stories that have many ethical dilemmas. One of my favorites was “A Good Fall” by Ha Jin. The story’s important characters are Ganchin, Master Zong, Cindy, Fanku, and the owner of Teng’s Garden. In this story we have in immigrant by the name Ganchin. He is an immigrant working at a kung fu dojo as a teacher. Gachin is sick and isn’t able to continue his teaching so he asks his sensei, Master Zong, that he pay him for his work so he can go back home. The thing is that the sensei doesn’t want to pay Ganchin and threatens to call immigration because of his expired visa. Ganchin is then fired for this and is left with no money to go home, no passport, and very sick. This forces Ganchin to threaten Master Zong by telling him that he will kill himself if he doesn’t get paid. Master Zong dismisses his threat and leaves Ganchin very sad. He meets with Cindy and Cindy tries to convince Ganchin to stay at her place, she also hints that she wants them to be a thing. After walking around and moping his losses he comes to Teng’s Garden. There the owner feeds him and gives him some advice to keep going on with life. Ganchin keeps walking and reaches a building where he decides to throw himself from. He throws himself but survives and is sent to the hospital. There he tells his story and Master Zong ends up getting punished and Ganchin gets his medical bills paid by charity. Ganchin’s is an example of deontology ethics. Ganchin follows the rules and has a straight life. Master Zong is an example of Utilitarian ethics because he benefits from pleasure in life such as his wife, car and multiple houses. Cindy is and example of Virtue ethics because she looks out for others and cares for others.

Jose Flores

Midterm Essay, English 2001

Oct 17, 2020

                    Loneliness is Pretty Bad

    A lot of people are afraid of being alone. Loneliness can bring mental health, such as depression, madness, and thoughts of suicide. These ideas can be associated with gothic literature. Gothic literature are pieces of literature where the main ideas are acts of death or madness. “The House of Asterion” by Jorge Luis Borges has elements of gothic literature that portray loneliness that lead the main character to madness. Another piece of literature that portrays these elements is the prologue to “The Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison. These two gothic literatures have characters that go through madness and maybe even death.

    The Minotaur, who is also the narrator, from “The House of Asterion” is trapped in a labyrinth all by himself. He tells us his story, but for all we know he is telling himself this story because he is alone. As stated in the story “I crouch in the shadow of a pool or around a corner and pretend I am being followed.”, here you can see that him being alone has brought him to pretend things so he doesn’t feel alone. This leads to him say “that some day my redeemer would come”. He comes to the realization that his life isn’t worth much and that could be due to the fact that he is alone. The idea of someone making up imaginary people is for the insane, which is caused by the Minotaur’s loneliness. Even though in the story it is mentioned that the Minotaur can leave the labyrinth, people are afraid of him and run away from him, and this can make anyone feel alone.

The “House of Asterion” was kind of difficult to understand but there are gothic elements to the story. The main character, which seems to be the narrator, the Minotaur is a half human half bull creature. He seems to be in a state of depression. The Minotaur speaks of another minotaur but this seems to be a figment of his imagination. There are trails of people going into his castle, but we know it’s a labyrinth. At the end of the story there is mention of Theseus and Ariadne. I do not know Greek mythology so I had to look them up but they are the ones who defeated the Minotaur. This story takes place in a labyrinth, which is an endless maze. This is true because the Minotaur says that there an infinite number of rooms and that these infinite number of rooms look the same. The Minotaur doesn’t seem to notice that he is trapped in this labyrinth. Now the story starts off with the Minotaur talking about himself and his “home”. He seems to be unbothered by the entering of animals and men into his home. The Minotaur likes to daydream and play games with himself because he is alone. He likes to imagine he’s with another minotaur and that he is showing him around his “home”. The story then wraps up with the Minotaur being slayed by Theseus, little did Theseus know that the Minotaur knew he would did which is why he “scarcely defended” himself.

The story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” was confusing for me. I didn’t really get the message of the story or what it was trying ton convey. The character of this story are the couple Pelayo, his wife Elisenda, their son, the wise old woman, Father Gonzaga, the townspeople, and most importantly the old man with wings. The couple Pelayo and Elisenda have a sick child who they want to cure very badly. The old man with wings was believed to be an angel who fell from the sky, according to the old wise woman. Father Gonzaga is the local priest who is trying to see if the angel is real. The setting of the story is on beachfront, because of all the crabs. It also is a place where Catholicism or Christianity is a big influence, which can be around medieval times. The story starts off with the Pelayo spotting the old man on the beach. This then moves on to Pelayo imprisoning the old man in a chicken coup. This attracts a crowd and Elisenda takes advantage and starts charging a viewing fee to the people. It ends with Elisenda watching the old man spread his wings and flying away, far far away.