Final ESSAY

Queenie Chau

ENG 2400

FINAL ESSAY

Empathy is the ability to feel another person’s pain and be able to place oneself into their shoes. The feelings of sympathy are present within empathy. However, there are also feelings such as guilt or shame from knowing the negative consequences of turning a blind eye. Redemption has many different perspectives. It is an act of restoring one self. However, redemption can be restored by oneself or by others, it is a term of open discussion. Empathy, honor, and redemption deal with decision making and feelings, which can be tied to ethics.

Within the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator explains his decision in killing the old man. The first signs that the narrator shows empathy is the quote, “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.” Although there is a chance it could be that the narrator was just preparing a marination before the finishing act, I believe that he did it out of empathy. The introduction of the story explains how the narrator actually loved the old man seeing as he was never wronged in any way by the man. The mixed feelings of compassion for the man along with the guilt of having planned a murder of an innocent leads me to believe that the narrator shows empathy in the last few days. My suspicions are further confirmed with this quote at a later part of the story, “I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart.”

The narrator follows through with the murder and proceeds to have no regrets while dismembering the corpse. When the three policemen arrive, he gives out the same calm composure, that is until the policeman overstayed their welcome. He has what we would call today anxiety. He starts hearing a heartbeat from under the floorboards and begins panicking. His thoughts raced until he blurted out his confession: “”Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed! –tear up the planks! here, here! –It is the beating of his hideous heart!”” As time passed, his guilty conscience overflowed, and therefore I believe he is seeking redemption by coming clean with his sins. The redemption he is seeking is from himself. The police officers never suspected of his crime, therefore he suppressed his wallowing self guilt until he couldn’t bear it. This ties to virtue ethics, where he had to take a stance on his own morals and come to a judgement himself.

Life of Pi showed the great inner battles that fought with morals and ethics. After Pi breaks his life long peace with animals, he apologizes. By showing empathy and grief towards the fish, it is in his subconscious defense to be convinced that it was for the greater good, his own survival. Therefore, he is trying to restore his own honor and redeem him, by himself. This ties to utilitarian ethics where the action he takes produces the most good, even though there are consequences.

EXTRA CREDIT: The shot represents  how Pi himself is the tiger and he is the reflection of Richard Parker. They are connected as one being.