And When We Awoke there Was Light by Laura Jacqmin

In the play And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light by Laura Jacqmin, she analyzes the ethical issues revolving around service in America. The main character Katie, struggles with this common ethical issue just like all other Americans when making a life decision that challenges one’s morals. Katie struggles with conflicting messages about service, not being fully committed to helping David, her pen pal from Uganda and then realizing in the end that David is more important than Harvard.

Katie’s parents, teacher and essentially herself all make her question what service is really about by presenting her with conflicting messages. Throughout the play an emphasis of being a do-gooder and a high-achieving student is placed upon Katie. In the opening of the play Katie tells David that she does volunteer to prove that she is "a well-rounded, well-adjusted person of the world"(3). Katie’s parents also go on to say that it is really nice that she wants to help David out, but maybe she could help someone else out by volunteering at a soup kitchen. To the parents, it seemed as if they were only placing a high importance on the actual word volunteer showing up on Katie’s resume rather than the people she was actually helping in this volunteer work.

Katie’s teacher, Mr. Dubey, puts a very high emphasis on the students at Katie’s school about how important school is. Because Katie starts to feel bad for using David to get into Harvard, his attitude toward the topic changes and he tells that she should be self-serving and not really care what people say and to not "ruin the rest of your life just because you feel a little guilty right now"(74). All of these conflicting messages on what Katie should be like, how she should treat others an...

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...es with contradictory messages about service, not being wholly dedicated to helping David and then realizing in the end that he is more crucial than Harvard. Katie struggled with deciding whether to please her parents and teacher by putting all her effort into getting into Harvard, or to put all her effort into pleasing herself by bringing David to America. Katie was finally able to come to the conclusion that getting into Harvard wasn’t as important as saving someone’s life. Even though it took Katie a few weeks to come to the understanding that helping others is more important than helping yourself in life, she gained a wonderful gift in the end. She gained the gift of a brighter day and the gift of a new brother.

Works Cited

Jacqmin, Laura. And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light. December 4, 2013. TS. E-Res. Library St. Mary’s College. Moraga Ca.