Ethical Decision Making in Three Short Stories Ethics plays a vital role in guiding one’s choices in making the right decisions. The protagonists of the stories, “Just Lather, That’s All” by Hernando Tellez, “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, and “Gentlemen, Your Verdict” by Michael Bruce, behave ethically because they act responsibly. They responsibly fulfill their values, duties, and do what is best for most people to achieve moral standards. To begin, in the “Sniper”, the sniper demonstrates his assignment in the army by killing the informer and the man in the turret of a car to protect himself and his community. “The sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered. The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse” (O'Flaherty). When the sniper looks at his dead opponent …show more content…
Even after finding out that he killed his brother, he realizes that he was doing his job and could have potentially been shot at instead if he did not pull the trigger first. Likewise, in “Just Lather, That’s All”, the barber is contemplating whether to slit Captain Torris’ throat or not. “But I don't want to be a murderer, no, sir. You came to me for a shave. And I perform my work honorably. . . . I don't want blood on my hands” (Hernando Téllez). When the barber thinks to himself that he does not want to be a murderer because Captain Torris came to him for a shave, the reader acknowledges that he does not want to be responsible for the executioner's death because his job is not to end his life, but just to shave him. In “Just Lather, That’s All”, the barber is faced with the opportunity to kill a brutal military officer who murders many rebels, but he does not, because it is not an action he values. “And how easy it would be to kill him. And he deserves it. Does he. No. I am not a fan of a sham! What a snare of the devil! No one deserves to have someone else make the sacrifice of becoming a murderer. What do you gain from it? Nothing” (Hernando
Murder is a reprobate action that is an inevitable part of war. It forces humans into immoral acts, which can manifest in the forms such as shooting or close combat. The life of a soldier is ultimately decided from the killer, whether or not he follows through with his actions. In the short stories The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty and Just Lather, That's All by Hernando Téllez, the killer must decide the fate of their victims under circumstantial constraints. The two story explore the difference between killing at a close proximity compared to killing at a distance, and how they affect the killer's final decision.
Liam O’Flaherty’s realistic fiction story, “The Sniper,” takes place in Dublin, Ireland, where there is a civil war waging between Republicans and Free Staters. The Republican sniper, who is the main character in the story, is fighting in the civil war for the Republican organization. There are numerous amounts of people who are attempting to assassinate the sniper because of his organization, and his enemies are located all around him waiting patiently until they gain their chance. The Republican sniper, however, leaps before he looks most times, thus leading to severe consequences throughout the story. By using description and suspense, O’Flaherty creates the lesson that actions, without thought, will lead to consequences.
First, murder as a means of revenge is unjustifiable in the short story "Just Lather, That's All" because the barber is too proud to kill. The barber loves his profession and admitted in the short story "I am a good barber, the best in the town, if I may say so." (Tellez, pg 2-3). This quote helps prove the thesis because the barber is proud to say that he is the best barber in town so he would not like to jeopardize is career to murder someone as a revenge. Secondly, the barber is too proud of his profession than to be a rebel, and has told the readers "Yes, I was secretly a rebel, but I was also a conscientious barber, and proud of the preciseness o...
It is difficult to make life decisions when knowing that it is all up to you to make the right choice not knowing what the outcome is. In “Gregory” by Panos Ionannides, the soldier has to decide whether to follow the headquarters or his own instincts. Furthermore, in “Just Lather, That’s All” the barber also has to make a choice in a small amount of time, to either kill Torres or not. Moreover, he has no orders to kill Torres it was his own decision to kill someone. The protagonists in “Gregory” and “Just Lather, That’s All” both face moral dilemmas throughout the stories. In the short story “Gregory” by Panos Ionannides, the soldier decides to follow his ethics. In the story “Just Lather That’s All” by Hernando Tellez, the barber has chosen to go towards his morals. Both the soldier and the barber portray that they both need to make decisions that are wise.
Mr. Liam O’Flaherty portrayed the theme of the short story, “The Sniper”, by implying that you have to do what you have to do. When in war, Soldiers must remove all emotions so that nothing can hold them back from doing their job. If a soldier is placed in a situation where he must kill to stay alive he needs to be
The important question every officer should ask themselves is if the method used to resolve a problem or the outcome more important to them. This is an ethical dilemma that tests every officer because of their influence on society — both the legal and anarchic. How an officer deals with a predicament says whic...
I have always thought of my character as being fairly ethical. I was raised with good moral values, and I always treated others with the respect and value that I would want to be treated with. I am a firm believer in karma, you get back what you put out! When reading the book Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions by Arthur R. Holmes, it brought up some thoughts that have never occurred to me. Why do I make the decisions I make? What am I basing my decisions on? What impact do my beliefs have on the decisions I make? Holmes covers a wide range of answers to these questions. Our decisions are made with several different factors, including cultural relativism, ethical egoism, moral knowledge and virtue ethics just to name a few. The ethical
On April 24th, 2014, one simple recording released by TMZ made Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, the most hated man in America. In this recording, Sterling ranted over the fact how he did not want V. Stiviano, his partner, to be affiliated with any African Americans. As a result of his racist statements, fans, athletes, and sports organizations/members, voiced their opinions on the matter, flourishing social media. Many star players such as LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and a majority the Clippers players acknowledged that something had to be done, and that the NBA is no place for racism. In the end, after team owners took a vote, NBA commissioner Adam Silver held a press conference enlightening the public
When I was working as a Customer Service Representative in the Bank, one of my responsibilities was to supervise the tellers. I was friends with two of the tellers working there at the time. We used to go out together outside of work and had great time. At some point I started noticing that they are being too friendly with each other and acting inappropriate for a professional environment. I decided to confront them and they confessed to me that they were dating. That is when I realized that I was faced with an ethical dilemma.
The protagonist is faced with similar scenarios as was Kyle, such as the decision of shooting the man on the roof, or letting him go free. Many arguments may be made on what is morally right, but in the end, all that matters is survival itself, and doing what needs to be done. There are no rules in war, therefore all reasoning to what may be moral must be put aside. While this may be the case, human nature will eventually set in, and remorse can flood a soldier’s conscience. This was made apparent when the sniper broke down and cursed the war, providing for a turning point in the story.
Making the moral right decision is never seen on paper. What could be seen as the right thing to do, may not be the right thing for other people. Also, making decisions and then having to face them later on, can impose a difficult problem for many people. Many of us have made a decision that we end up regretting later on. In the healthcare field, decision making could be life and death of a patient
When you accept familiar clientele, you accept not being able to break confidentiality and possibly tarnishing your familial ties. Family and friends expect more of you than your clients who do not know you outside of the room. Friends and family do not expect to have boundaries even if they become your patients, which brings me to my next point: boundaries in forensic psychology.
Workplace ethics engages in judgements and collective agreements regarding a suitable guide of behaviour. The ethical decision making framework (EDM) presents, business decision is ethical or unethical.EDM provides an indication of traditional decision making process and issues that manipulate ethical decisions. Employees tend to fraud because they can experience the unfair treatments or situation that they face. Manages may ask employee to work long hours, and then they can take additional time off. Good performance leads to remunerations and appreciation managers than workers.
At times in a person’s life, they might come across a few situations that leave them with a major decision between two or more options that challenge what they believe or what they might think is wrong or right. These are known as ethical dilemmas. Be it seeing a friend steal something and choosing between being honest and speaking up or letting it go. It can also be getting paid more than you earned and deciding if you’re going to be greedy and keep the money or return it. We run into these situations in our lives, some bigger and more influential on our destiny’s while others are small with no real consequences.
Some of the deficiencies in the way cultural relativism addresses moral problems, according to Holmes; are that they remain impractical, they are subject to change depending on where you live, and that people tolerate the different cultures. As a professional business person, I agree with Holmes analysis. Allowing others perceptions or beliefs to get away with our own personal beliefs would be contradicting ourselves. It is important to stand up for our beliefs, and help educate others on ethical issues. Over time we can make a difference in the world by modeling moral beliefs and ethics.