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Selflessness and selfishness
Thoughts on human selfishness
Thoughts on human selfishness
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Recommended: Selflessness and selfishness
Do you think that some people are selfish enough to take everything? In the book it seems that some people in the world are selfish and others are very giving or selfless. In the Giving Tree the boy keeps coming back for more and more, and the tree would give and give. Last, when the boy got supplies he wouldn't stay to make the tree happy. In The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein uses selfishness and givingness to explain the tree’s relationship with the boy.
So many people can be so selfish. In The Giving Tree, the boy keeps coming back for more and more. He takes whatever he can to make himself happy not others. He takes everything from the tree not worrying that he is hurting the tree. The boy asked the tree for money and the tree gave him apples to sell on the highway. The boy took the apples leaving the tree and not returning for a while until he needed the tree’s branches to make a house for himself. Some people are selfish isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact. You can easily tell that the boy is the most selfish person i have seen. He was looked after by the tree and now he is taking from the tree. Some people are so selfish, like the boy, but some people are so giving enough to help the people.
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Some people are so selfless that they will give everything.
In the giving tree, the tree is so selfless that every time the boy comes back he will give him something just to make him happy. When the boy said he needed money the tree gave him all his apples to sell. After the boy came back years later and he needed a house, the tree gave him his branches to make the boy happy. The boy came back years later and he didn't even acknowledge the tree and he asked the tree for a boat so he could get away from life. Some people are very generous, so generous that they would give everything just to make everybody happy. So basically the people that are so selfish get there selfishness from the people that are so
giving. This book does show how givingness and selfishness are connected to one another by friendship and bonds. So basically most people that are selfish have to be selfish by taking things. How they take stuff is through the people that are so giving. So many people in the world are selfish, and so many are giving. The people that give end up losing everything because they can’t say no. I don’t think that is fair, after all they are giving not taking.
In many ways survival requires selfishness in some situations. Throughout the book, “Night” by Ellie Weisel there was some selfishness in different jewish families when it came to survival. I can’t say the same for the, “1972 Andes Flight Disaster” because the survivors weren’t being selfish with the decisions they made. This goes for, “Is Survival Selfish” article by Lane Walker because in the different situations mentioned in the article there was no selfishness involved. It’s about your overall opinion on the situation, here's my opinion.
Even forms of human beings preforming selfless acts derives from ones desire to help others, which in a way makes that person feel importance. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Teresa, devoted her life to helping those in great need. To many these acts may appear as selfless and gallant acts that are not performed by anyone with any type of ego. Yet when taking a psychological look at why she performed such acts they may appear a somewhat more for herself. Every time anyone does anything, even when for someone else, they are doing it for some type of feeling that they experience. With the holiday season approaching, there will be a specific emphasis on giving unlike any other time of the year. We give yes to show gratitude for someone we love, but also to experience the joy in seeing someone enjoy something they them self-caused. Even while being selfless humans have the unique ability to still be doing something that involves caring for them self. This outlook toward the human condition completely debunks Wolf’s claim that “when caring about yourself you are living as if you are the center of the universe.” When choosing to do anything positive or negative, for others or for yourself, you are still taking your self-interest into consideration, making it
Robin Sharma, a famous writer, once said, “Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.” Many people believe that change is a very big decision. It takes time and can get a little messy on the way. The truth, however, is a small decision, Like donating money for the poor in need. Unfortunately, in the play, A Christmas Carol, the main character, Scrooge, is a selfish miser. Fortunately, by the end of the play, Scrooge realizes that he was selfish and no good and changed his ways. For example, he donated to the poor.
The Giving Tree was first published in 1964 by Harper & Row and was written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. Silverstein was a controversial children’s book author due to his long connotation with Playboy and his lack of patience around families. Despite this, Silverstein sold more than ten million copies of The Giving Tree. It remains a classic picture book. It has a prominent green cover but the words and pictures are black and white and displayed in a minimalistic way. There are many interpretations of what the actual relationship of the boy and tree is based on. A mother and son’s bond is one that always circulates through discussions, but a religious view is an interesting way to interpret this book. God is portrayed as the tree giving the young child who grows into adulthood, his unconditional love with little to no return. There are also many biblical allusions from the
“Bah Humbug!” (Dickens 3) To some people, money is their only thought in life, or in other words, they’re greedy. He or she would need a life lesson to allow their mind to set straight on what’s right and what’s wrong. In A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, you see a man named Ebenezer Scrooge, who lives out as the person getting a lesson by play and movie. Sounding different, yet the same story, these two do have some minor differences, as well as major similarities in the climax, conflict, and resolution.
Selfishness is a disease of the soul that every person experiences several times throughout their life. To say that it has never been experienced would be hypocrisy. To say that it is a “good thing”, would be erroneous. Although as humans we like to lie to ourselves, it is no question that selfishness can make any person act like a fool. It consumes us and makes us into someone we are not. Whether it leads to getting people killed, falling in love, or buying alcohol, selfishness always leads to destruction.
Being selfish can get you somewhere in the moment, but in the end, it will hunt you down. People have always been selfish, and that will continue throughout the ages, but Frankenstein shows just how much being selfish can affect your life as a whole. Let us all remember we can work each and everyday to better ourselves and fix what we can in our lives. If each of us changed one selfish thought a day, think about how far we would be in a
All our childhood years, our parents have taught us the importance of being selfless. Maybe that is by sharing with your siblings growing up, or just taking care of your elder grandma when she’s feeling under the weather. This important life, quality has been embroidered into our skins from such a young age; that our hearts are willing to help others in need. I know that not everyone is as willing to be selfless as others, but that is just a part of life. You aren’t always going to pick the sweetest apple from the tree, or in other words, some people are just not as altruistic as others. Furthermore, I think an important theme shown among British literature is the importance of being selfless and how it can impact your life. Throughout the stories in Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales, the aspect of being selfless is shown greatly among its characters and how their decision to be that way impacts their lives.
The idea that a person can be purely good and altruistic does not exist due to society’s acceptance and embrace of the selfishness and greed of human beings. People these days are some of the most selfish beings to ever exist but they are not ashamed of their actions because of how the world around them welcomes their self-centered nature with open arms. Selfishness comes is many ways, shapes, and forms. Many businesses need to utilize the greed of mankind in order to make money and prosper; “Greed-for lack of a better word-is good. Greed is right. Greed works” (Wall Street). Even politicians use their greed to run campaigns for themselves in order to win the hearts of Americans. As well as fulfill their ultimate selfish goal to be the man
On the other hand the old man also seems to be acting with great unselflessness by getting out his daughter’s family's way by moving into the old folks home. He is moving even though they can accommodate as to not provide and further problems for his daughter and her family. He wants his daughter to do better because she has so much of her life to live and that shows he's selfless. In the following quote the old man saves the cookies his daughter has made by eating fig newtons,”...’No, no’, and ate the fig newtons”(Tyler 218). This quote shows first his selflessness and that he wanted to save those cookies for someone
By definition, altruism is "the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others". Through vigorous analysis, however, I have established it to be a complex ideology whose followers can be divided into three categories: slaves, abusers, and advocates. The slave abides by the ideals of 'pure' altruism. In other words, he does not act according to personal need or desire; humanity is all that matters. This is altruism in its purest form and is the branch of altruism which envelopes Catherine and allows her to feel a sense of purpose. Yet, much more common is the abuser of altruism. He is the altruist who ascertains and seizes any opportunity for personal gain by abusing the ostensibly philanthropic ideology. As ironic as this seems, it is common practice for one to proffer with the intention of receiving something in return. Peter Keating demonstrates how such an abuser manipulates altruism into a golden ladder by which he may reach success. Reigning over even the most conniving abuser is the omnipot...
Selfishness is a term fairly notorious for its meaning. A lot of people accept that being selfish is wrong, but no one knows how this came about and why it matters. Who has the right to decide whether someone gets to be selfish or not? In his article “The unselfishness Trap”, Harry Browne says that the best way for people to be happy is when if everyone sacrifices but me. Thomas Nagel, on the other hand, argues in his article “The Objective Basis of Morality” that being concerned about others is more important. Being selfish, for many people, is evil. By definition, selfishness is to be more concerned about yourself than others, but that would essentially make every living human being a “selfish” being.
We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others” (97). In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, no one has seen a rainbow after a storm, no one knew what colors were; what choosing was; what it meant to be an individual. Everyone lived in complete Sameness, and never learned what it meant to be an individual. By eliminating as much self expression as possible in Sameness and society, Jonas's community has rejected the individuality of a society where people are free to move society forward. In The Giver individuality is represented by colors, memories, and pale eyes.
Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” written in the 1960’s, is a short illustrated story that is cherished dearly by children and admired by adults (Kimmel 1). The Giving Tree is about the relationship between a loving apple tree and a playful little boy, which represents the relationship between a parent and child; however, the reader is able to decipher a much deeper meaning by looking at the story closely. Moreover, Silverstein uses the characters in “The Giving Tree” to demonstrate the parents’ unconditional love for their children; the lively apple tree portrays how giving a person too much support can hinder them from attaining full independence, and also shows how unconditional love can be damaging both psychologically and physical.
As presented by Aristotle, generosity is the intermediate of wastefulness and ungenerosity, wastefulness being the excess and ungenerosity being the deficiency. Ungenerosity is a greater evil than wastefulness and error in this direction is more common. It is always better to be wasteful than ungenerous but one should strive to reach the intermediate.