Who Is Cal's Moral Obligation In Bring The Streetcars Back

In the work, Until they Bring the Streetcars Back, by Stanley Gordon West, the protagonist, Calvin Gant, has to choose whether or not to help a young girl in need. He struggles with the moral obligations he has to help her, while his father tells hims to worry only about himself. Cal decides that he must help Gretchen, and in doing so, decides to help many other people as well. In the story, Cal learns that helping people is the true way that you show love, and that love is more than something you feel, that it’s something you do (West 269).

Cal’s father decided that helping someone that doesn’t ask for help can end up causing trouble, first shown when he tells his family to ignore the McClusky’s dog’s whines, as it is none of their business and McClusky may be able to get him fired (15). This is because Cal’s father, as any father would, wanted to raise his kids to stay out of trouble and in his father’s mind, the way that his kids should stay out of trouble, is to not get involved with anything that isn’t part of their business. Cal was probably told this throughout his life, and yet he still decides to help the rabbit, no matter the consequences. Cal’s moral obligation to the rabbit surpassed

his father’s teachings of staying out of trouble.
Though Cal saved the rabbit, he is still a long way from saving a human.

At first, he helps her by buying her things, such as shoes and Nut Goodies. In order to help her in the long run, Cal doesn’t know if he should take the situation with Gretchen into his own hands, or if he should let someone else deal with it, like his father would have likely suggested. On Christmas Eve, Cal’s father tells his family that they won’t be hearing McCluskey’s dog whining anymore, as he called the Humane Society on McCluskey (117). Shortly after Cal witnessed his father do something to help the dog, Cal began to talk to police about Gretchen’s situation, finally trying to do something for her (128). Cal also begins a second plan of stealing liquor in hopes of framing Mr. Lutterman

(125).
In his plan to help Gretchen, Cal steals liquor, goes to jail, and frames Mr. Lutterman to save her. He has done many things to help her, and when he gets out of jail, he begins to help many other people as well. He believes that he has to prove to his father that he raised him right. He starts to help his family by getting a full time job and helping out around the apartment. He learns that the man that he and his friends would get to chase them had a stroke, and begins to help out his wife (Mrs. Conley) with her chores. When the trials come around, Gretchen asks Cal to do one more thing for her; testify in court that what she is saying is true. Cal agrees to this, even though his mother advises him not to, telling him, “Calvin, your father told you a thousand times to leave well enough alone, and if he was here-” (251). Cal reminds her that his father helped McCluskey’s dog, and that Gretchen was more than a dog (251). He decides to help Gretchen, and do something for her again.
Cal has done a considerable amount for Gretchen, from stealing liquor, to buying her things, and testifying in a courtroom for her. After Cal has done all of this for Gretchen, he learns to show his love by doing things for people, such as helping pay his family’s rent and helping the Conley’s with their household chores. Cal learns that if love isn’t a “warm feeling, something that just happens to you, but a decision you make, something you do.” then by all of the things that he has done for Gretchen, he must love Gretchen (269).