Paraphrase
abdull_otb
mohammed_promised_land.docxMohammed
PH 200
April 21, 2016
Paper #4: To The Promised Land
Death is a significant event that is inevitable. Everyone will experience death at some point in time. Each person deals with death differently and has different ways of dealing and coping with it. Miriam and Moses both experienced the slow death of a loved one, their mother and wife. She had cancer and died. This was an event that had a significant impact on Moses’ life. Being a part of a close one’s death can have a major impact on one’s life. Boylan argues in his novel that death has significant impact on a person’s life. This essay defends this premise that death has a significant impact in a person’s life and uses personal worldview imperative to describe what Moses goes through.
Important Facts
Taking a look at Miriam and Moses their lives were heavily impacted by the illness and death of their mother and wife. Miriam lost her mother at a young age. As Miriam describes the experience she lost a big part of her life. Now, she has to grow up without a mother. Of course she still has a father but each parent has different roles in a child’s life. There are things that only a mother will understand with her daughter because they are female matters. But Moses changes things in his life to adjust to his new life. He used to be the best corporate lawyer but once his wife passes away he changes his job. Now Miriam and Moses have a daily schedule and Moses is able to spend more time with his daughter. He is the only parent so he needs to be around more.
Key Moral Issues
Death is something that is inevitable and all people have to face it at some point in time. Moses makes a big change in his life because he switches from corporate law to taking care of his daughter. After a year he goes back to work. The idea is that he is taking care of his daughter but at the same time he is a grieving man who lost his wife. As Miriam says he has stopped crying and then goes back to the Corporate Firm. Yet, the Corporate Firm put him in a bad mood. In that one year she does mention that he is in a bad mood. Perhaps he is in shock and now that he is back to a normal routine he is not dealing with the death. But death is inevitable and all humans have to deal with it at some point in time. It is how one deals with death that will make a difference.
As Moses deals with the death of his wife and searches for how to deal with his new life it is the search for his personal consciousness that helps him determine what is best for him. The personal imperative worldview is in regards to the external or internal search for the Good, the Truth or the Beautiful. Personal imperative worldview is what sets one person apart from another person. Moses is different than Miriam and Peter is different than Moses. each individual has different factors that will make the person go after what they want to do in the world. Typically, a person is reluctant to change their worldviews. If anything when the worldview a person has is in question than he or she will stand strongly and defend the worldview that they have.
According to Socrates an unexamined world is not worth living. Therefore, the sincerest individual will take on the responsibilities that they are dealt with and figure out how to deal with them. In order to be a good person one must be sincere. Moses is sincere in his actions when he stays home to make a better life for his daughter.
Moses continues to support his daughter throughout the book. Only one time does Miriam say that she was surprised by a comment from her father, when she graduates from Pembroke he says to her that she has gained weight. Miriam is taken back by the comment because thus far Moses has been very supportive in everything that has happened. During her first semester at Pembroke she is upset that she does not have high grades but he continues to encourage her. Personal imperative worldview helps guide Moses to be a good father and try to be supportive. A girl who loses her mother from a horrible illness needs a supportive parent which is what Moses offers.
Personal worldview is divided into goodness, coherence, completeness and practical execution. Goodness is the idea that the world is good. But is it really good. There is so much bad that takes place in the world but at the same time there is good. Moses and Miriam lose a loved one, there is no good in that. But Miriam graduates from Pembroke, gets a high score on her MCAT and is going to medical school. Her goal in school is to find a treatment for cancer. Therefore, perhaps a personal loss may not show initial good but considering the greater is there is good to come. Sometimes there has to be an initial bad to have a greater good. The second part of personal worldview is coherence. Coherence is deductive and inductive coherence. Deductive coherence says we should not hold contradictory positons. There are parts of Moses life that can be considered contradictory yet as he gets older and realizes the good that he needs to do to be a guidance for his daughter he does not have a contradictory position. Miriam describes after her mother dies how her father deals with the situation. Her father randomly cries at dinner or he has to go visit the psychiatrist. It is not easy. If anything one would think that after a situation Moses would turn into a dark man and not do anything good anymore. Rather it is the contrary. The situation slowly makes Moses into a better person who does better things for the world because it is the coherent thing to do.
Completeness part of personal worldview initiative is that there are many possible outcomes for a situation. It is possible that Moses would not help his daughter after the death of his wife. Moses could have continued being a corporate lawyer and not thought that it was important to spend time with his family. Each person deals with death in a different way. Some people come closer together while others turn to a dark side and internalize everything. All people want a complete and ideal life but that is not the reality of life. Life is not always complete there are somethings we have and something’s we do not have. There is no doubt that Miriam and Moses did not want to deal with the battle of cancer but they learned how to make a complete life after the death. They did the best that they could which is what matters. One must be good, sincere and do the best with the situation that they have at hand.
Although each part of personal worldview initiative is important nothing matters until there is execution of the thoughts. Just because one may think it is a good idea to be good or do good it does matter until the person actually partakes in good. It is not enough to just talk about it, but actions speak louder than words. Practical execution is to lead by example and show how the good happens by acting in a sincere manner.
