Empathy In 'Too Much Happiness' By Alice Munro

Being fixated entirely on self interest can easily cloud an individual's ability to empathize. The opposite is also true in that constantly empathizing can allow an individual to neglect themselves and prevent them from bettering themselves. Both of these extremes have the potential to result in prejudicial behaviors. Nonetheless, when self interest and empathy are expressed with the appropriate level of restraint, the result has the capacity to be harmonious and the ability to maximize advantage outcomes.

“Too Much Happiness” by Alice Munro, demonstrates how even a glimpse of empathy can result in the betterment of an individual's interests in addition to the subject of their compassion’s. Weierstrass - a famous mathematician - provided the seemingly inept Sophia with a minute task that he believed was unfeasible for her to solve correctly. Even though Weierstrass’ decision to present Sophia with a miniscule opportunity emanated from a place of trickery and selfishness, he unintentionally displayed the slightest bit of empathy towards her. Weierstrass could have bluntly told her to leave and that he would never entertain the notion of taking her on as a student. In lieu of a direct approach, Weierstrass gave her a chance. The particular reason why he chose to give Sophia a chance isn’t entirely discernable however, after Sophia excelled on the supposed impossible assignment, he realized that she was truly …show more content…
Personally, any acts of empathy can give me gratification and happiness, thus being advantageous to my self-interest. In the excerpt “Too Much Happiness” Weierstrass gains something that he has been seeking because of an empathetic act that was also virtuous to its recipient. Both of these examples demonstrate how a positive result for an individual can be achieved through unselfish acts rather than from a self-serving frame of