Analysis Of The Help By Hilly

1. The Greeks understood ethos as a means to take care or better oneself and in turn better the people around them. The definition of ethos presented is “a way of behaving and living life that is inseparable from the kind of person you’ve become in the process of maturing and living one’s life.” My interpretation of this definition is that you adopt a kind of ethics, or moral ruleset, in order to see yourself mature into the kind of person you want to be. By applying these rules you will eventually see yourself mature and therefore the Greek idea of taking care of one’s self is the need to see yourself mature and become a better person be it spiritually, physically, emotionally, etc. By following these set of rules you are also maturing …show more content…
An example of ethical tragedy that I have witnessed before was in the book ‘The Help.’ There is one scene within the book/movie where one of the maids, Yule May, asks Hilly for a loan of $75 so that she can send both of her boys to college and without the $75 she would have to choose between which of her sons would go to college. However, Hilly refuses to give her the money and so in that moment in time Yule May is faced with an ethical tragedy of which of her boys will she send to college because she can’t come up with the …show more content…
I believe that the idea of people being naturally good or naturally evil is false. The reason that I believe this is because I think that the idea of what is good and what is false is relative to the society that you are exposed to. Different societies function off of different viewpoints, opinions, and ethical rulesets and therefore have different notions of what is evil and what is good. One example that supports this claim is from the lecture notes which basically described how long ago the practice of human sacrifice was considered acceptable, whereas in our society, we see this practice as barbaric and I believe that this change in opinion is due to the evolution of society. Over time society has clearly evolved and with the evolution viewpoints have changed. What was considered good in the past may now seem evil or vice versa and even what can be considered good in the present may be deemed evil in the future. Now to say that someone is naturally good or evil means that across the board, in all societies past, present, and future, these people have always and will always be seen as good or evil. However, this can never and will never be the case because the idea of good and evil will change over time with the changing of ideas and viewpoints as society evolves. Based on this, I reject the idea that people are naturally good or naturally