Five Ripe Pears and On Morality
Morality is, in essence, subjugated by he who defines it. This being the case, morality (defined as right or wrong, good or evil) is malleable as long as it does not impede upon any "ipso facto virtue"(Didion). In the essay "On Morality", by Joan Didion, this aspect 'on morality' is composed. This will be utilized to verify that William Saroyan's (author of "Five Ripe Pears) guilt of an immoral action is conflicting given specified conditions. To begin, "On Morality" is an essay of a woman who travels to Death Valley on an assignment arranged by The American Scholar. "I have been trying to think, because The American Scholar asked me to, in some abstract way about 'morality,' a word I distrust more every day...." Her task is to generate a piece of work on morality, with which she succeeds notably. She is placed in an area where morality and stories run rampant. Several reports are about; each carried by a beer toting chitchat. More importantly, the region that she is in gains her mind; it allows her to see issues of moralit
Case one: First and foremost, the owner of the pear tree seems like an immediate victim of the taking of the fruit, although nothing is said about him/her in the essay. Being a full-grown pear tree, "I couldn't reach the pears, so I started leaping" (aspect of a large tree: having to leap to reach its branches) it seems clear that there are several other pears on the tree. As a result, the owner most likely would not be at loss for 5 measly pears. Verdict: Not guilty. Consequently, Saroyan's action of taking pears could be viewed as moral or immoral given certain circumstances. At the age of six, Saroyan was categorized as a thief for taking five pears from a tree. His argument, although a spiked fence protected the pear tree, is "some branches grew beyond the fence." This, to Saroyan, makes whatever is on the exposed branches public property. With Didion's argument of morality, Saroyan is only guilty of immorality if his action hurt another individual/individuals. Thus, two seemingly obvious circumstances will be examined be
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 701
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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