Barbara Lazear Ascher's 'On Compassion'

The short story" On Compassion" by Barbara Lazear appeared after her book " Playing After Dark (1986)". This short story argues that people are not born with compassion. Throughout the book Lazear gave examples to determine if the situation was out of compassion or fear. The author also, gives information about the Greeks and she states how it can be a possibilities the Greeks had compassion within a society to teach people to have sympathy for people suffering. Although, other's may voice their opinion to being born with compassion, I initiate to include evidence from the text to prove that compassion needs to be taught to people and there is no possible way that they are born with compassion.

This short story wrote by Barbara Lazear Ascher a woman who describes with explicit details her thoughts and feelings of the participants in the streets of New York. The author uses rhetoric elements such as Pathos, Logos and Ethos to convince her audience that compassion is not a characteristic trait, it is developed within ourselves.

Barbara Lazear Ascher, in “On Compassion” Gave two scenarios in which a woman gave a homeless man money when he had stared down the lady and her baby, questioning whether the offering was out of fear or compassion. Ascher then gives another scenario where a homeless man walks into a bread shop silently inside the shop. Moments later a french woman walks out of the kitchen with a hot cup a coffee and food to give to him. Ascher then questioned if the french woman gave the man food out of her heart or she just wanted him out. Out of fear of disturbing her customers and losing sales. Both scenarios given can be questioned if the act of these women were compassion or simply fear. Compassion is more than just and action, it is a collection of human instincts keeping people human.

They say that I have no impact. That my words have no weight in a planet of over seven billion people shouting to have their voices heard. In a world plagued with famine, war, and global warming, it is normal to feel as though we do not have any influence in the crises of our planet. However, I believe that change begins with just one person. Receiving the Calvin Coolidge scholarship would allow me the opportunity to transform my dreams into existence.

In the essay, “On Compassion”, writer Barbara Lazear Ascher used resources style and rhetoric to convey her attitude such as the use of questions, ethos, pathos and logos, figurative language, imagery, and tone. This way, Ascher’s writing was well organized and well put together meanwhile giving the readers a chance to analyze and comprehend the text and understand Ascher’s views. Ascher begins her essay in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York; a place known to be where the wealth lives and idea of compassion falls. Yet as a typical New Yorker (Barbara Ascher), random acts of compassion can be seen but are not enough given awareness. This is where Ascher’s thesis falls in. Ascher believed that compassion is something humans are not born

In Bell Hooks’ essay, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks addresses and clarifies the misinterpretations that people have of the assumptions made of the poor, how poor individuals are viewed in human culture and how the poor are represented on television. She helps the audience understand how these assumptions are wrong.

In her essay, “On Compassion”, Barbara Lazear Ascher analyzes the idea of compassion and the -------- of the homeless by the those more fortunate. She presents two instances in which homeless people are gifted with money or food items and ponders the motivation behind these acts. ----------------------. Targeting a broad audience, specifically people belonging to a higher socioeconomic standing, Ascher emphasizes the need for awareness of the adversity of the homeless, establishes that one must learn “compassion” for the homeless and less fortunate, and poses the question of whether the motivation for the “compassion” is relevant.

In Barbara Lazear Ascher’s essay titled “On Compassion” Ascher considers the concept of compassion by utilizing her own encounters with the homeless as a vehicle to make her argument. In her argument, she interprets compassion as an abstract concept, and portrays empathy as a building block to compassion; making the argument that to be a more tolerant society one must first learn empathy in order to demonstrate true compassion. When analyzing Ascher’s rhetoric, her style, diction and rhetorical devices reveal a skeptical tone and serve a greater purpose in appealing to the reader’s sense of ethos and pathos. Namely, Ascher’s use of first-person narrative and word choice like “we” appeals to the reader’s sense of ethos, which eventually builds

Singer’s argument exhorts us to give based on the controversial principle of comparable moral significance, to donate any income beyond that which is marginally necessary. Singer justifies this based on the knowledge that the suffering of a poor person should be no less significant to that of an affluent one (Singer, 1972). Thus,

In Singer’s “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” he argues the importance of donation to poor people, which could mean the difference between life and death for children in need. He gives an example for Bob, who has an opportunity to save a child’s life, but he could lose his worthy car. He makes a comparison between people who are capable to donate money to save children lives and people who have no chance to help or donate under certain situation such as Bob. He also encourages people who are in the middle class to donate at a minimum of 200$; furthermore, he thinks that people should donate more like 200.000$ when they consider the level of sacrifice that they would demand of Bob’s situation. He gives some estimates for the amount of donations that people should give to overseas. In his conclusion, he suggests that people should donate money to children if they want to live morally. As a human being, we should consider ourselves in the same situation with children.

I agree with Schopenhauer that compassion is the true and only basis of moral action because compassion is what shows what kind of people we really are and what our basis of moral actions are. In the text, “When an action is characterized by an extraordinary absence of compassion, it bears the certain stamp of the deepest depravity and loathsomeness” (Schopenhauer, 106). Our actions show our character. Compassion is what defines us and it shows others what we our morals are. It is the best way to show people what we love.

Compassion is ‘a desire to alleviate another person’s suffering’ as redefined by Lopez (2011) which is believed that people can train themselves to become more competent in (Lutz, Brefczynski-Lewis, Johnstone & Davidson, 2008). Dalai Lama (1995) originally suggested that compassion is achieved by deep commitment to relieve the suffering of another person (as cited in Gilbert, 2010a). Compassion focuses

Around the world, there are thousands of starving children that seem to go unnoticed daily. Shoppers are constantly in the supermarket filling their carts with hundreds of dollars’ worth of groceries for their family’s without thinking of those in need. In 2008, a remarkable shopping cart ad was released which depicts a distraught young African American child reaching up to the shopper begging for help to save him from starvation. Feed SA, a charitable organization which helps the poverty-stricken across the county has designed a striking ad to bring attention to just how easy donating can be. The effectiveness of this ad is due to the powerful rhetorical appeals to pathos in which it implements. The main to feelings that come from this ad are sadness and guilt. The ad is in the bottom part of the

To have compassion is to have the ability to look beyond yourself and be keenly aware of the world around you. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the protagonists undoubtedly display compassion for others through the many life-altering experiences, ultimately developing the minds of the characters and the way they act, feel and comprehend situations. It is conspicuous that Arthur Radley typifies compassion when he takes care of both Jem and Scout in specific situations in the novel, which increasingly uncovers the main message; Miss Maudie continuously shows compassion toward people looked down upon by other individuals and the society. Moreover, Atticus demonstrates compassion throughout the novel

In the beginning of this story, a man who was crossing Manhattans Seventh-ninth street, walking towards a shelter, a woman scrounges money from her purse to give to the homeless man. The man doesn’t know the acceptance of money from the woman, although he was thankful. Ascher made a statement, “Was it fear or compassion that motivated the gift?” With this in mind, she encountered another incident on Ninety-first street, seeing a homeless man standing inside the French Bread shop, a French woman who isn’t in the brightest mood asks what food he wants and gives him the food. For this reason, Ascher wonders what compels these woman to feed a homeless man. Is it out of compassion or fear? “Pity? Care? Compassion? Or does she want to rid her shop of troublesome presence, If explusion were her motivation she would not reward his arrival with gifts of food.” Evidently, having compassion and empathy isn’t easy, but there are people who learned to have that from theri daily lives and compassion grows within their heart over time. Ascher believes that no one is born to have compassion and empathy for people, for example, homelessness. Although it can be learned. Ascher state’s an example that ancient Greeks drama brought back compassion in a society by giving inspiration to the audience that