Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease

From NYCWD, we have an exercise in morality:

There lived a woman named Abigail who was in love with a man named Gregory. Gregory lived on the shore of a river. Abigail lived on the opposite shore of the same river. The river that separated the two lovers was teeming with dangerous alligators. Abigail wanted to cross the river to be with Gregory. Unfortunately, the bridge had been washed out by a heavy flood the previous week.

So she went to ask Sinbad, a riverboat captain, to take her across. He said he would be glad to if she would consent to go to bed with him prior to the voyage. She promptly refused and went to a friend named Ivan to explain her plight. Ivan listened intently to Abigail, but he did not want to get involved at all in the situation. Abigail felt her only alternative was to accept Sinbad‘s terms. She went to Sinbad and spent the night with him. Sinbad fulfilled his promise to Abigail and delivered her into the arms of Gregory in the morning.

When Abigail told Gregory about her amorous escapade in order to cross the river, Gregory became upset. He cried aloud, his sorrow mixing with anger and in his emotional throes slapped Abigail across the mouth once before leaving her swearing never to look at her again for her infidelity. Heartsick and rejected, Abigail turned to Slug with her tale of woe and of what Gregory had done. Slug, feeling compassion for Abigail, sought out Gregory and beat him brutally with a baseball bat. Abigail was overjoyed at the sight of Gregory getting his due. As the sun set on the horizon,people heard Abigail laughing at Gregory as she and Slug walked hand in hand over the hill to live in the forest.

A) Rank the five characters (Abigail, Gregory, Sinbad, Ivan, and Slug) from the most offensive character to the least objectionable. The character whom you find most reprehensible is first on the list; then the second most reprehensible, and so on, with the fifth being the least objectionable.

B) What made you choose the character that you listed as most reprehensible (the first one) and least objectionable (the fifth one)?

~~~~~

I chose to do this in my own blog, so that some of the people who read this one but don’t read NYCWD’s blog would be able to see it and possibly participate if they wished.

Now, my answers.

My list in order is blurred, because every one of these characters did something that was seriously fucked up in terms of morality. But I will list why I would condemn them next to their names, and try to rank them in order.

First, we have Sinbad. Oh, Sinbad, you sly fox, you. Extorting sex from a young woman in her time of need. For shame. At least you followed through on your promise, but there wasn’t some other way you could think of to be repaid for the treacherous task? For being a prick without provocation, I think you’re first on the list.

Ivan’s situation isn’t fully known. Did he have the means to get her across the river safely? Did he not want to get involved out of fear of retribution from Sinbad? Was he simply selfish, as he didn’t have enough gall to request the same payment as Sinbad, and thought that it wouldn’t be worth the effort to ask? I’m assuming that he just didn’t want any trouble from anyone. Thus, because he was asked a favor (and I’m assuming he had the means to help, or why else would Abigail have asked him?) and refused, effectively pushing a young woman toward an immoral action out of desperation, he’s #2-ish…but because Abigail’s actions are truly her own, he could be #5. It really depends on his motivation, which we don’t know.

Abigail is #3-ish. She slept with Sinbad because she felt she had no choice in the matter. I understand that, even though I have a feeling there was SOME other solution she hadn’t thought of, and she followed through out of desperation to see Gregory. So I don’t condemn her for that. I do, however, seriously disagree with her enjoying the beating that Gregory got after he rejected her, and then running off with her “savior”. Um, having someone kick the shit out of someone else who had an emotional reaction to something you did that was immoral isn’t exactly the best solution. That’s called “lack of perspective”. Delighting in someone else’s pain, whatever the reason, isn’t a great viewpoint to have. Abigail is what we call “prime target for therapy”. She’s also what we’d call “a slut”. She could be #1, as well, depending on how you look at it.

Slug is next. He was sought out for comfort (I think Abigail, frankly, needs to be a little more self-sufficient), and chose to take matters into his own hands. Whether Abigail asked him to kick Gregory’s ass or not is unclear, but regardless of the provocation, he did it. He might have gotten a skewed account of things from an overly-emotional Abigail, which is why he’s lower on the list, even though he beat the shit out of someone he didn’t have any previous problems with, at least in this story.

Last, we have Gregory. His rank is a little blurred, but he had what I feel is kind of a fair reaction to the situation…Abigail slept with someone for passage across the river, and Gregory was appalled that her love for him wasn’t strong enough to keep her chaste. I have to wonder why he didn’t try harder to cross the river, but we can probably assume that he’s a bit of an idiot. Smacking Abigail was a little bit of an overreaction, perhaps, but it wasn’t a crime worthy of the punishment he received later. For the biggest retribution for the smallest transgression, Gregory’s at the bottom.

~~~

What do you think? You can either answer in the comments, or leave a link to your own blog with this exercise. I’m actually very interested to see what others think.