Empathy in Humanity

People usually go out of their way to understand the situation of another somebody else, in a manner to understand and feel for them. This is also known as empathy, a motif seen in "On Compassion" by Barbara Lazear Ascher. In this short story, Ascher brings up and important question in society: Why help others? 

She illustrates multiple examples through the protagonist, a black homeless man, that presents this question through the perspective of that unfortunate position. One example is when the speaker notices that a bread shop owner is constantly giving another man, who is dressed in rags and smells like urine, bread and coffee each time he comes through the door. The narrator questions this kindness and tries to understand the shop keeper's reasoning; is it "Pity? Care? Compassion? Or does she simply want to rid her shop of his troublesome presence?" After further research, I came to the conclusion that when most people give, they expect to receive in the future; this does not necessarily mean that they expect the person they helped to repay them, but usually a person does expect "good karma," or they simply enjoy that feeling of aiding those in need which is considered being repaid in gratitude.

People help those in need because they usually think that if they were ever to need help, they would like others to help them as well, such as the video suggests. 

The other story read in class was "Human Cost" by Jonathan Kozol. This story had a different tone, but still maintained the empathy motif seen in "On Compassion." Throughout this excerpt, illiteracy is the main issue discussed. There are many poverty-stricken families that don't have literate adults to execute important necessities such as paying bills and reading contracts for credit cards or rent. Both authors preach to the reader that there are faults in humanity, and poverty is a main issue seen in both pieces. Those people unfortunately can't usually process human kindness as seen in "On Compassion" when the protagonist didn't know how to accept the dollar donation, or they can't receive that kindness when it is needed such as when the man in "Human Cost" was lost on that one way street and couldn't receive help from an officer over the phone. Both Kozol and Ascher use examples that tug at the audience's heartstrings as to get their individual points across about illiteracy and human kindness, respectively. 

Empathy for humanity isn't only a motif in works of literature, but seen all around. Homelessness is becoming more and more rampant due to the economic collapse, and families are being thrown into the streets. Empathy is required to help our fellow man, and survive. This is the main lesson that both Kozol and Ascher taught me through their works of literature.