Marooned on the Island: An Ethical Dilemma

Persuasive Essay: An Ethical Dilemma

The story "Marooned" has five diverse characters that face an ethical dilemma in the situation they were brought in. After a storm the characters were split into two islands pretty far from each other, where a husband and wife happened to be on different islands, the guy savvy with the boat was relaxed on the second island with the wife together with a third guy concentrating on fixing the radio. The wife was desperate to get back to her husband and the boat guy did not want to help her unless she would have spent a night with him. The guy with the radio was purely concentrating on fixing it and declined to help the woman. So she agreed with the boat guy and eventually they made it to the second island. Her husband found out the price she paid to get to him and refused to be with his wife. Being upset about this fact she jumped off a cliff to kill herself. The fifth character that was hiding before was secretly in love with the lady and jumped after her and saved her.

All the characters' actions are not easy to judge and figure best and worst because the situation is complex and has to be observed from various prospective. I will rank the characters in this order: the savior, radio guy, the wife, the boat guy and the husband based on priorities that people would face in the current situation.

I find the fifth character, the savior, being the best one because he saved a dying woman. Even though it was unclear why he was hiding his actions are the most admirable. He was in love with her but he respected her marriage and never got involved until the extreme situation had happened. His altruism makes the best character out of the five. No matter what were the reasons for him to hide before, this person's response was the most laudable.

Second would be the radio guy who purely concentrated on saving everybody. He did not want to get involved in getting to the woman's husband because he was trying to achieve one goal - fix the radio and eventually save everybody. Logical decision is the only appropriate way to survive in the given situation. The woman would be the third one; she was driven by emotions and didn't act in best interest for everyone. All she was thinking of was her beloved husband and she did everything to get back to him. The boat guy would be number four. Self-interest and selfishness was driven him when he asked the wife "What is it for me?" He was neither a team player nor a compassionate fellow when he was asked for help.

There is no doubt that the husband would take the last place as the worst character. First of all, his wife did everything she could in order to get back to him, went through hell when boating to the second island and he fell absolutely no appreciation. Instead, his pride took over and he just turned his back. I believe that cheating wife has no excuse unless she gets in the