On compassion
Humans are a funny species. We don’t really have similar habits and thought patterns like a lot
of animals. If you were to analyze a specific function of human interactions, per say, saying thank you
when you get your morning cup of coffee from a shop, you would find a wide variety of responses. One
person may say their thanks with pure intentions, really meaning it; while another may say a snide or
perfunctory thank you. Needless to say, this same principle applies to emotions. How a single person
expresses their love for someone varies from person to person. As well, the emotion of anger differs
from person to person; you might get a stomp of the foot, or a full blown bull charge from a red faced
angry male. Barbara Ascher uses her essay to address the emotion of compassion, and our intentions in
doing so. She uses prime examples, excellent use of imagery, and perfectly executed allusion to convey
her feelings on what guides compassion, in a well written essay.
In her essay Ascher uses a few examples to show instances where a person conveys compassion
to someone. Her first example was that of a homeless person approaching a lady at a street corner, and
she gives him a dollar. She then follows up with a question, “was it fear or compassion that motivated
the gift?” In doing this, she allows us as readers to put ourselves in the shoes of someone in that
situation, and question what exactly drives us, or in this case, the woman, with our motives. Putting
ourselves in the shoes of a member there allows us to better feel the emotions that go there in. what
would we do in their situation? How would we feel?
Another thing that Ascher used to appeal to pathos is using imagery to add to the examples. Her
skill in highlighting the little things to make the scenes seem darker really adds to how we would
perceive a situation. As well, it adds to a “mystery” type situation. With lines like, “weak rays of
November light” and “a black hand rises and closes around green.” It really makes things sound like it’s a
mystery; we don’t know what drives people to do what they do. Ascher’s appeal to pathos is especially
effective in this essay. The reason for this is because this is an essay about emotion. The emotion of
compassion would require an essay to appeal to feelings because how can you define feelings, but with
other feelings. Ascher uses this to her advantage and it in turn creates beautifully emotional scenes.
A final thing Ascher uses to create this essay is her use of allusion—specifically in the 3rd to last
paragraph. Ascher draws the parallel from Manhattan to Dickensian London. What she is trying to do to
us as readers is open our eyes a little to the world we live in. We care more about what we’re wearing
than the fact that on the street lays hundreds of homeless men and women. In doing this she can draw
the comparison of that to our intentions. When we do things out of “compassion”; are we really
showing compassion, or is it just a cover to hide our own insecurities. On the other hand, she then
brings up the fact that this may be the birth of compassion. How are we to feel compassion, if we have
never felt the opposite? This idea further perpetuates the ever constant question—what are our
intentions?
This essay was really an eye opener for me, I often found myself trying to imagine how I would
feel in the various circumstances, and how it applies to my world. Ascher really wrote a wonderfully
enlightening essay, and her use of various devices really allowed me as a reader to relate. Her allusions
bring perspective; her examples give the perspective space to imagine; her imagery brings light to the
space—all to allow us to put ourselves in a circumstance to feel compassion, or perhaps, to feel
something else altogether. It may be a circumstance to shed light on our true intentions.