In today’s society, it is essential for people to take responsibility for the actions they make. Throughout history, we have ignored this necessary responsibility, and disaster has occurred. Daniel J. Boorstin once said, “As you make your bed, you must lie in it.” People ignore what their conscience says and act sometimes out of spite and sometimes out of ignorance. We must turn ourselves around and become more responsible, caring citizens for the good of the people. Evidence from police brutality and the novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and, My Sister’s Keeper, explain the necessity of taking responsibility for one’s actions in society.
On January 1, 2009, when the festivities of New Years were beginning to come to a close for the night when a man named, Oscar Grant, was shot and killed by an unidentified BART officer in San Francisco. Officers have a responsibility to their town, state, and country to protect the citizens; not to put them in further danger. The officer was apparently trying to break up a fight on the train platform when he killed the 22 year-old man. This officer has taken absolutely no responsibility for his actions and it has led to disaster. He killed a man but claims he did nothing wrong. What has this world come to when people kill someone with a gun and then claim they thought it was their Taser gun? If the officer took responsibilities for his actions, this sort of thing would never have happened.
In the novel, The Mayor of Casterbridger, by Thomas Hardy, the main character, Michael Henchard, shows the importance of taking responsibility for one’s actions. At the opening of the novel, Henchard and his wife and child are at a county fair. Henchard gets extremely drunk and proceeds to sell his family to a sailor for five guineas. As soon as he sleeps off his alcohol, he wakes up and realizes what he had done. He vows not to drink a drop of alcohol for the twenty-one eight years; the same number of years that he has been alive. He then promises himself that he will find his family again and make amends with them. Although Michael Henchard is a fictional character, he provides a good example for readers. People must accept the actions they have taken, receive its consequences, and move forward with a better understanding.
In the novel, My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult, the main character, Anna learns a lot about herself and her family through the actions she takes. She was conceived for the sole purpose of keeping her older sister alive. She was genetically matched, the ideal donor for her sister, Kate. The main character however, took it upon herself to sue her parents for the rights to her own body. She felt taken advantage of in the sense that she was at every beck and calling of her sister and family; she tired and done with it. Anna is not ignorant; she knew exactly what she was getting herself into. She thought it all out thoroughly and new this was what she really wanted. She accepted the consequences with open arms.
Society has many good literary examples to push us along and provide good examples for us. There are times when the road may be tough, but we have to push through it and do the right thing. It is up to us to take responsibility into our own hands and make the world a better place.
