Sunday, December 06, 2009

Huck on Altruism

Huckleberry Finn reflects on his religious training:
...she told me what she meant--I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself.... I went out in the woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn't see no advantage about it--except for the other people; so at last I reckoned I wouldn't worry about it any more, but just let it go.
Out in the woods
he ponders her shoulds
but they don't seem so good
to him.

And the justification seems slim.

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