Verified Document

Moral Spheres In The Classic Term Paper

So, symbolically, Bobby is forced to the ground and treated like an animal, and when he rises he, and the group, have accepted this new animalistic nature. All, of course, except Drew. Drew is the last moral holdout among the group, arguing that the men should not bury the slain attacker and should do the right thing and go to the police. He is a voice of peace and reason, and when he eventually falls from the boat into the water (presumably shot), it signifies the final moral collapse of the group. Not long after, Ed kills the second mountain man who the group believes is stalking them. In the cases of both the mountain man and Drew, the men weigh down the bodies so they will never resurface - in the case of Drew, the action is symbolic in that it shows the men's former sense of morality will never be resurrected. Surviving in the backwoods has required them to abandon their values, which shows how strong the distinction is between the two societies.

Throughout the movie, Lewis serves almost as an escort for the other characters into a different moral space. He reminds the men, from the beginning of the movie, that the laws...

He fancies himself a survivalist, which is a role that none of the other characters claim. And, in fact, it is Lewis who ushers the men further away from their more civilized sensibilities - first by shooting one of the attackers, and then by suggesting they bury the body. The men begin to adopt Lewis' survival-of-the-fittest mentality, which is most evident when Ed kills the mountain man and when Ed and Bobby take the lead in deciding to sink Drew's body.
There is a clear lesson in Deliverance about the difference between city and rural people. Boorman goes to great lengths to show that these two groups of people have completely different values and, in a sense, different definitions of survival. The main characters define survival, at least at the beginning of the movie, in terms of financial wealth and material comfort, where the rural characters have a more basic sense of survival. The main characters come to rural Georgia looking for a taste of something simple, but instead find a world much more complex. It is a world where they are not revered, but, instead, are mistrusted, despised and even physically abused. There are two separate worlds and, in the end, when the men promise the local sheriff never to return, it is a fitting symbol that these worlds should not - and can not - be integrated.

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Moral Criticisms of the Market Moral Criticisms
Words: 891 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Moral Criticisms of the Market Moral Criticisms Market This assignment requires read article Ken S. Ewert (found Reading & Study folder). Note article, Ewert defending free market "Christian Socialists." He states position a rebuttal Moral criticisms of the market: A critique of Ewert's analysis It is interesting to read Ken S. Ewert's 1989 criticisms of 'Christian socialists' in light of current debates on other types of economic policies today. Ewert portrays Christian, leftist

Classic Liberalism There Have Been
Words: 1218 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

F.A. Hayek argued that there can be no freedom of press "if the instruments of printing are under government control, no freedom of assembly if the needed rooms are so controlled, no freedom of movement if the means of transport are a government monopoly" (Liberalism pp). As Thomas Paine wrote in 'Common Sense,' "Government even in its best state is a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one..." (Sturgis

Legislating Morality in America
Words: 5191 Length: 16 Document Type: Research Paper

Legislating Morality The ideas of Thomas Hobbes, the influential English philosopher who lived in the late 1500s to middle 1600s, are still considered important today. Hobbes is best remembered for his ideas on political philosophy. While Hobbes throughout his life championed the idea of absolutism for the sovereign he also is responsible for many of the fundamentals of Western political thought such as equality of men, individual rights, and the idea

Straus' on Liberalism
Words: 1742 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Strauss on Moral Relativism The Shifting Sand of Moral Relativism Current political and social thought which is built on the foundation of moral relativism can no more chart a path for a nation to follow out of confusion into an enlightened and orderly society any more than a blind man can describe an elephant, or a child can pilot a 777 airliner. The tools, talents, skills, and abilities of moral relativism are

External Vs. The Internal View in Neo-Confucian
Words: 3097 Length: 10 Document Type: Essay

External vs. The Internal View in Neo-Confucian Thought Since the beginning of time, philosophers have made a living looking at how people conduct themselves and trying to make sense of it. Sometimes the philosopher will devise a theory about how the human world works by looking inside themselves and trying to determine the answer, and other times they will observe what people actually do and make comments based on that.

Sex Vs. CO-EDUCATIONAL Schooling What
Words: 1769 Length: 5 Document Type: Article Review

However, with the current world social trends co-educational institutions provide a holistic body to the social development of a student. To break the barriers of race and gender inequality, any form of segregation will be hypocritical especially in the education sector. In countries and institutions where they advocate for single-sex education, it has been noted that their doctrine is aimed at controlling morality but on the other hand it

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now