A
thematic topic that appears in both Akutagawa's "Rashomon" and at the
end of Kurosawa's film adaptation of "In a Grove" (for some reason title
"Rashomon") is that of the conflict between survival and ethics. In
these, as well as many other literary works (as well as in real life),
individuals are forced to choose between doing what they know is right
and dying. Describe how this struggle plays out in the text version of
"Rashomon" and then compare it to the situation in the film version.
Then describe situation in which you had to make a difficult decisions
between what you knew to be right and what you were otherwise pressured
to do (hopefully not under threat of death). What about in the
world-at-large? Have you ever heard of a real-life situation in which
someone had to choose between good and evil in order to survive?
Describe the situation.
In the text version of Rashōmon, the servant of the samurai was the protagonist. The samurai needed him no more and sent him away. Now that he had nothing to do or nowhere to go to, he approaches the gate of Rashōmon. in the Rashōmon, he chooses between survival and ethics. In the book version, the servant chose survival, basically abandoning his moral values. In the film version, the man chose survival over ethics or kindness. This was a bit very surprising because it combined two stories into one movie. I also did not expect that he would take things away from a child because the parents abandoned him. It showed that he has no ethics and that he is just for survival. The similarity in the book and the film are that both the men would do anything for survival. The different is in that the film's child is innocent and the woman plucking hair out might not be too innocent. I also had a difficult decision. It was in middle school. I didn't do my homework and I didn't study for any vocab. When I had a quiz that day in class, I am struggling so much, hoping not to die. When I looked beside me, there was Michael. Oh how his answers looked so beautiful. However, I have my ethics and said that it was too wrong to do this. But at last, I was young and it was too tempting. I copied my answers and I got caught. I guess I was really happy that I got caught. This way, I would remember to do work I'm supposed to do. The next time, I am pretty sure I am going to choose good instead of evil.
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