Critical Essay on "Uncle" by Daniel Woorell: Moral and Ethical Justification of Death

Introduction

"Uncle" is a short story from "The Outlaw Album" written by Daniel Woorell. The story is set in the small towns of Wodrell Native and Missouri Arkansas. In this book, the stories are about the struggles of a global environment where matters of trust, hopelessness, and terror dominate the society. People wish for peace, and there is an inner material deprivation. "Uncle," being among these stories, paints a clear picture of what the society is all about. One keeps on wondering whether or not it is legally or morally ethical to murder someone, in the case scenario in the story. Murderers, veterans, drug addicts who are mostly youths dominate the community and their characters are questionable.

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The story, "Uncle," is concerned with a young Ozarkian woman (or a girl) who has an obligation of looking after a "baby." The story begins at this point, where this girl (woman) narrates about her baby (Woodrell, 13). The "baby" happens to be her uncle. Uncle is an old man in a wheelchair who is in a physical state. The woman takes care of him by bathing him, feeding; changing his clothes, and so forth. It is because of these actions that she refers to Uncle as a baby. Despite the author describing uncle positively as a baby, he has an evil character which has digressed him to this pathetic condition.

He is the evilest person. Uncle is a serial rapist and a murder. He is a kind of a person that psychologists would describe as a psychopath. The protagonist and uncle's sister are unwilling but trapped in Uncle's actions. For instance, uncle acquires his victims, physically abuses them and expects his niece to get rid of them. Many of his victims are canoeing on a river which runs past their farms. Uncle portrays the evil character in this short story.

The woman, who stands on the right side of the story, is not evil. She experiences a rough episode when she finds uncle with a victim, in the event of Uncle performing his act of assault. She hits his head using a heavy object. The action subjects' uncle in a damaged state and it is at this point that the narrator begins the story. The girl was tired of her uncle's actions of unrelenting sexual advances towards her and other females. Hitting Uncle on the head means that she took matters into her own hands. However, actions have consequences. However, her actions are justified since is also abused, and probably developmentally delayed. Hitting her uncle on the head crippled him. Her recounting of this scenario and the resulting prolonged wounds are solidified in the almost flat tone exhibited by the survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse. She, however, manages to live through these horrors and as a result, continue with her life after having gone through horrible things. She is forced to make her way, the best she can, and the best is sometimes heartbreakingly awful. The question is whether it is legally or morally ethical on the murder attempts that the niece tried on her uncle. The ethical inquiry of this short story is whether is justifiable to murder to save. One wonders the legal obligation of the right to life.

Uncle's story is a representation of a conflict between two schools of thought. Is it justified to kill one person to save others? These different philosophical schools are utilitarianism and deontology.

Utilitarianism

In Utilitarianism, the most appropriate action is one that achieves the greatest good for the most significant number. A person must promote the topmost happiness in favor of many people. The idea is saving many people and losing one. The lives of many people are better than one individual (Conway, 58). In this case, it was better for uncle to be murdered by his niece. Uncle being alive would mean that many people would continue to suffer in his hands. The number of rape victims would increase. Sexual assault has both physical and psychological effects. It causes deep psychological trauma to the victims. It causes post-traumatic stress disorder and sometimes victims would require treatment for the rest of their lives. Making an attempt to murder the uncle or killing the uncle would, therefore, be beneficial to the society since it would prevent future cases of rape which would sometimes lead to the death of other people.

In utilitarianism, people's actions are judged by their consequences. It is a form of consequentialism, meaning that every move has its implications (Conway,2). In the above case, the niece is troubled and shaken since she is also a victim of abuse by the uncle. She also experiences some of the actions of her uncle and cleans up her uncle's mess after assaulting others. She wonders whether to be silent or to report the uncle to the authorities. She is stuck between taking the right steps which would make her lose her kin. Her silence would cause more harm and death of innocent people.

In this regard, it is unethical to judge a person's actions by looking at the consequences. The ideology, therefore, advocates the need to set up moral rules which people should follow to promote the greatest happiness of the majority in the long run. When these rules are followed, people achieve the best results. In the Ozarkian community, these rules were already set since the author says that she feared reporting him to the authorities (Woodrell, 14). Presence of authorities indicates the existence of established rules and structures to implement these rules. The aspect advocates for corrective actions that brings the highest total utility, not taking into consideration the measures that it comes with and the effect. The fact portrayed here is that we ought not to kill, and ought to keep promise since it makes every individual to be better off.

Deontology

Deontology is the ethical perception that proposes a moral agent to act concerning particular laws and rule (Hanna, 676). The ethical view does not give much priority to consequences. The concept provides much emphasis for keeping promises. Meaning, we do actions, not because of the results, but because we ought to do them.

In the short story, the narrator ends the narration by saying that her baby was not meant for this world. She had killed him. She committed to action, not because of the consequences, but because she ought to do it. It means that deontological rules are often justified. She treated the uncle in a manner that he deserved and respecting her action, not as a "mere" means.

Her uncle is not innocent because of his actions. Deontology states that we should not kill or harm innocent people (Hanna, 677). It doesn't consider the end which justifies the means. The prohibition constrains what we ought to do in the pursuit of a functional outcome. The murder of Uncle means that no life is lesser than the other. Uncle was not innocent because he is a perpetrator of the rape and murder of innocent girls within his society. It is difficult to look at the short story from a moral perspective because he is not innocent. The uncle committed various crimes in this situation, and the legal definition of guilt and innocence indicate that he deserved to die. The niece acted about the rules. An action that is allowed in the society has a moral rightness when it follows an ethical code of conduct that the society has set. In the short story, Ozarkian community viewed murder and rape as immoral actions which should be punished. Every immoral action has consequences, and for uncle's case, the result was death. However, his niece was in no position to make a judgment and take measures into her own hands. Her actions, however, were fuelled by the fact that she was also a victim of her uncle's actions. She was, therefore, carrying a heavy burden that she felt like she ought to relieve and the sight of seeing and taking care of her uncle was a reminder of the evil acts that the uncle has committed.

Conclusion

From the preceding, it is imperative to conclude that killing may sometimes be in itself worse than saving. Woodrell, the author of "Uncle" has a unique way of shading the line between guilt and victimization. The characters in this story are just doing actions that are beyond their control. The horrible situations that the author describes do not give the characters any choice, but to do things that they do not want to do.

Work Cited

Conway, P. (2013). The Process Dissociation of Moral Judgments: Clarifying the Psychology of Deontology and Utilitarianism.

Hanna, J. (2015). Doing, Allowing, and the Moral Relevance of the Past. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 12(6), 677-698.

Woodrell, Daniel. The outlaw album: stories. Little, Brown, 2011.