Moral Conflict For Benjamin example essay topic

Benjamin... the kind of man he wanted to become. The film, The Graduate, illustrates a young man's development of moral maturity. Benjamin proves to us that maturity does not come at a certain age but through experience of inquiry, questioning, analysis, judgment, and the habit of doing good. Benjamin Braddock, the main character of the story, has just returned from his four years away at college.

Unsure about where his future will take him, he allows the wife of his business partner, Mrs. Robinson, to seduce him into having a secret affair. All is well until Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine, steals Benjamin's heart. Benjamin is able to express his emotions and be taken seriously for the first time in his life. His feelings for Elaine create a moral conflict for Benjamin, which he is only able to resolve once he has developed his own moral maturity.

Although we, the audience, are not sure as to what Benjamin's initial morals are, or his current level of maturity, we assume that he was brought up with good morals by the atmosphere around him. Growth in moral maturity is a lifelong process. Individuals progress through a series of stages in developing moral awareness. The difficult lies in having the courage to do what one knows is right and becoming aware when one is doing wrong. The first stage, in which Benjamin began down the road of maturity, was the beginning of the movie after Benjamin's graduation party.

Mr. Robinson offered his advice, after Mrs. Robinson had offered herself to him, to "sow his oats", get with as many girls as he could and enjoy life while he was still young. This suggestion brought up by Mr. Robinson was the push that Benjamin needed to have an affair with Mrs. Robinson. Feeling guilty after Mrs. Robinson had expressed her opinion about the idea of her daughter, Elaine, going out with Benjamin, does he realize that what he had been was about to hurt everyone involved and also hurt himself knowing that this was not what he wanted. After violating Mr. Robinson's advice he found that being with Elaine made him happy and allowed no one to get in his way. He knew that the expression "sowing his oats" was not relevant towards everyday life.

What Benjamin came to realize was that life's surprises and enjoyments are never ending. When allows someone to persuade them to compromise his or her morals is not a sign of maturity. Throughout the movie, Benjamin allows many people to compromise his morals. Benjamin is told by Elaine's father, Mr. Robinson, after he finds out that he had slept with his wife that he was not worthy enough for his daughter.

Benjamin does not allow him to change his mind. He learned that he had to make his own moral judgments. He continues to pursue her despite what many around him are telling him. He knew that it was the right thing to do because their love was strong enough. Benjamin learned that you need to love someone without having them intimidate you to gain your love.

You both need to work towards having a relationship. Throughout the relationship that Benjamin had with Mrs. Robinson, she taught him that a mature adult dominates. So Ben mimicked the game of intimidation that Mrs. Robinson played with him. He does this by dictating or even enforcing a relationship with Elaine, who clearly at the beginning was not interested. Mrs. Robinson demonstrated that this was an unquestionable way of earning someone's love. Therefore Benjamin thought to do this to Elaine.

He proceeded to try to intimidate Elaine by telling her that she really did want to go out with her and that she wanted to marry him but was just hiding her feelings. Towards the end of the movie, Benjamin learned that the honorable way of being in a relationship with Elaine was to inform Elaine on how he felt. To resolve a moral dilemma, one needs to identify stakeholders, evaluate their interests in a situation, accept conflicts between principles and often make tradeoffs. Benjamin knew that the decisions that he made throughout the past few months in the movie were irrational and immoral and faced the fact that he had made a lot of people angry and accepted the fact that he did make a wrong decision.

He corrected the situation by ending his relationship with Mrs. Robinson. He felt that it suited the situation to inform Elaine about his past situation and allowed all consequences to come with it. Benjamin eventually finds out that the decisions and actions of his daily life taken together illustrate and affect the kind of person that he is becoming. As he furthers down the road of moral maturity, he begins to develop and live by his own values and make the right moral decisions. What sparked a consistency of his mature behavior was after he realized that he wanted a life with Elaine. And to do so he had to correct what was wrong in his life.

He decided to enroll in graduate school alongside Elaine at Berkley, he set the situation right with Mrs. Robinson and most importantly, he put his priorities in order. Reaching a high level of moral maturity is knowing you don't have all the answers and also living with the decisions you make. After Benjamin runs in on Elaine's wedding and they escaped together, you saw the expression of confusion on their faces. They knew their future was uncertain, especially since they did not have their parents' blessings but knew that they would make the effort to make it on their own.

Therefore the focus of moral development should one's character and well-informed conscience so that when one is faced with a moral decision one will have the inner resources and conviction to make it and act on it.