What does it take to be a good person? Lane and Sherri are very religious people. Lane and Sherri met at campus ministries in their third year in college. When Sherri and Lane found out that she is pregnant, both were lost and don’t know what to do. Sherri was torn between her decisions and the morality of terminating the pregnancy. Sherri is also torn between wrong and right; evil and good because of her faith. Sherri also wonders if Lane loves her enough to be with her. Sherri asked in prayer for guidance for her decision.
Did she make a good or bad decision? Did Sherri value herself and her faith in GOD? What is Love? According to the definition of Love from Fr. Jason Brooks: Love is sacrifice. “It’s a gift of yourself of that what is most precious, your time, your talent, your attention and what Christ did for us that is the example of what he have given us”. Sherri sacrifices her future to be a mom. “That all night last night she prayed and searched inside herself and decided this is what love commands of her. ” Sherri prayed to God asked for guidance.
Sherri decided that she will raise the unborn baby with or without Lane because that is what love commands her to do. When Sherri found out that she is pregnant, she was thinking of terminating the pregnancy because she has dreams of finishing her degree and to be a nurse. She is not sure if she is ready to be a mom or if she is ready for the responsibility. Also, she knows that Lane does not love her enough because Lane is influencing her to have an abortion. Lane and the American guy in the story of “Hills like White Elephants” are the same.
For men they think it is easy for a woman to do the abortion, but they don’t know how it will impact or affect their behavior and selfesteem afterwards. The woman who even think or act to do an abortion is a big sin (it is also depends on the situation). The girl in “Hills like White Elephants” and Sherri they are going through a tough decision. When Lane assured Sherri that he will be there with her and the same thing with the American guy in “Hills like White Elephants” does not care what the women are feeling and that it is hard for them to do what the men are asking them to do.
The passage that goes in “Good People” this was in the Lane’s head, “He knew this without admitting to himself that this was what he wanted” and the passage in “Hills like White Elephants” when the American guy said to the girl, “if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple”, is an example of being a coward, afraid of the responsibility and does not show the love and affection to their partners. What are the people will tell her if they find out that she had an abortion?
Lane’s mother approved of her because of her “down to earth” and “she knew what she wanted”. Lane’s mother saw her as a responsible person. Is Sherri a responsible person? Sherri maybe is a responsible person because she decided not to go through the abortion and she knows that she is a sinner. Also, maybe not because why did she do what she did to get pregnant, which is she knows it is not right to begin with. Knowing that she goes in the Christian Universities. In, 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4,7 says, “God wants you to be holy and to stay away from sexual sins.
He wants each of you to learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable … God called us to be holy and does not want us to live in sin. ” Despite of the scripture in the Bible, Sherri will keep the baby and will not care about what people will think of her. But, that doesn’t make her a good person but at least she did the right thing. According to Fr. Brooks, there is only one sin that God can’t forgive, it is the sin against the Holy Spirit. “It is a coin like sin that has two sides: abstinent denial and abstinent despair.
If you are abstinent in your denial, you won’t ask for forgiveness because you don’t want to admit what you did was sinful and you might call that pride. If you are abstinent in your despair, you won’t ask for forgiveness because you don’t believe that God will forgive you. ” God will forgive Sherri because she ask for forgiveness and understanding for what she did. Sherri told Lane that she can’t go through the abortion and that she will keep the baby with or without him. She does not oblique him to stay or to be a father to their baby.
Sherri’s values and trust God. She asked God for guidance and to give her strength. She needs to show Lane that she and her unborn baby will survive without him. Sherri’s values are blocked because of the shame that she will bring to the family, to carry a child by herself and as a single mom. The responsibility that the baby will bring. “She was serious in her faith and values in a way that Lane had liked and now, sitting here with her on the table, found himself afraid of” She is fearful of her righteousness. Faith is easy when it does not need to be defended.
What value will she teach her unborn child? Family is a big thing to Sherri. She knows what she did is a sin despite of what their religion is. According to (Beebe, Beebe and Ivy), “family members have more power to shape our self-concepts and affect self-esteem than other people do. Sherri is shameful for what she did to her family, but if she will go back to her family and ask for assistance, her family will be there for her to support her… that’s what Family is all about. Despite of what she did, she will start her own family with or without him.
Lane knew that Sherri is a good person it’s just that Lane is not ready to the responsibility and not sure if he loves her enough to be with her forever. According to Ednita Nazario, “I come from that society and there is a common thread, specifically family values – the idea that you do anything for your family, and the unconditional love for one’s children. ” Sherri knows what she wants in life – she wants to be a nurse, she bought her own car and works at Embers as a hostess. Sherri is smarter and stronger than Lane.
But, sometimes making a tough decision can make someone weaker. Sherri’s reluctance to have a child is selfless. She is adamant to keep the baby and does not care what others will tell her. She puts herself and the family to shame. She knows she made mistakes and she knows that she committed a sin in the eyes of God, but because of the sin and the mistake she will stand by her decision not to have an abortion. God is forgiving as long as she admits and pray for her sins. Sherri commits sin more than Lane because she is the one that will have the abortion.
No matter how smart you are, sometime making the decision is so hard to do. This is what Sherri’s feeling. It is an evil to do if Sherri goes through with the abortion. Even Lane knows that, but yet he has persuaded her to do it. The picture in the story was a woman turning her back, because she is shameful of what she did and for putting herself in a situation that people will think of her as not “good people”. To say least… by Kahlil Gibran, “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were. Since Sherri decides to keep the baby.
She is letting Lane go because that’s how love is… At the end, Sherri is still a good people because when she said to Lane that she wishes him well and to respect her decision. The difference between “Hills like White Elephants” and “The Good People” is that the American’s girlfriend has a voice to speak while Sherri does not have the voice to speak what Wallace did is to narrate what Lane was thinking but don’t know what Sherri’s feelings with all this except for not having an abortion.
What example is she bringing to her college? She goes to Peoria Junior College, a Christian college, but yet she committed an awful sin…. maybe it’s a reminder that all human being makes mistakes, no matter how big or small your sin are as long as you pray with all your heart, GOD will forgive you as long as you are not denying it that you made a mistake (Brooks).
