"A Worn Path": Altruism or Implicit Selfishness

Altruism takes an important place in the story. Phoenix' courage and will to keep on going is only for her beloved grandson. They're literally the only people for each other. This is where altruism takes its role. Are we showing generosity only to our beloved ones? Is that the right thing to do?

First of all, I think people meant to be alone in the life journey on the long run. People come and go, they affect your life somehow. Although when you are bound to someone for the rest of your life, or dependent to someone, you begin to make sacrifice without thinking. It makes a routine of sacrifices, and more you do it, the more it normalizes itself. In my opinion, addiction or “boundaries” can be demanding at this point.

I think when our self-sacrifice becomes an obligation, it also becomes a kind of “Achille's Heel.” We are not aware of that weakness, but it puts us in danger with the probability of getting hurt. After I thought these, I asked myself “can a man make sacrifices for a person who he does not know at all?” Philosophers have long been arguing about this aspect of human nature. Are we just self-interested animals? When we show generosity to people there is a possibility that our acts are driven by implicit self-interest. I am asking myself, for instance, when I love somebody, do I expect her to love me back? My answer is generally yes; Imagine a person you love deeply. It can be a special friend or a member of your family. You sacrifice your time, for example, to be with that person but if that is not reciprocated then you feel that you have been let down. This feeling is actually the hint of self-interest in the act of self-sacrificing. In this sense it can easily be argued that even love is a self-interested feeling.

On the conclusion, I see the unconditional love nothing more than an illusion. In general, mother-child relationship is interpreted as the only instance of unconditional love existing in the world, but one can still claim that mother-child relationship has the element of selfishness in a sense that mother carries the baby for nine months, and basically it is a biological part of her. As in the story; the boy needs Phoenix to live, but also Phoenix needs him to have a “reason” to live.