Business and ethics essay part 2
Business and ethics essay part 1
Joe Stratford, the narrator of the book was the average realtor before he has got acquainted with Marcus Burns. Joe was quite successful but Marcus has increased his ambitions enormously and raised his egoism into Joe. Joe led a routine life before he has got acquainted with Marcus, who opened the world of great opportunities for Joe, who has already been quite a prosperous person.
In such a way, the egoism of the main character has proved to be stronger than his reason. At any rate, in pursuit of even greater wealth he agrees to the partnership of Marcus, which he expected to bring him exorbitant profits. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that Joe was just the mere puppet in hands of Marcus, who used him to make the deal and launch the partnership, which he believed to be prospective and potentially beneficial.
Even though Marcus pretends to be friendly with Joe, as his business partner, he apparently does not care about anyone but himself as is the case of the main characters of Glengarry Glen Ross. The egoism of Marcus, as the milestone of his ethics and system of values, becomes obvious, when the partnership’s failure becomes obvious. In fact, the business run by Marcus and Joe is apparently falling apart and future prospects of the company are questionable. In such a situation, Marcus flees and takes all the money of the company with him. In such a way, he betrays his business partner and flees leaving Joe no hope for survival of their business anymore.
In such a situation, the egoism of Marcus is obvious and he does not care about anyone but himself. He is apparently aware that he pushes Joe right into the abyss of bankruptcy but still he steals the money and just runs away.
On the other hand, Joe is not as good as it may seem to be compared to Marcus. In fact, Joe is driven by the same egoistic concerns as Marcus is and he looks good for readers just because he is not as bad or evil as Marcus is. In this regard, he is just a good among the worst but he is definitely not good in moral terms. For instance, Joe has a love affair with Felicity, a married daughter of his mentor. Obviously, this love affair is a betrayal of his mentor but still Joe puts his personal interests, needs and wants above moral norms and laws. He easily violates them and proves to be a good student of Marcus, who teaches him to do business and live in the world of great opportunities. However, opportunities turn out to be open for the worst and most immoral persons, like Marcus because they take every opportunity regardless of the moral background of their actions. In this regard, egoism is the major, if not to say, the only moral criterion for them. What is good for the main characters of Good Faith at the moment is moral.
At the same time, it is still important to place emphasis on the fact that Joe is not absolutely bad. Instead, he used to be good in a way, before he has got acquainted with Marcus. Joe was quite good. At any rate, he recognizes that he grew up in a religious family, where he learned basic moral norms of Christian community but he did not really care about them. On the other hand, he has not violated those moral norms openly before Marcus has arrived. In this regard, it is quite symbolic that his love affair with Felicity starts after his acquaintance with Marcus, as if Marcus has corrupted Joe and made him slipping to the wrong way and immoral lifestyle.
In such a way, Marcus and other puppeteers from the film, like Moss, are immoral agents, who are ready to act immorally to meet their egoistic ambitions and goals. In fact, they pursue their personal interests and benefits but they turn out to be contagious in their egoism and the strife for their personal well-being regardless of needs and interests of other people. On following their lead, their puppets, like Joe, Levene and others, also turn out to be highly egoistic and pursuing their own well-being with disregard to the well-being of other people or to existing moral norms and standards.
Thus, egoism turns out to be the mainstream ethical theoretical framework which determines the life, actions and decisions taken by the main characters of the film Glengarry Glen Ross and the book Good Faith. The main characters of the book and the film are quite different. Some of them look to be quite good at first, as is the case of Joe or Levene. However, under the impact of evil geniuses, like Marcus or Moss, even those characters, who seem to be good, turn out into immoral characters, who violate existing moral and ethical norms and are ready to violate legal norms and rules. In this regard, puppeteers, like Moss and Marcus, stand on the egoistic ground and view their well-being as the only moral criterion for their decisions and actions and they teach this philosophy to other characters. Remarkably, other characters learn this lesson fast and also slip to the immoral way of life. Symbolically, both the director of the film and the author of the book show that their egoistic way of life is the way to nowhere since their egoism brings them no good. On the contrary, in their pursuit of the personal well-being and success, the main characters become absolutely corrupted and ready to violate not only moral but also legal norms and rules.
Do you like this essay?
Our writers can write a paper like this for you!
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...