Who Is Morally Right, Anyway?

In the movie, “White Oleander”, there was one scene that really stood out to me, and it dealt with the main character Astrid Magnussen. Magnussen was involved in a situation that dealt with a character’s moral development. In the scene, I want to address Astrid, and her foster mother’s boyfriend, Ray ‘s involvement romantically.

White Oleander Part 4 - (From YouTube.com)

(Start at 5:55. You can get a feel for the physical tension growing.)

I am going to focus on Astrid’s moral development. What she had to weigh in her mind the difference between right and wrong. She had to consider whether or not acting on her feelings meant more to her than respecting her foster mom’s wishes. The feelings she had to fight were with Ray. The feelings began by just casually talking around the house, but then Ray began going to where Astrid was just to talk to her. One night Astrid stayed home from a night out to work on homework when Ray came in the house with pizza. They were the only two in the house, and they began to act upon their physical feelings. Astrid and Ray both knew that if the foster mom found out about their interaction, she would be furious. Astrid needed to decide if her own personal pleasure was worth the risk of being caught. Obviously, her physical want outweighed what was morally right. The morally right action was to keep her feelings out of the situation and continue working on her homework. Ray seemed like a nice enough guy that if Astrid would have said “no” he would have respected that response.

I would classify Astrid’s thought process of pursuing her physical feelings with stage six of Kohlberg’s Theory. Stage six is the Universal Ethical Principle that states “The person has developed moral judgments that are based on universal human rights. When faced with the dilemma between law and conscience, a personal, individualized conscience is followed” (King, 2008). This is saying that Astrid knew the consequences between having an affair, but she allowed her feeling for Ray to override what she knows is right. She acted on her personal conscience instead of following the universal human rights. There is a story that Kohlberg used to test his theory, and that story is summarized as this:

A man did not have enough money to buy his wife medicine to treat her cancer. A druggist was selling it for way more than the suggested price. The husband did not have enough money to pay for it, so one night he broke in and stole the drug for his wife. (King, 2008)

After the story was read Kohlberg would ask question pertaining to the story about whether or not it was right for the husband to steal the drug for his dying wife. After asking multiple questions, he was able to categorize people’s moral level into six different stages. The people that were in stage six, just like Astrid, would answer that they “evaluate alternatives but recognize that Heinz’s wife’s life is more important than a law” (King, 2008). This is another reason to back up why I thought Astrid is acting in stage six, because even though she knows the alternatives to avoiding her feelings, she still acts upon it because her feelings are more important than what is right. (King, 2008).

Here is a website that goes deeper into Kohlberg's Theory of moral development and the six stages.

by: Anna Dellapenta