Muddy Waters Indeed

Topic: The Aligator River Story


This tale of love gone awry, adapted from Joseph Fleicher's Situation Ethics, appears on the surface like an episode of the "Jerry Springer Show" on location in the swamps of Louisiana. While this particular assignment does ask to rate these characters on who commands my respect from highest to lowest, I would like to speculate more on the motivations of the characters presented.


Gregory: Now here's a gentleman who is the paramour of the protagonist, Abigail. One would wonder if this man truly cared for her and why he was so quick to judge her for her actions. One could ask whether Gregory could have made the choice to cross the river to be with Abigail. Did he make an attempt to do so but was refused or even propositioned by Captain Sinbad? Was he suspicious of Abigail and work out an arrangement with Captain Sinbad to test Abigail's sense of virtue. Was he just too lazy or too proud to take the boat to meet her instead of having her cross the river?

The reader is presented with the outcome, however; Gregory spurns Abigail and gets beaten up by Slug. Was Gregory wrong for snubbing a woman whose lack of self respect clouded her judgement? Did he make the correct decision to turn her away since her actions were based on desperation and vindictiveness? If I were to rate Gregory ( between 1 being highest and 5 being the lowest) based upon whom I had the most respect for, I would give him a "2", simply because there are too many unknowns concerning his reasoning.

Ivan: He is the noncommittal friend. Perhaps he is even the rejected suitor of Abigail's affection. Who is Ivan indeed and why would he refuse to help Abigail? Was he too busy to get involved? Did he have problems of his own? Was he a rival of Gregory? Was he already familiar with the dysfunctional pattern by which Abigail approached situations? It is hard to know why he refused to help if he was a friend of Abigail's but if he knew her well, then he probably made the correct decision not to interfere. Ivan would get my most respect if that was the case. I give him a "1".

Slug: He is the foolish champion of Abigail. A tough guy with a bleeding heart, he jumps at the opportunity to do the "honorable" thing and beat sense into Gregory, literally. Is this man a better choice for Abigail because he accepted her after hearing her version of the events that transpired? It takes character to be nonjudgmental of people but if a person sees manure lying in the road, he shouldn't go to great pains to step in it. Note also that Slug didn't go beat up Sinbad for placing Abigail in the compromising position in which she found herself. Slug gets a "3".

Sinbad: He is the opportunist and the catalyst for the tragedy that transpired. His motivations are easy to comprehend. Although he cared not for Abigail's plight, he did honor the agreement and did not have sexual intercourse and summarily leave her on her side of the shore. All things considered, I would have to give Sinbad a "4".

Abigail: The woman who created her own peril and went cackling in glee into the sunset. This woman receives my lowest score of "5" simply because it was her intention to go to Gregory and she couldn't be bothered to drive 50 miles away to cross the river. Why is it that she couldn't pick a more convenient time to visit him since she did have work the next day? Why was she unable to take someone like Ivan or Slug with her when Sinbad made his offer? Why was it that she blamed Gregory and not herself for the trouble in which she found herself? She spent the better part of the day running around asking people for help, having sex with Sinbad, and then going to see Gregory twice when she could have driven the 50 miles back and forth and visited her paramour. It seems strange when she sought out the straight line from A to B, she placed so many zigzagging lines in the midst of it. Abigail was not only selfish in her actions, but reckless also. Why did she have to tell Gregory that she slept with Sinbad to get to him? Did her reason for going to see Gregory in the first place then get replaced by her wanting Greg to exact retribution upon Sinbad? Her desperation and vindictiveness led to the beating of Gregory in which she laughed at his plight as if the culmination of events had somehow redeemed her. Sorry, Abigail, you're no heroine in this tale; you get my least amount of respect.