Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

In the book Mark and Francie argue about what they consider to be right and wrong when they were spying on the school administrator that supposedly was involved with a student that was a prostitute. The author has Mark and Francie having this conversation twice in the book so far, once on page 85 then again on page 147. In the first discussion that Francie and Mark have, Francie claims that what the administrator is doing is a conflict of interest and when Mark asks her what that exactly means she says she doesn’t know, but says that what the administrator is doing is wrong. Mark thinks that not everything is considered right or wrong and says it depends on the situation and sometimes it doesn’t even matter whether something a person did was right or wrong. The second time this occurs Francie and Mark see the administrator at the beach with a young man. Francie says that if the young man was a student then what the administrator was doing was a conflict of interest and the young man could be looking for some kind of advantages. Mark says nothing to this in the book, but Francie in a way talks for him by describing what she thought Mark believed. She says that Mark believes that every world has their own set of morals and there are many different worlds. Since Francie uses the term conflict of interest again she seems to
Francie seems to be a person that has her ideas of right and wrong built into her like she just believes the things that she was told is true. Mark compared her idea of right and wrong to the laws of physics saying that Francie thinks that there are set lists of actions that are considered right and wrong. This kind of morals seems to be the kind of things that are built in and not really questioned. When asked what she meant by a conflict of interest she says she doesn’t know and just considers the administrator to be wrong. She does not think about the situation that the people might be in like Mark does and just judges what is going on purely on what is happening. Mark on the other hand thinks that right and wrong are flexible depending on what the person is going through. He uses the example of stealing money from parents as an example to explain that there isn’t a set of morals for everyone to believe in. Mark asks if a child steals money from his parents should he tell his parents that he took it and Francine says yes, then he adds what if they were going to hit the child should he still tell and Francine says no if they’re going to hit the child. This is the flexibility in right and wrong that Mark Believes. As Francie described it there are many worlds with its own set of morals. A different world could mean a different person so many different worlds with their own sets of morals can mean that every person has a different idea of what is right and wrong.
Most people if not all seem to be a Mark or a Francie. People like Francie have right and wrong built into them and that think that certain things are just wrong. Others are like Mark who believes that everyone has their own set of morals and the belief of right and wrong are different for different people. Although Francie believed that the boy in Mark’s example should have told his parents about the money she then said he shouldn’t when Mark added that the boy was threatened. It seems the line between right and wrong seem very blurred whether you are a Mark or a Francie.

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