The values George Saunders advocates

Part of your exam question asks you to focus on the values George Saunders advocates in his commencement address.

First, it is important to note that the value Saunders focuses on the most is kindness: “So here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know what to do with it: What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.” (ll. 84-88)

Kindness, the value Saunders advocates, is characterized by concern and care for others and by compassionate and thoughtful behavior. Saunders mainly focuses on the reasons why people fail to be kind. Overall, he concludes that selfishness is the main reason why people fail to act kindly, but he also states that this negative aspect is deeply rooted in our being:

Each of us is born with a series of built-in confusions that are probably somehow Darwinian. These are: (1) we’re central to the universe (that is, our personal story is the main and most interesting story, the only story, really); (2) we’re separate from the universe (there’s US and then, out there, all that other junk – dogs and swing-sets, and the ...