Close Reading 10/29

"'WHY STUDY HISTORY OR LITERATURE-NOT TO MENTION RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE AND SCRIPTURE AND ETHICS? WHY NOT DO ANYTHING-IF THE ONLY REASON NOT TO IS NOT TO GET CAUGHT?' he asked. 'DO YOU CALL THAT MORALITY? DO YOU CALL THAT RESPONSIBLE? THE PRESIDENT IS ELECTED TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION; TO PUT THAT MORE BROADLY, HE'S CHOSEN TO UPHOLD THE LAW- HE'S NOT GIVE A LICENSE TO OPERATE ABOVE THE LAW, HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE OUR EXAMPLE!" (376-377)

Owen is obviously quite upset when he found out that John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe may have had an affair. He thinks that it is wrong and voices his opinion as to why. Owen uses the words morality and responsibility that a president is supposed to have. His choice of words show how he just does not agree with what is happening. It is not moral for a president to abuse his power to have sexual relations with a woman that is not his wife, and Owen specifically attempts to point that out. There is supposed to be a certain moral standard that a president is supposed to uphold, yet here JFK ignores that standard completely.

Owen also points out how a president is supposed to not only uphold the law, but be held accountable to the same standards that average, everyday citizens are supposed to be held to. He is not supposed to be above the law, and have no standards at all. In fact, Owen specifically points out how the president is supposed to be the example, the person that people look up to. JFK was supposed to be a role model, especially someone Owen remodeled, yet this one incident disappoints Owen. It is clear that JFK is no longer a role model for Owen.

Owen also begins to question why bother doing anything at all. If what most people do is try and go around the law and see if they cannot be caught, why bother learning from the past and literature. Why bother trying to figure out past mistakes if people are going to make the same ones, seeing if they do not get caught? Owen is beginning to wonder if their is a purpose behind everything he learns if for the most part, he is not going to use it anyway. Eventually Owen stops trying in all of his academic class in college, partially based off this view, partially because he knows how he is going to die and he knows he is going to die in the military and stops trying in academics. But to see him question studying and learning, it is not like the Owen who studied very hard throughout all of high school, and it is all because of the actions of an irresponsible president who is not being held to the same standards as everyone else is held to.

Even though the Constitution does not state that cheating is morally wrong, Owen shows how the American standard does not agree with cheating. The president is elected to uphold the Constitution, filled with actual laws, but the president is also supposed to uphold moral law, something that Americans create, and expect that people follow. Owen throughout this entire passage is trying to show how the president is not special and he is not someone who can just break the law. Owen obviously believes that all people should be treated equally and be forced to follow the same laws as everyone else. The president should be no different in Owen's eyes.