Core Values In A Good Man

Throughout the fall semester, there have been many pieces of literature that have represented Marywood’s Core Values, teaching great lessons to every reader. One of the major pieces that was covered in the fall semester was A Good Man, written by Mark Shriver. The book is a heartwarming, non-fiction autobiography where the son of a successful politician and Kennedy relative talks about his father’s life and memories. We learn a variety of different values from this book through Sargent Shriver’s love for his family, including empowerment and faith (Shriver). In other works that were studied, such as the poem And Still I Rise Maya Angelou, also teach the values of empowerment, faith, as well as respect with using the negativity to fuel positivity. Even though all these different pieces of literature may teach different core values in different ways, each give the reader more ways to live their life to the fullest, the overall strength to overcome obstacles, and be the best individual they can possibly be for themselves and the world around them. One of the first core values that was represented in A Good Man was empowerment. Mark Shriver, the author, speaks about how his father,

Here, the author talks about overcoming what others think, saying that no matter how much her opponents “trod [her] in the very dirt”, “shoot [her] down with… words”, or “kill [her] with…hatefulness”, she will rise above all the negativity (Angelou). This text differs from the empowerment represented in A Good Man, because here Maya gives examples of hate and opposition and turns them into a retaliating force of positivity, instead of using love as Sargent Shriver did. With this kind of strategy Maya uses, it embraces the reader to take the negative thoughts and comments that others may say about oneself and rise above them to become a stronger and empowering