The Cold Equations By Tom Godwin Analysis

The story Cold Equations by Tom Godwin, and the poem Traveling Through the Dark by William Stafford, both use two components of moral reasoning; moral judgment, and moral motivation. Cold Equations takes place in outer space where a slight increase in mass not included in the original calculations could get someone killed. Traveling Through the Dark takes place in 1962 on a road probably countryside. An example of moral reasoning is moral judgement, or the ability to correctly reason in regards of certain circumstances. In The Cold Equations Barton the Pilot of the EDS ship finds a stowaway who boarded the ship illegally and says “These ships are given barely enough fuel to reach their destination, and if you stay aboard, your added weight will cause it to use up all its fuel before it reaches the ground. It will crash then, and you and I will die and so will six men waiting for the fever

He is able to do this by moral motivation and knowing what is right to do for the best outcome. The narrator says, “I thought long and hard for us all--my only swerving---then pushed her over the edge into the river.” (line 17-18). Although this is a tough thing to do for anybody this is significant what the author did because the amount of lives that could have gotten hurt to one life is a clear decision over which is more important. In both of the texts, they both experienced a similar dilemma, and used moral motivation to do what was best for the situation by weighing the consequences of each action. In conclusion, the story Cold Equations and the poem Traveling Through the Dark both have a dilemma in them which neither outcome is good and each of the character’s has to face it. These are two great example of characters that use moral judgement and moral motivation to choose the best choice in their