Uncle Nathan In The Skating Party

A moral decision is a choice made based on a person’s ethics, beliefs, character, values and judgement. If a store clerk gives you too much change after you purchase something, do you tell them? If your two best friends are in trouble and you can only save one, who do you help? Whether in your regular everyday life, or in extreme and unfortunate circumstances, moral decisions occur often and challenge what you believe in and stand for as a person. Merna Summer’s “The Skating Party”, puts Uncle Nathan in a situation where he has to make an influential decision where it is not totally clear which is the correct choice. The decision he makes might not have been the best one for the future, and it left him filled with lasting feelings of guilt and grief. In the short story, “The Skating Party”, Uncle Nathan is faced with an incredibly difficult moral dilemma when his fiancée and his true love fall through the ice

When Uncle Nathan chose to save Delia, he gave up his chance to marry and have a family, “Uncle Nathan had only one peculiarity. He had never married.” (Summers 190). The outcome of his quick decision that night left him alone, with his only love married to another man. Finally, his true love passed on, “So Delia’s gone. She was a grand girl, Delia Sykes.” (Summers 192). As is evident in the story, when Nathan’s love overpowered his judgement and he chose Delia, he made a mistake, and this choice caught up to him in the future as he lived the rest of his life single and lonely. Physical consequences are very difficult to go through, however sometimes, the emotional consequences that you face after a moral dilemma can have even worse