“Don’t go.”

“I have to.”

“Why? No one else is bothering to fix this.”

“That’s because this is no one else’s fault.”

“Why are doing this to yourself?”

“I don’t know.  Moral obligation?”

                I’m one of the people who feels the need to take responsibilty for everything and everyone. When I’m doing group work, it makes me anxious when the teacher assigns a part to another student, because I feel it’s my job to make sure we get everyhting done. You could call it maternal instinct, as I feel like my groupmates are my childeren if I know them.  It’s like an animal’s first instinct. They do what they feel is needed and without a second thought – or even a first one. However, there is another definition to duty – what is expected, or even required, of you from other people. In the “Griffin and the Minor Canon” by Frank R. Stockton, both the Griffin and the Minor Canon experience a sense of duty.

                The Griffin and the Minor Canon both have duties; whether they be self appointed or set, expected  duties. The Griffin feels a great sense of duty when the Minor Canon leaves. On page 138, it says, “One morning he looked into the Minor Canon’s schoolhouse, which was always empty now, and thought it was a shame that everything should suffer on account of the young man’s absence.” The Griffin feels it’s his job to help the town, since the man who used to do that was now gone. I think that anyone would feel this responsibilty, not just the Griffin. He did this because he’s kind and sensible, and wants to do the right thing, not what’s easiest. But the Griffin isn’t the only one who feels a sense of duty.

                The Minor Canon goes though two different types of duties. One was what he felt he needed to do for his job. On page 130, it says, “Apart from his duties in the church, where he conducted services every weekday, he visited the sick and the poor, counseled and assisted persons who were in trouble, and taught a school composed entirely of the bad children in the town with whom nobody else would have anything to do.” The Minor Canon does what is required by job, by even goes further as to do whatever he feels is the right thing to do, like involving himself with people who would have otherwise been avoided. However, the Minor Canon also has duties forced upon him by the people around him. On page 136, it says, “It’s your fault that the monster is among us. You brought him here, and you ought to see that he goes away…it is your duty to go away and the he will follow you.” Being the responsible man he is, the Minor Canon would never refuse such a task, as he wants to make sure he takes care of all his duties. The fact that the Griffin and Minor Canon have that sense of duty is what bonds them and makes the get along so well.