SURVEY

We would like your thoughtful opinion on friendship. Please read and answer the following questions in your comment:

1. How would you define friendship? What aspects set it apart from other relationships such as colleagues or classmates?

The follow scenario is from Death in Brunswick, an Australian film directed by John Ruane (Meridian Films, 1990). Cocking and Kennett use this as their primary example in Friendship and Moral Danger.

Death in Brunswick: Carl, the main character of the film Death in Brunswick, is no saint. Weak, vain, and disorganized, he is a severe disappointment to his mother. He drinks too much, and he works as a cook at a seedy nightclub in Brunswick where he falls foul of the owners by falling in love with a young barmaid. One night, Mustapha, his drug-dealing kitchen hand is badly beaten up in the back alley by the nightclub heavies. Carl is warned to keep his mouth shut; Mustapha is told that Carl is responsible for the beating. So late that night, Mustapha staggers into the kitchen and lunges at Carl, who is holding a long-pronged fork. Mustapha impales himself on the fork and dies. In a panic, Carl calls his best friend Dave, an easy-going family man. Against the protests of his wife, June, Dave dresses and drives to the nightclub to see what is up. His initial response when shown the body is that the police must be called. Carl begs him not to, saying that he could not cope with going to jail. Faced with Carl's fear, Dave takes charge and helps Carl move the body. They take it to the cemetery where Dave works, he breaks into a coffin in an open grave, stamps on the putrefying corpse inside to make room for Mustapha, and re-closes the coffin. Later, they deny all knowledge of Mustapha's disappearance to his distressed widow and son.

2. Do you think Dave is being a good and true friend to Carl? Why?

3. Do you think Carl is being a good and true friend to Dave by involving him and asking him to help?

4. Put yourself in Dave’s shoes. Would you help Carl move a body, disturb a grave, defile another dead body and lie to conceal Mustapha’s death from his family? If not, as a good and true friend, what would you do?

5. Think of your best friend, or one of your closest friends. In general, how far would you go / what sacrifices would you make for them?

6. Is one justified in making moral compromises for a friendship?

7. Do you think it is wrong to tell a lie TO a friend?