Bianca Zwerlein Conversation 8

Summary

Leave No Trace is about a young girl (named Tom) and her father living in a public park. The father is a veteran dealing with PTSD and having trouble adjusting to a normal life. Tom, the teenager sleeps with her father in a sleeping bag in the woods, and they live off money the father makes by selling his medications to homeless people. She doesn’t go to school or have a social life, but she learned how to read from her father. They were forced out of the woods because someone spotted Tom in the park while they were exploring. Both were given a home after they’ve been questioned. The father had trouble adapting to this new life and decided to leave the home and all the opportunities they were given. The father went back to the woods with Tom after she’s experienced a new lifestyle, made a friend and felt comfortable in the new house. The father got injured in the woods and Tom made sure he was taken care of by asking for help. She found a great community of people with kind hearts and wanted to stay there but the father once again wanted to leave. She decided that she was ready to carve her own path.

In the film, the moral dilemma was the hard decision that Tom had to make between staying with her loving father who raised her or leave and live a normal life as a teenager in a house. She struggled with this loyalty she has for her father and this lifestyle that he introduced her to. She needed to be her own person and experience life in a different way.

1. I would follow my conscience: If she were to follow her conscience, she'd eventually tell her father no and stay in a nice house with everything a little girl needs to flourish, make friends, go to school and experience life differently.
2. I don’t know what I would do: She would be thinking about the possibilities of a life in a house or in the woods and how that would affect everything, especially her relationship with her father. Tom wouldn't take any actions to reach a decision.
3. I would do whatever would improve my own situation: To improve her situation, she might've tried to convince her father to stay in the house that the social worker helped them find and adapt to the new lifestyle.
4. I Would Do What God or the Scriptures Say Is Right: If Tom were to follow the scriptures, she would stay with her father, take care of him and maybe leave until she's of age or ready to be separated from him by marrying a man.
5. I Would Do Whatever Made Me Happy: If Tom were to do whatever would make her happy, she would've stayed in the house and not follow her father once he told her they had to leave. She finally made a friend, she had a bike and she was about to go to school.
6. I would follow the advice of an authority figure: Tom's authority figure is her father, she would listen to him and follow his orders or whatever he tells her to do because she's one thirteen.
7. I would do what’s best for everyone: If Tom were to do what was best for everyone, she wouldn't put herself first, she would think about how her actions would affect her father. She would stay with him and follow him wherever he goes because she loves him and their bond is very strong. Or she would again try to convince her father to stay and it's a win win situation for the social worker, the kindhearted gentleman who offered them the house, and the father wouldn't be separated from her. But the father again cannot live based on societal norms, so it wouldn't be what's best for him.

It's hard to say what position I'd take if I faced this dilemma. I love my grandfather dearly and he was the one who raised me, he was my hero and I couldn't imagine a life without him. On the other hand, if his decisions were harming me or causing me great suffering, I'd convince him to try to change and make some sacrifices. If it was impossible, then I'd do whatever would improve my situation even if that would mean to leave him.