Abuela Invents The Zero, From Little Women By Judith Ortiz-Cofer

The most important factor in why someone chooses to do something is how that action will affect their personal feelings because humans value their feelings more than others.

Connie, from "Abuela Invents the Zero" by Judith Ortiz-Cofer, decided to put her feelings in front of Abuela's when she chose not to help when Abuela could not find her way back to the pew in the church. When Connie noticed that Abuela was lost, she decided not to help her because, "I just know that on Monday my friends, and my enemies, in the barrio will have a lot of senile -grandmother jokes to tell" (Ortiz-Cofer para 14). Connie put her feelings before Abuela because she did not want to be teased by her friends. If Connie put Abuela's' feelings in front of hers, she
Near Christmas time, the March sisters decided that their mother, Marmee, needed new slippers, "'They are quite worn out. Marmee must have a new pair.' 'I thought I'd get her some with my dollar,' said Beth. 'No, I shall!' cried Amy. 'I'm the oldest,' began Meg, but Jo cut in with a decided, 'I'm the man of the family now Papa is away, and I shall provide the slippers'" (Alcott para 2-5). Since the sisters argued over who should buy the slippers, they are trying to be Marmee's favorite. If they wanted to buy slippers for Marmee's gain, it would not matter who bought the slippers. The only thing that would have mattered is if Marmee was happy. After the debate on who should buy the slippers, the sisters decided to each give a gift to Marmee. Amy, who bought an inexpensive bottle of cologne, saw all of the other presents and decided to buy a new, larger bottle because, "I felt ashamed of my present [...] so I ran round the corner and changed it the minute I was up, and I'm so glad, for mine is the handsomest now" (Alcott para 29). The motives behind this action are to make Marmee proud of Amy more than the other sisters. This is shown when she calls her bottle "the handsomest", which proves that she bought the bottle only for this purpose, not to
Sometimes, people will see a need in the world, and decide that they need to help. Even though many actions seem like they are for others, but the motivations behind it are to help themselves. People who need service hours, do service just because they need the hours, not because they want to help others. When someone does something good for others, they will get a happy feeling and they may do more service to make themselves feel good. Every action has a motivating factor of helping