No Mercy

           In No Mercy by Malcolm Gladwell, we hear the story of Robert Oppenheimer, and how he decided to poison his tutor, and then hear about the punishment he received because of it. I feel that Oppenheimer’s punishment was appropriate, because of the circumstances that were factored in to his behavior. Gladwell says that Oppenheimer was going through a very difficult time when the incident occurred, and because of this, I feel that Oppenheimer wasn’t as mentally stable as he normally was, therefore causing him to make decisions he otherwise wouldn’t have made. I typically am not one to side with “not in the right mind” arguments, but in this case, I really do feel Oppenheimer was not in his right mind, especially considering the fact he went on in life to become one of the smartest brains by creating the atomic bomb in WWII.

             To judge as to whether or not Oppenheimer should have been kicked out of school or not, is not exactly a fair question. Every situation is different and every school has their own rules. Personally, I feel that Oppenheimer should have been suspended for a short time, be assigned to see a psychiatrist, and had to have written a formal apology. I do not think he should have been expelled. People do stupid things all the time, and sometimes there are reasons that just can’t be explained, and because of this it wouldn’t have been necessary to expel Oppenheimer. A punishment for behavioral issues is not always the answer, so I feel that by the school putting Oppenheimer on probation, it was more effective.

            Robert Oppenheimer was one of the inventors of the atomic bomb, dropped on Japan during WWII. Because of his background in physics, Oppenheimer was the perfect man for the job of creating the most explosive and effective bomb in warfare. Some may say that Oppenheimer is one of the worst evil minds in history, because of the fact that his creation killed thousand of people, but to the U.S he was responsible for putting the end to an awful event in our history. It’s funny to think that if Oppenheimer had been expelled from his school, then he may have never helped make the atomic bomb, and then who knows what the result of WWII may have been.