“On Umbrella Morals” is an essay by A.G. Gardiner that satirically explores the concept of people’s tendency to pick up items belonging to others and then losing them to others in a continuous cycle. The author coins the term “umbrella conscience” to describe this behavior, where individuals seem honest but indulge in such actions. The essay highlights the absurdity of this behavior, drawing attention to the irony of appearing honest while engaging in morally questionable actions. Read More English Summaries.
On Umbrella Morals Summary
On Umbrella Morals by AG. Gardiner Introduction
The author feels unhappy’ to many people forget to return books taken from others or library They do not from picking other people s hats as well All these things are very annoying to the author
On Umbrella Morals Summary in English
This essay is a satire on the people’s habit of picking up others’ things and then at the same moment losing them by the others. The narrator once loses his silk umbrella and gets a cotton umbrella in exchange. He thinks that the man who would have picked up his silk umbrella might be feeling smart. For such people the narrator has not at all a good opinion. He thinks that these people have umbrella conscience. They are not cheats or a forging men but they pick umbrellas of other people and don’t return it deliberately. They have no feeling of shame or apology
The narrator has the same feeling for those who never return the books of the library or of the others. He has the instances of even the religious persons who also do such things. So, the narrator advises us not to trust even our dearest friends in such affairs. He has also met a number of people who don’t hesitate to take other’s hats. They don’t do it unknowingly but deliberately because they have lost their conscience. They don’t hesitate to do it even in the high class society.
The narrator says that sometimes someone does it by mistake and the moment he knows the real owner he returns it properly with excuses. Once he himself comes to know that the silk umbrella that he got in exchange had travelled a long way with a series of exchanges. He has peculiar experience in his life.