There's a theory about morality that goes back to Margaret Mead's time, that says that for some people, the moral compass is internal, and for some people, it comes from an external source. At the time, the division was roughly described as the shame culture v. the guilt culture, but really, both can feel guilt--but for different things. The internally directed person feels guilt for what they do that is immoral, the externally driven guilt is for letting down the source of the moral direction, for breaking the rule.
I think in the Winchester house, Dean is driven by an internalized sense of morality, and he has chosen to take on the burden for both of them rather than expose Sam to those feelings of guilt and low self-worth for his moral flaws.
Sam's morality is externalized. It's no accident Sam wanted to be a lawyer, because the law would serve the purpose that Dean had served until then--giving him a moral direction. But with the law gone, and with Sam deciding that Dean's judgment can't be trusted on the subject of saving Dean, his moral compass has been replaced with an objective, a goal. It's not that he's a sociopath--he would be fully capable of feeling guilt in general and for letting Dean down in particular. But the letting Dean down would trump just about everything else.
John, I would think, also relied on external moral compasses, like the Marines, and possibly to some extent the Church, or Mary. but all that was burnt away in his grief, and I don't think he had much of a moral compass at all for most of the boys' lives. Hell of a goal, though.
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I think in the Winchester house, Dean is driven by an internalized sense of morality, and he has chosen to take on the burden for both of them rather than expose Sam to those feelings of guilt and low self-worth for his moral flaws.
Sam's morality is externalized. It's no accident Sam wanted to be a lawyer, because the law would serve the purpose that Dean had served until then--giving him a moral direction. But with the law gone, and with Sam deciding that Dean's judgment can't be trusted on the subject of saving Dean, his moral compass has been replaced with an objective, a goal. It's not that he's a sociopath--he would be fully capable of feeling guilt in general and for letting Dean down in particular. But the letting Dean down would trump just about everything else.
John, I would think, also relied on external moral compasses, like the Marines, and possibly to some extent the Church, or Mary. but all that was burnt away in his grief, and I don't think he had much of a moral compass at all for most of the boys' lives. Hell of a goal, though.