Train Job Take Two

One of the things that we mentioned a few times was Jayne’s selfishness in the Train Job. However, I think that the theme of morality among all the characters can be extended to Jayne as well. This is not to say he isn’t selfish sometimes, that is certain. The main example we looked at in class was that Jayne wanted to leave when Mal and Zoe were stuck in the town. We used this to show that he puts himself before others, but I think that this shows how his strong sense of right and wrong is definitely there, just different from everyone else’s on the ship.
One of the themes from the episode, as illustrated when Mal said “I don’t believe he does [have a choice]”, is that everyone had such a strong burden to do the right thing, that they only saw one possible course of action in most situations. When they were debating whether to leave the planet, Jayne was insistent on leaving without Mal and Zoe. This may seem selfish, but I think he was trying to protect the crew as a whole. He recognized that everyone, himself included, would be endangered if they chose to stay, so he argued for everyone to leave. However, even when everyone decided to stay, he still saved Mal from Crow. I believe that Jayne has a reluctance to do things for others, but when it comes down to it, he is ready and able.
This reluctance is illustrated in the bar fight scene. As the fight starts to form, Mal looks to Jayne and asks him to help, but Jayne says he will not participate because it wasn’t his fight. However, after the fight begins, we see Jayne fighting against all the Alliance supporters once the brawl broke out. We see that he knew the right thing was to help out Mal, and even though he was unwilling at first, after it started he felt that he needed to join in.
To summarize, I don’t think Jayne is the entirely selfish man that we chalked him up to be in class.

Matthew