Major Rathbone's actions were selfish. How so?

• A. He attempted to protect the President ahead of his own safety.
• B. He refused to allow medical treatment.
• C. He hid during the commotion.
• D. He asked the doctor to treat him before he treated the President.

Answer: (D)

Evaluating character under pressure: in a crisis, what a person does reveals where their priorities lie. The option describing Rathbone asking the doctor to treat him before treating the President best fits the idea of selfishness because it shows he prioritized his own medical need over Lincoln’s urgent life-or-death situation. In that moment, the President needed immediate attention, and putting his own wound first signals self-interest rather than duty. Other behaviors described would reflect concern for the President, avoidance, or self-protection in a different sense, which don’t align with the notion of selfishness being tested here.