Throughout life, there are many situations that challenge one’s ability to find the means of forgiving someone, or teach them discipline with cold arms. In David Brook’s article, “Prodigal Sons”, Brooks idealizes that disruptive and immoral behavior should be forgiven in order to unify towards a common goal of bettering society and themselves. However, discipline is necessary to mend a person’s riotous living, and should not be accepted until there is proof in a change of the quality of living. The acceptance and caring of the higher, more educated class of individuals to the more unfortunate lower class can lead to detrimental expectations. Brook’s states that the “younger brothers of the world will not be reformed and rebound if they feel they are being lectured to by unpleasant people who consider themselves models of rectitude”. While this is true, there cannot be excessive assistance to those who need it because the intentions of …show more content…
Brooks argues that “…the line between good and evil doesn’t run between people or classes; it runs straight through every human heart”. While that does create a pathway for the tolerance of anyone regardless of their background, one should be cautious when it comes to being charitable towards everyone. Blindly trusting someone is risky, as one could never know if someone in need is being fully truthful about their situation and their plans for reform. Actions speak louder than words. Discipline does not have to be harsh, to where someone banishes a person from the community. Simply making them earn trust through things such as getting a job or quitting bad habits can open a door for forgiveness. It is actually seeing the improvement that one makes for their life through self-discipline and moderate emotional or financial support from the more fortunate, that one can have an “embedded role in the community project” (Brooks
For someone who is very compassionate and always looking to help those less fortunate, Chris is, ironically, unable to forgive his parents’ mistakes. Krakauer reflects on Chris’s inability to forgive his father. “The boy could not pardon the mistakes his father had made as a young man…” (Krakauer 123). Forgiveness is important in Chris’ story because the resentment he has for his parents expands to other aspects of his life, and he begins to isolate himself. His isolation continues through college and ultimately leads...
James Gilligan is an American psychiatrist who presents the causation and prevention of violence from his point of view of working in US prisons for decades in his book “Preventing Violence”. Gilligan provides readers with a multitude of data and theories, but his book (or at least the first four chapters) boils down to the fact that violence towards other is caused by shame. He calls upon his many years of interaction with prison inmates and explains how inmates who committed violent crimes often said it was because they were disrespected, and therefore shamed. However, it’s very important to highlight that it takes not only shame but also an inability to “regain respect” after a shameful event, to cause violence as Gilligan proposes. This
“You may soon find yourself with nothing to talk to your folks or friends about”. (p.532) In other words, education changes those with lower class backgrounds into different people, and when you begin to succeed, those relationships that were once fulfilling with people from your childhood and the old neighborhood are not the same, there is not a connection as you no longer have things in common to maintain the relationship and you may find it difficult to keep in
When a person does something that hurts others, one will likely experience regret for the harm their actions. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the theme of guilt and its effects on your behavior, self-image, and your interactions with others is explored. Gene, in the beginning, sees Finny as his best friend, and relies on him for support and friendship; however, after Gene causes Finny to break his leg, his guilt causes him to change is personality and self-image. Their friendship is damaged by Gene’s guilt.
Through the eyes of the prosperous, a lack of wealth indicates a fault in character, while their own success is the product of self-control. Paul Buchheit, who analyzed seven different psychological studies in his article titled “Ways the Poor Are More Ethical Than the Rich,” found that “ample evidence exists to show a correlation between wealth and unethical behavior, ...wealth and a lack of empathy for others, and…wealth and unproductiveness” (Buchheit). The relationship between wealth and poor character implies that when people become rich, they start caring more about maintaining their money supply and less about the well-being of others. As wealth increases, generosity, integrity, modesty, and other positive characteristics diminish. Paul Buchheit also noted that “low-income Americans spend a much higher percentage of their income on genuine charitable giving, [with] about two-thirds of ‘charitable’ donations from the rich go[ing] to their foundations and alma maters” (Buchheit). This proves that the wealthy are generally self-absorbed because a large proportion of them, despite having an abundance of money, refrain from devoting it to those in need. When donations are made, it’s only for their own personal benefit. Because the wealthy are programmed to be self-centered, they fail to serve others with their money and instead serve
It should not be a surprise that many people believe that a college degree is a necessity in today’s world. We are taught to believe this at a young age. The average citizen will not question this statement due to how competitive the job market has become, yet does graduating college guarantee more success down the road? Peter Brooks is a scholar at Princeton University and publisher of an essay that questions the value of college. He obviously agrees that college can help securing a job for the future, but questions the humanities about the education. He uses other published works, the pursuit of freedom, and draws on universal arguments that pull in the reader to assume the rest of his essay has valid reasons.
—Forgiveness is a suite of prosocial motivational changes that happened after a person has incurred a transgression (McCullogh). McCullogh also asserts the forgiveness process includes empathy for the transgressor, generous attributions and appraisals regarding the transgression and transgressor, and rumination abalout the transgression where agreeableness takes a serious place in the person who needs to forgive someone. Andre was impressed by his father’s work, the emotion developed in Andre’s mind have given up revenge and resentment thought to his father. When Andre’s father had an accident that made his legs crushed and had to sit on a wheelchair for the rest of his life; Andre immediately felt how vulnerable people are. He cherished the relationship with his father, in fact after the accident Andre started to cherish everyone besides him. The accident was a trigger to a prosocial motivational change to Andre and his father’s relationship. “But deliver us from evil. Amen” (Dubus, 387). Andre prayed on his father’s funeral. Forgiveness needs something to trigger; Andre understand pop’s condition and forgave him. Andre knew that his father has done the best he could, and he was happy and grateful that he had a father. Moreover, Andre’s life was full of sports, the healing process was impacted by
...amily members may cling to the idea that people experiencing poverty deserve to because admitting that individuals affected by poverty may not be responsible for their own challenges would cause too much discomfort. Questioning the concept of the undeserving poor, would affect those who adhere to it by causing them to question other cultural ideals. For instance, if my friend were to admit that poverty is not linked to deservingness, then my friend’s success is not linked to deservingness; this in turn, may challenge my friend’s own feelings of being exceptional and may make him question the reasons behind his own success. In addition, people may choose to believe the poverty myths about deservingness because it is safer for their self-perceptions than admitting that they are okay with and prospering in a social, political, and economic systems that harm others.
“Forgive and forget” is a common phrase in our society. However, one may argue that mistakes are never truly forgotten. The Kite Runner suggests that the best way to resolve your past and make up for your mistakes is through doing good. Through Rahim Khan’s wisdom, the actions of Baba, and the journey of Amir, Khaled Hosseini illustrates that the need for redemption, due to unresolved guilt, can haunt someone throughout their life.
In the article, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Peter Singer expresses his displeasure with people not preventing bad things from happening, even when it is within their power. Spending money on buying extravagant goods instead of giving it to the needy seems to be a foreign concept to him. He questions how human beings can be so inhumane to ignore other’s sufferings. Singer is an utilitarian and believes in lending aid to the underprivileged. Through his paper, Singer argues that well-to-do people are morally obligated to help the impoverished.
“I’m never going to act like my mother!” These words are increasingly common and yet unavoidable. Why is it that as children, we are able to point out every flaw in our parents, but as we grow up, we recognize that we are repeating the same mistakes we observed? The answer is generational curses: un-cleansed iniquities that increase in strength from one generation to the next, affecting the members of that family and all who come into relationship with that family (Hickey 13). Marilyn Hickey, a Christian author, explains how this biblically rooted cycle is never ending when she says, “Each generation adds to the overall iniquity, further weakening the resistance of the next generation to sin” (21, 22). In other words, if your parents mess up you are now susceptible to making the same mistakes, and are most likely going to pass those mistakes to your children. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows the beauty of hope in the presence of a generational curse. Even though the elders are the ones who produce the curses, they are also the ones who attempt to break Junior from their bond forming mistakes. The curses that Arnold’s elders imprint on him lead him to break out of his cultural bonds and improve himself as a developing young man.
Especially during this time period when Europe was staunchly divided into classes, it was difficult to break apart form the stigma of being poor. Even as new ideas with humanism were merging, the separation was clear, as shown by some Humanist’s writing. Vives says that the poor are “driven” to robbery and other detestable behavior. This educated, possibly liberal-minded man describes the most negative behaviors, yet concedes that those of his class cannot understand their motivations. [Document 3] Another part of class is how upper classes felt a duty towards the poor. A doctor of the 16th century talked about his offerings of help. However, he admits to not performing after judging that the poor often would rather be idle than work honestly. [Document 6] Because of his hard working ethics as a doctor, he feels he has the class privilege to judge those poor. Again, with the humanist Vives; he later remarks on the worthiness of poor people for charity. Over a century and a half later, a wealthy merchant writes to his kids about the benefits of a poor lifestyle. [Document 11] He judges their behavior as a choice, and form his wealthy class point of view, may be
By handing out money to a beggar, you are “only saving yourself from annoyance…” (Pg. 15) Carnegie states that nobody improves by almsgiving for you will only aid the person’s addiction. As an advocate of Social Darwinism, Carnegie believed in competitive natures within his workers. He believed in a definite separation of classes and it was not only needed, but also
Individuals often have a strong desire to pursue their aspirations and desires due to their ambitious, determined innate nature. However, through these numerous achievements they have successfully fulfilled, other people’s perception of the individual will vastly differ depending on their relationship with him/her. In the poem “Prodigal”, Bob Hicok suggests that when individuals have successfully accomplished their ambitions, others will perceive the individual’s changed identity in vastly different ways depending on their relationship with the individual. An individual’s ambitious nature will also significantly impact themselves due to their ever-changing perception of themselves, which will greatly affect their own perceptions and decisions
Hope, Donald. "The healing paradox of forgiveness." Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training 24.2 (1987): 240.