Regarding The Pain Of Others By Susan Sontag Summary
Mina Hanna
Vanessa Frazier
ENG1A
February 9th, 2014
Essay one
Pain in War
On one hand, the first essay “Regarding the pain of others” written by Susan Sontag in 2004. Sontag was born early in the twenty century; she was considered filmmaker, writer, and political activist. She used any possible way to teach people on humanity and human rights without being scared to be killed or go to jail at that time as it was not safe to talk about these topics back then. Sontag is discussing how people react when they see others passing through painful experience. Sontag complains about how people do not sympathize when they see others suffering. Susan starts with talking about pain of others in general and pain of people suffering in wars. On the other hand, the second essay “Hiroshima” by John Berger is talking about the disaster of two atomic bombs being dropped in Japan. Berger, who is a painter himself, is describing the picture in the book called “Unforgettable Fire”; the book has pictures that have been drawn by non-professional survivals describing their experience, or as they call it “hell on earth”. …show more content…
Both Sontag and Berger talks about media in their essays; they do not quite agree on the role of the media. Sontag blames the problem for people not feeling the pain of others on the media as she thinks that seeing too many war pictures and news on the television is one of the main reasons for the problem. Personally, I agree with Sontag from what I learned from a psychology class. I learned that when one watches the same thing, good or bad, everyday, it does not have any effect on him/her. Sontag’s main problem is for people to restore their humanity by feeling the pain while watching the painful images on the news. She is hoping that war will come to an end, as the news channels cannot just stop streaming these painful pictures, as it is their job to inform people about what is happening around
Vanessa Frazier
ENG1A
February 9th, 2014
Essay one
Pain in War
On one hand, the first essay “Regarding the pain of others” written by Susan Sontag in 2004. Sontag was born early in the twenty century; she was considered filmmaker, writer, and political activist. She used any possible way to teach people on humanity and human rights without being scared to be killed or go to jail at that time as it was not safe to talk about these topics back then. Sontag is discussing how people react when they see others passing through painful experience. Sontag complains about how people do not sympathize when they see others suffering. Susan starts with talking about pain of others in general and pain of people suffering in wars. On the other hand, the second essay “Hiroshima” by John Berger is talking about the disaster of two atomic bombs being dropped in Japan. Berger, who is a painter himself, is describing the picture in the book called “Unforgettable Fire”; the book has pictures that have been drawn by non-professional survivals describing their experience, or as they call it “hell on earth”. …show more content…
Both Sontag and Berger talks about media in their essays; they do not quite agree on the role of the media. Sontag blames the problem for people not feeling the pain of others on the media as she thinks that seeing too many war pictures and news on the television is one of the main reasons for the problem. Personally, I agree with Sontag from what I learned from a psychology class. I learned that when one watches the same thing, good or bad, everyday, it does not have any effect on him/her. Sontag’s main problem is for people to restore their humanity by feeling the pain while watching the painful images on the news. She is hoping that war will come to an end, as the news channels cannot just stop streaming these painful pictures, as it is their job to inform people about what is happening around