Simon Wiesenthal takes his readers on a course back in time with his writings of The Sunflower. Simon recollects moments when he was subjected to live in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Karl, a dying SS soldier implores for forgiveness for his crimes against Jews to Simon. Our main character is conflicted by the request and leaves his readers by asking what would one have done being in his position. Proving an answer to this question can be determined by the analysis of Simon’s experiences and findings of experimenters. Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram’s experiments demonstrate the relationship and effects that authority has on subjects. In “The Perils of Obedience”, Milgram applies his analysis of his experiments showing that…
In the book The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal, Wiesenthal speaks to the reader and states, “You, who have just read this sad tragic episode in my life...and ask yourself the crucial question, ‘What would I have done?’” (98). Wiesenthal was task with the decision of whether to forgive Karl, and 22-year-old SS soldier, for his sins committed against the Jews. Wiesenthal, doesn’t forgive Karl, and I agree with this decision. If placed in Wiesenthal’s shoes, I would not, and could not, forgive Karl for his sins, and crimes, against European Jewry because only God can forgive man for sins against God, but also because Karl never seemed to show any true remorse.…
Over the summer we read the book “The Sunflower”, a story written by Simon Wiesenthal. The story consists of a man named Simon having to make a choice of to forgive someone that has brought him great pain. Simon is faced with Nazi asking for forgiveness for all the people he has killed over the years. Simon makes a choice but later regrets it.…
I felt her tears would wash the inhuman acts for decades as well as all perpetrators' sins. I wondered if the winged mother hastily forgets her child to give that simple forgiveness speech, or she forgives, but she never forgets! The scene comes along with the big theme of "The Sunflower" when Simon Wiesenthal challenges with the question about forgiving. He refuses to forgive Karl on his going bed for his atrocities against Jews (Simon 55). The great anguish of Simon drives his humanity along with his believe and puts him in awkward time with his conscious. No doubt, the outstanding about Simon’s question is not only the possibilities of forgiveness or who deserves to be forgiven but most important is the brought endeavor to decide. Although it is normal to those, who believe that forgiveness depending on the human nature and different conditions such as repentance of the perpetrator or the mercy of the direct victim, my close arguments acknowledge that unconditional forgiveness does not come along with the human nature and needs a supernatural power to…
There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.” This is a famous quote said by Marcel Proust. Books over the centuries have had an influential impact on the lives of many. Arguably, there are none more influential than children’s books. Children’s books contain important life lessons and teach many children the basic values they will hold for the remainder of their lives. Examples of the best range from the well-known Dr. Seuss books, to the always-popular Winnie the Pooh books. Although those are historically popular, The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister, is one that should be kept in mind. With it’s enticing illustrations, simple and descriptive context, and lesson it portrays, the children’s book The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister should be considered for a spot on the “Top 100 Children’s Books” list.…
There are many ways to describe a topic or an event. Authors, for example, have their own unique style to present their argument when faced with a group of listeners. This unique style that accompanies every author can be announced in various forms of expression, such as statistics, social media, and artistic perspective to show their ideas as well as their opinions. The fact that pictures have no words makes it one of the best ways of persuasion because it can be interpreted in many different ways. In addition, these interpretations have no boundaries because none of them can be considered wrong.…
The Chosen by Chaim Potok focuses on the journey of two Jewish boys from childhood to manhood. Its main character, Reuven Malter struggles to recover from a baseball hit to the eye and discovers the importance of friendship as well as experiencing firsthand the struggles of understanding others. The Chosen is one of the best books this year because it demonstrates the importance of friendship, religion, and loyalty. To begin, friendship makes The Chosen one of the best books this year. Friendships are a necessary part of life without friendship people experience loneliness and exclusion.…
In Elie Wiesel's nobel prize acceptance speech, Wiesel uses this platform to delegate and urge people to remember the holocaust, that they may learn from his experiences and understand his mission, using both emotion and moral ethics, Wiesel takes a stand that no person may feel at peace until the matter is resolved. In his speech wiesel gives his statements due to his feeling and urge to reach out due to the terrible memories that haunt him and as an example he uses is when he talks about the little boy ¨And now the boy is turning to me: "Tell me," he asks. "What have you done with my future? What have you done with your life?" here Wiesel expresses his feelings for the past, that it urges him to do more; using an example of his past self…
1. WESCO is a classic intermediary in the channel and must add value for both suppliers and customers to maintain this intermediary position (i.e., otherwise the suppliers might be tempted to “dis-intermediate” WESCO and go direct).…
When I read the book it all boiled down to me that the main topic being discussed is the word forgiveness. Because the act of forgiveness has complex philosophical, moral, religious or spiritual aspects, it requires and deserves a thoughtful analysis of our beliefs. The main character in the book was a man name Simon Wiesenthal and who was also the author of this book.…
The Sunflower is an autobiography of the story of a Holocaust survivor named Simon Wiesenthal. He was called into a dying SS mans death room so that he could be asked for forgiveness of the man's “horrible deed”. He told him a story of when he killed a group of Jews and asked for Simons forgiveness as a Jew. What Simon did next will haunt him for a very long time. Instead of forgiving the man, Or even acknowledging his question, Simon walked out of the room. He begins to question his actions. Would he have been justified in forgiving him? Or is that out of his realm of forgiveness? Forgiveness in itself can be a very tough and touchy subject, Especially when dealing with one of the most unforgivable acts in human history, The Holocaust. How could anyone forgive someone for that? At the end of the book, Simon poses 4 questions. “Was my silence at the bedside of the dying Nazi right or wrong? Did I even have the right to forgive? What moral obligation do we have to remember? What should I have done?” in which, he has multiple people construct essays to answer his questions. In my opinion, Simon should have left with an explanation of why he would not forgive Karl.…
Education is the way to help people in a broken society, where we have many lost children in the streets and jails, and parents on drugs. Role-models are what’s needed; when a child sees the parents going to school and working, hopefully it will make him or her want to do the same. Also it’s a hard decision for a mother to make, having to leave young children and seek work, but in a society with many single mothers, it’s hard not to have to work. In a mother’s decision to work, she has to have a lot of faith that the morals and values that she instilled in her child at home would help keep them safe and make positive decisions while she’s away from the home working. Education and employment is the only way to empower a society that has been torn down from years of poverty. One of the welfare reforms triumphs was an explosion for never married mothers; who rose from 45 percent in 1995 to more than 60 percent between 2000 and…
Forgiveness is a major theme that is developed throughout The Sunflower, Herbert Marcuse being a philosopher told what he would do if asked to forgive. Born 19 July 1898, in Berlin, Germany, he became an American political philosopher. Marcuse went to the University of Freiburg and got a doctoral degree in German literature when he was 24. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1940 and served as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services for three years. He taught at Columbia, Harvard, Brandeis and the University of California from 1951 to 1976. Marcuse was a professor of philosophy until he died in 1979. His most influential work is the One-dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (Wolin). “Marcus argued that the modern ‘affluent’ society represses even those who are successful within it, while maintaining their complacency through the ersatz satisfactions of consumer culture” (Wolin). This was a very influential book…
“The Sower” Vincent Van Gogh, painted in 1888. He uses a silhouette to represent the raising of ordinary people and the sun creating a halo over his head. He also uses colour recession because there are colour opposites present. Positive space is the tree and the sower, the background is the negative space.…
The book As a Driven Leaf, by Milton Steinberg, poignantly depicts the internal conflict between faith and knowledge within Rabbi Elisha ben Abuya. Though the majority of the story is rooted in fiction, Steinberg accurately portrays the pain that results from the schism of convictions and the realities that contradict them. As a person who has experienced crises of faith, I deeply connected with this book. Rabbi Elisha struggles to coincide his values as a Jew with terrible events that he witnesses in the world around him: a conflict that I understand too well. For years, my family faced financial struggles, all of which finally culminated in being forced to leave my home of seventeen years just this past summer.…