Ryan Murphy Professor Safronov Faith and Critical Reason 13 March, 2024 Should One Forgive? The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal describes a Holocaust survivor’s surprising and thought-provoking study of forgiveness, justice, compassion, and human responsibility. In addition to his synopsis of his story as a Holocaust survivor, Wiesenthal includes excerpts from many famous interlocutors, who share their opinions on his story, and add their own religious and moral beliefs as defenses for their particular positions. Two interlocutors whose views are informed by religious and moral beliefs are Matthew Fox and Desmond Tutu. Wiesenthal, Fox, and Tutu discuss the topic of forgiveness, and leave the reader with the question: Should one forgive? Matthew …show more content…
An individual who is murdered has family, friends, colleagues, etc. who are all impacted by this. Who is to say they would be able to forgive the person who murdered their loved one? I believe there is no threshold for a sin that is “too big” to be forgiven. It all depends on that person’s moral beliefs. If someone wants to be free to move on with their life, they will forgive. If someone believes the impact is too large for forgiveness, they should not be condemned. On the other hand, people like Desmond Tutu use religious beliefs to shape their opinions about forgiveness, arguing that Christians have a duty to forgive, which stems from the belief that God’s forgiveness is freely given, regardless of the extent of the sin. My opinion of forgiveness is a mix of both Matthew Fox’s and Desmond Tutu’s opinions. I would consider myself a Christian, so my beliefs align with Tutu’s belief that no sin is too extensive to be forgiven. I also identify with Matthew Fox’s quote “One should forgive— not out of altruism but out of the need to be free to get on with one’s life— but we ought not forget.”(Wiesenthal 128) I can sympathize with someone who is unable to
The Sunflower written by Simon Wiesenthal, give us a memorable invitation to change places with the author "You, who have just read this sad and tragic episode in my life, can mentally change places with me and ask yourself the crucial question, "what would I have done?'"(Wiesenthal 98). this question is really hard, almost impossible to answer without an argument, taking me to create a great dilemma for some reasons such as, I have never been in a situation like Wiesenthal, I am not a Jew, even
Alycia M. Jones April 22, 2014 The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness Simon Wiesenthal wrote a personal account of living in Nazi concentration camps. He titled this “The Sunflower”, because he noticed the German graves were decorated with beautiful sunflowers. He realized that the Jewish graves would never be honored, marked, decorated, or visited. There would be no memory of them after their annihilation. This written account is Wiesenthal’s way to assure his remembrance
Sunflower Reflection The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal shares many valuable lessons about life. Along with these lessons it gives the perspective of a holocaust survivor. The main idea throughout the book is the concept of forgiveness. Given that the author, Simon, is a Jew trapped in a German work camp is put in a unique situation when a SS officer asks him for forgiveness. This leads to the moral question of whether he should be given forgiveness for his actions and why this story has been written
Wiesenthal, Simon, the Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness Synopsis and book setting The story is a about a dying SS officer who asks for a Jew in his last moments so he can seek redemption. Simon Wiesenthal was called and he decided to become silent when the apology was delivered to him as the representative of his people. Some comment on the perpetuation of the crime through the ambiguous apology of the SS man. The reason why Simon did not comment was partly because of the