Is Redemption Possible Without Forgiveness from Others? Redemption on a secular level comes from within. Forgiveness comes when others recognize one’s mistakes, accept, and correct them. Redemption however, comes from one forgiving themselves on a deeper level. Self-acceptance and redemption are harder to achieve than forgiveness from others. When one feels redeemed, it means that they can be fully forgiven. Pip from Great Expectations is a great example of self-forgiveness and redemption because even after his family forgave him for the wrongs he committed, he still felt uneasy about himself until he cured himself of the disease he had: egocentricity. Richard Rodriguez’s character from his autobiography Hunger of Memory (however?), has not displayed his self-realization because he is not aware that he has harmed people from his actions and because of that he has not matured. Pip has been more successfully redeemed at the end of his story than Richard Rodriguez because Pip has recognized his selfish mistakes in his private life, and because of this recognition, he has grown.
One’s selfish actions can lead to the destruction of important relationships and regret for one’s past desires. During Richard’s younger years, he had always felt close to his family, speaking the same language, and sharing commonalities. As he grew older he distanced himself from his family because he wanted to feel like an outsider. Richard states, “Intimacy is not trapped within words. It passes through words. It passes. The truth is that intimates leave the room. Doors close. Faces move away from the window. Time passes. Voices recede into the dark. Death finally quiets the voice. And there is no way to deny it” (40). In this passage Richard states that ...
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... to him. Once Pip returned home to repay Joe and Biddy for their reliability, he made a difference in their lives and his own. After Pip had a near-death experience, he reexamined the valuable relationships in his life and admitted his mistakes. Richard has not been successfully redeemed in his private life because he honestly does not care about his family. Richard has clearly explained that he only cares about his public life because he has no intimacy with his family. Private lives are more important than public lives personal relationships are the ones that that truly count. If one compares being successful and being happy, happiness is more important than success. Pip is happy because he has fixed his life by realizing his own missteps. Richard is very clearly successful; however, he not satisfied with the way he got there. He is successful, but he is not happy
...tionship and further shapes his character into a state of self-isolation as he will even push his closest family out of his life.
Lemann’s Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War gives the reader an account of events, many of which are violent, just after the end of the Civil War. On the surface, Lemann spends great time documenting the violence faced by southern blacks and the life of Adelbert Ames. However, the backdrop is more complex and deals with the changing environment in the United States. Most importantly, the need of the United States needed to integrate four million former slaves into society. Lemann states the purpose of this book is to answer the question “what kinds of lives black people might live in the South now depended on the freed slaves’ organizing abilities and on the reliability of their voting rights” (xi). The subtitle, The Last Battle of the Civil War, correctly states that although the Civil War had officially ended the battle stilled raged physically, politically, and through public sentiment.
The world-renowned novel, The Kite Runner was written by Afghanistan born American novelist Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini was born into a Shia Muslim family in Kabul that later in life decided to move to Paris. Hosseini was unable to return to Kabul due to the Taliban take over, this cause the Hosseini family to seek political asylum in America. The actions that Hosseini witnessed of his beloved home country influenced his novel with the themes of guilt and redemption. “The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” – Victor Hugo. In The Kite Runner the theme of guilt and redemption is shown through the character development of the protagonist Amir. Hosseini used Amir’s guilt of his past to grow the impression that with regret lies a hope for redemption.
While reading through the Bible, a person does not expect to find so much forgiveness and unconditional love. As Christians, the Bible is our book whenever there are questions that need to be answered. Throughout his or her life, a Christian is taught of the life of Christ and His Resurrection, but there is a lot of information that seems to be overlooked. When asked to explain the big picture of the Bible, it is easiest to look through the main stories of the Bible and find common themes. While looking through the Bible, and finding so many themes present throughout, but there is one that important in the life of a Christian, the cycle of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration is one of the most important ones seen from Genesis to Revelation.
Redemption is a word that contains various meanings. It could be referring to forgiveness, or recovery. Perhaps an escape from something. It is something that everybody yearns for, but cannot quite grasp in their hands. It is not something that we can look for and find. In fact, redemption often comes our way on its own when we expect it the least. Three characters from three stories go through different conflicts and redeem themselves in ways they never would have guessed. Some even found redemption with the help of others. Guy Montag from the novel Fahrenheit 451 finds redemption through freedom and liberation. The lawyer in the short story The Bet redeems himself by way of recovery. Edmond Dantes achieved his redemption through deception. These three characters redeem themselves in different ways, but something they all share is that they all go through the process of redemption and become reformed in some way.
...uilty feeling inside people. It is pointless for doing thousands of good things in the present when they could not change a sin in their past. Redemption can be considered as a comfort, that gives people "the illusion", a feeling of believing that they could pay back for their sins. However, it is not true; what has been done could not be inversed again. For example, Amir may have saved Sohrab's life by rescuing the boy from Assef, but that is what he does for Sohrab, not Hassan. His half-brother had still been raped by Assef, he got shot and already died. That truth is unchangeable. In fact, redemption is an action that may be kind of selfishness because most parts of redemption are all about sinners, when they try to make themselves feel better. Therefore, the author's statement of the redemption, "there is a way to be good again", is not always true.
Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feeling and attitude regarding an offense; let’s go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender. Walter (1984) stated that forgiveness is a voluntary process that usually requires courage and multiple acts of the will to complete. In Walters' view, the person who has been hurt has two alternatives: to be destroyed by resentment which leads to death, or to forgive which leads to healing and life. Sonja Lyubomirsky calls forgiveness is a natural resolution of the grief process, which is the necessary acknowledgment of pain and loss. It is a powerful choice that can lead to greater well being and better relationships.
In her Cosmopolitan article titled “Get Him to Forgive You,” author Debra Wallace states that there are four steps that a women has to take in order to gain her male significant other’s forgiveness after she has “messed up:”
Is it possible to forgive a wrong done to someone else? Should only those who repent be forgiven?
In the end all the characters achieved their redemption in one way or another. Pip got his by returning to the way he once was. Ms. Havisham tried to get hers by attempting suicide. All of the character’s goals were redemption in one way or another. A theme of redemption is present and emphasized in Great Expectations by, what happens when Pip gets an anonymous letter telling him to go to the marshes, Pip and Magiwitch’s ongoing relationship, Pip’s realization of his love for Joe and Biddy, Pip’s redeeming qualities being with him all along, Ms. Havisham’s eventual realization of the error of her ways, and in society itself.
The most important theme throughout the book can be said to be ambition and self-improvement. Pip at heart is an idealist; whenever he is convinced that something is superior to what he has, he immediately desires to obtain that improvement. This is best illustrated when he sees Satis house, which puts him into a state of mind of desiring to be a wealthy gentleman. In this novel, Pip’s ambition and self-improvement takes three forms: moral, social, and educational. Firstly, he desires moral self-improvement and is very hard on himself when he feels that he acts immorally, by trying to act better in the future. This can be noticed when Pip leaves for London and is disappointed with his behavior towards Biddy and Joe. Secondly he desires social self-improvement, after having fallen in love with Estella, who demands Pip to act according to high society. His fantasies of becoming a gentleman are further fueled by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook. These fantasies prove to be very significant throughout the plot, since the author uses these ideas of social class to explore the class system of his period. Thirdly, Pip desires educational improvement, which is deeply connected to his social ambition and dream of marrying Estella. Ultimately, through the examples of Joe, Biddy and Magwitch, Pip learns that social and educational improvement are irrelevant to one’s real worth and that conscience and affection are to be valued above social ranking.
“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”(Matthew 6:14-15, NIV) Husain Haddawy’s The Arabian Nights discusses many situations in which individuals learn to forgive others for the wrong that they have done against them. The Bible refers to the idea of forgiveness as an act not only for the person that has wronged you but for yourself; in order to grow, we have to forgive because if we do not, God will not forgive us. Haddawy’s literary work emphasizes the importance of forgiveness through the stories relating to the Demon and King Shahrayar.
When I opened my yearbook, I began to reminisce about my half year of high school in China. As I flipped through the pages of the yearbook, a picture of an old man with a benevolent smile caught my eyes. Daydreaming about the incident, my eyesight became hazy, and I felt my hands becoming swollen, which always refreshes my memory of his profound words.
Forgiveness is the act of releasing an offender of any wrong or hurt they may have caused you whether they deserve it or not. It is a decision to let go of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group of people. When we choose to forgive, we’re wiping the slate clean, cancelling a debt, or as I love to say, “Letting it go.” In the Bible, the Greek word for forgiveness literally means to “let it go.” This concept, “forgiveness,” is easier said than done. Majority of people find it very difficult to let go of offenses and hurts caused by others. I really do believe that most people desire to let it go, but we lack the knowledge of how to do it. As believers, we are instructed by God maintain an attitude of forgiveness.
The substance of forgiveness is known to be an important thing and concept in the teaching of Jesus. In the Bible, Jesus has made it clear that unforgiveness is known to be a serious sin nurtured in the heart. As per Jesus Christ, it is said that the person needs to be forgiven even if a serious problem is caused due to him. If not, even we would not be forgiven from God. As per Jesus, if you forgive the sin done by the people, your heavenly will also forgive you if you have committed any sin. We would always want the heavenly father to forgive us for whatever wrong things or the mistakes that we do. In fact, we always think that it is the duty of God to forgive us. However, we never consider that the degree of offence we have done. We always think that he is the God and it is his prime duty to forgive us no matter what we do. But if somebody does the same thing to us, we always feel that it is not important to forgive them we think that we should not let them go just by forgiving them. Hence, the most important thing that needs to be considered here by us is that we should learn to forgive people (...