Analysis Of Left To Tell By Immacul�e Ilibagiza

A common theme in many great works of literature is that of forgiveness. Through studying some of these classics, we can learn the lesson that forgiving others, lets you to let go of hate and anger, and to draw nearer to God; this helps people to be happier and to obtain peace, even in terrible circumstances. First, in Left to Tell, Immaculée was able to find comfort and peace, when she found it in her heart to forgive. Second, in Blood Brothers, Elias found comfort and strength in the understanding that Christ loves and forgives all. Third, in Les Miserables, we see the results of being selfless and choosing to forgive. In this essay, we will examine this fundamental theme in the books Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza, Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

According to Corrie & Betsie Ten Boom, life was a faith-building experience. Those two women were faced with one of the toughest experiences of their lives. Each day, Corrie and Betsie had to persuade each other that everything was going to be okay, once they were free from the “hell”, or the concentration camp they were placed in. And, yet, Corrie and Betsie somehow managed to keep in mind that God was with them.

Faith in a "higher power" is often used as a crutch by many in times of struggle. However, when that crutch is removed, the hardships that need to be overcome seem to increase as hope diminishes. This is true

Soon after being held in captivity, Mary Rowlandson’s attitude started changing from hopeless to hopeful; “Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God, that my Spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction: still the Lord upheld me with His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning” (Rowlandson 131). Here Rowlandson is talking about how she is able to keep her spirit up even though her daughter is extremely sick and she has no friends to comfort her. She claims she is able to do this because of the great power of God. It seems like her mind is being uplifted by the thought of God, and she is able to focus on the good things she still has in life. I believe without her religious beliefs keeping her mentally healthy throughout all of her hardships, she would have never been able to handle her captivity as well as she did. Even after her daughter died, she is still able to keep herself together; “I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God to me in preserving me in the use of my reason and senses in that distressed time, that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life” (Rowlandson 132). She recognizes looking back that she could have easily decided to take her own life after losing her daughter at such a young and helpless age. It is God who protected her and kept her from doing anything bad to herself at such a low point

Some adults may live much of their lives with a literal faith. Stage three is group faith Young people start to value the importance of friendship and often come to view God as one who treats them much like a trusted companion. Stage four is person faith. People strengthen their faith by questioning earlier beliefs. Stage five is mystical faith. At this stage of faith the awareness of God’s inner presence leads one to become more aware that God also dwells in others. Interfaith dialogue now becomes not a threat but an opportunity for new understanding. Stage six is sacrificial faith. Jesus, Dorothy Day, and Archbishop Romero are examples of this sacrificial faith. Such people display radical and consistent commitment to the doing of God’s will that is uncompromised by concern for personal security.

In the second part, Immaculée narrates her horrifying experience of the genocide. God became her father, mother, brother, her everything, in a tiny bathroom where she hid from the killers for months. When the genocide began, Immaculée’s father asked her to go to hide at the house of Pastor Mulinzi – a family friend – with her brother Vianney, and Augustin, Immaculée’s friend who was a Hutu but looked like a Tutsi. Mulinzi accepted them into his house, but when things became tough, he chased Vianney and Augustin away and kept Immaculée with five other women. Mulinzi hid them in a tiny bathroom. Every corner of his house was searched many times by the killers, the Interahamwe (youth militia trained for killing), but it seemed that God blinded them, preventing them from discovering the bathroom. The six women wished

An additional traumatic event occured when Mariatu gets attacked by the rebels in her home village. She experiences many people she knows getting not only murdered, but also tortured mentally and physically. In order to get through what is happening to her, she relies on god; “Please let me die quickly. Let it be over quickly, too. Don’t let the rebels cut my body piece by piece.” (Kamara 35). Although Mariatu wasn’t trying to live, she tried to deal with her fear by praying to god

He was forced into one of the worst labor concentration camps and through it all he found and held on to the slightest bit of hope. For example, “ I no longer felt anything except for the lashes of the whip….He took his time with the lashes. Only the first one really hurt.” Even though the lashes hurt really bad all he could think about was his father, “ I was thinking of my father. He would be suffering more than I,” He wasn’t really focused on the fact that he just got beat. He had lost his faith and belief in God through this traumatic event; and even through this time, when he had little faith, he was resilient and pushed through. He pushed through even though he had no idea of the future. Even though he could have give up and died at any point during his time there, he decided to be resilient and to keep

How do human beings talk about God in the face of poverty and suffering? This is the question the Book of Job raises for us. A moral and honorable man lives a prosperous, happy and fruitful life. As a wager between God and Satan on the issue of disinterested religion, they test to see if his faith and religion are actually disinterested. This leads to another question of whether human beings are capable of asserting their faith and talking about God in the face of suffering in a disinterested way. In his book “On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent” Gustavo Gutierrez makes the point that human beings, especially the poor, are capable of a disinterested faith and knowledge of God in the face of suffering. His application of liberation theology, way of talking about God, and interest in the poor allow Gutierrez to assert that human beings are capable of a disinterested religion in the face of poverty and suffering.

For example, when the prisoners were in their block in Auschwitz singing Hasidic melodies, Akiba Drumer spoke of God and the redemption to come for the Jews by telling them, “God is testing us. He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming our base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves” (Wiesel 45). Akiba Drumer is holding on to his faith in God, rather than giving into fear and torment that he faces in the concentration camps. Akiba Drumer’s faith and trust in God, believing that he will be saved from the physical and emotional pain that he is facing, gives him the strength to survive. In addition, when Yom Kippur approached and the Jews were debating whether to fast or not, they decided to fast because it was dangerous and the prisoners thought to themselves, “We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises” (Wiesel 69).

Some times the question of “Where is God” surfaces with all the adversities, and I find myself asking “what is God doing for all these people who are suffering?” But however amidst all the issues I know that He is there, and all these problems and conflicts do not change the fact that God exists, and I still have hope for change for these suffering people no matter what the circumstance.

Left to Tell is dealing with Rwanda genocide and it is talked about Immaculee’s perspective. The genocide made her rely everything on God and her hearts toward God had grown during hiding herself behind the pastor’s house. She prayed a lot and called the Lord in every single situation, no matter it is grateful or bad. In addition, she gave up having a boyfriend to focus on God and also forgave many Hutus who killed her family. As I read this book, I felt that Immaculee is a godly woman because if I were in that same situation as her, I could not focus on God and I will never forgive someone who killed my family. Immaculee obeyed everything that is in the bible and tried to follow what God told us to do or not to do. Since I did not know much about the bible and God, Immaculee’s actions influenced me a lot about how we can apply the words in the bible in our real

These two statements are very important because they are the backbone of the whole book. These are the strongest parts that support the women she is. She is so hand in hand with God that she doesn’t even once criticize the reasons she’s in captive but as I have stated before, she blames herself for not praying enough. In the sixth remove she explains her circumstance, her being surrounded by her former enemies amidst no Christians at all but herself. She exclaims, “Oh the experience that I have had of the goodness of God, to me and mine!” Without any form of disbelief she praises the kindness of God. The beauty of her relationship with God is that she mentions no matter what kind of situation she is in whether it be near death or with luxuries. And she sees every good thing that happens to her as a sign of God. To sum it up, everything that has happened to her was pre-planned and the grace of God.

Coming from a very religious family, it is a wonder why Adah struggles with believing in God and the greater powers above. Although religion is what landed her in the Congo, Adah lost belief for God after asking the poignant question in Sunday school of why God would allow disabilities; she got sent to the corner kneeling on rice, and as she puts it: “When I finally got up...I found, to my surprise, that I no longer believed in

Introduction: God guides and protects us through all crisis by showing his power in faith to overcome. Sometimes we ask God “help us” or “save us” only when a crisis is present in our lives and forget