Michael Cordle's Guilt: A Personal Narrative

On January 3, 2009 around 11:00 PM the phone rang with what I thought was exciting news about my newly born sister, Tristyn ,but quickly turned to horror. I could heard the fright in my dad's shaken voice as he told me Tristyn had to go into immediate heart surgery because she needed a stent to open up the blood flow to her heart. Being eight at the time the only thing I could think about was how she might not make it. My dad said to me “look after your sisters, and tell them nothing about the surgery”, which terrified me more than before. I knew I needed to be brave and take charge of the situations for my sisters. Bravery is something I learned for a situation I never knew would happen.

Guilt is an emotion that affects everyone in a different way. In The Yellow Birds, by Kevin Powers, John Bartle, one of the main characters, struggles with guilt over the death of his friend Murph. It is not until the end of the book, the reader discovers the horrific truth about Murph’s death and why Bartle feels so guilty. Bartle had a good moral compass at the start of the book; somewhere he went off his righteous path of thinking through his decisions. Although Bartle is a good person, he is lead to make terrible decisions that ultimately leading to his demise. Bartle’s emotions caused him to make atrocious decisions that happen to have damaging consequences to his decisions and his actions.

Guilt is a feeling of displeasure over an action that is committed and perceived as having negative results. In McDonald’s Swallowing Stones, the protagonist Michael Mackenzie committed an involuntary manslaughter, he accidentally shoots Mr. Ward leaving the family fatherless. Michael chooses to not swallow the stone and try to cope with his guilt. In the beginning of the novel, Michael Mackenzie was irresponsible and naive for blindlessly shooting the gun without any given thoughts. Michael Mackenzie experiences physical and mental guilt in which he has to overcome many obstacles.

Guilt is the regret one experiences when they realise their action was not appropriate according to a lawful or moral standard. In Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies, guilt was a major theme and was essential throughout the novel. Davies used the three main characters, Dunstan Ramsay, Boy Staunton, and Paul Dempster to illustrate the different effects of Mrs. Dempster’s incident. The way one is raised, the key disciplines they have developed and their way of thinking reflects how they deal with guilt.

The presence of guilt has been felt by all human beings. As guilt grows in a

Regretful, ashamed, and sorry. Feeling responsible for a specified wrongdoing. Guilt. Have you ever felt guilty? Do you ever blame yourself, or wish you could turn back time to change just the smallest of details, knowing that your life will be so much better because of it? Yes or no, or whatever your answer may be, many people, and many characters have. The Book Thief is a prime example in which many of its characters experience guilt. They blame themselves for the fact that someone died while they are still alive, yet they find many ways to deal with this guilt. Throughout The Book Thief, the author demonstrates how survivor’s guilt continues to provide motivation for the characters to alter their lives in many ways.

Guilt, this is something that all humans have experienced, its defined as a feeling of worry or unhappiness because you have done something wrong. First, your stomach starts to turn, then, your heart feels crushed and your mind moves as fast as lightning with only the thoughts of your own immoral actions keeping you awake. It is a cold feeling. An empty feeling. A dreadful feeling. In the novel “Fifth Business” by Robertson Davies, Dunstan had felt extreme guilt throughout his whole life due to what had happened to Mrs. Dempster. He let his guilt run his entire life. Throughout my life, I have also been in situations where I have felt guilt, but this situation in particular made me realize what true guilt really is. The amount of guilt that

The feeling of guilt or shame was brought up in this book multiple times. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was feeling shame after Ted Lavender had been shot and killed. Norman Bowker was guilty after letting Kiowa go because he could not stand the smell in the field. The narrator, Tim O’Brien, even felt regret after not doing anything to stand up for Linda when he was younger. Guilt or regret stays with someone because they always think about what they could have changed and not what they can do going forward. That is what makes these feelings the heaviest of things they can carry.

Thesis Statement: Guilt can put a toll on your life by affecting your conscience and your state of mind and the way you live your life.

I felt the dread sink like a rock in my stomach. My two brothers, Ryan and Matthew, were on the opposite end of the spectrum. My mother had been telling us for weeks that we were going up to the farm that my family owned, but I didn’t quite believe her until today. My brothers were given dirt bikes last Christmas while I was given a ATV. Both of them had been counting down the days until they were able to finally ride the dirt bikes and that day had come. After everything was packed, I crammed myself in the van with my brothers and hoped for this trip to end quickly.

I think I was about 11 years of age. It was a warm September evening. Our family was getting ready for another cookout. For those of you who don’t know, cookouts are when my family invites other family and/or friends over to cook hot dogs and toast marshmallows over a fire pit in our backyard. Usually after that my dad and I will usually play backyard baseball.

“My heart was pounding and blood was rushing to my temples and ears, beating over me in waves. A voice inside my head kept repeating, ‘Be careful! Be careful!’ ” This quote proves how Adeline was worried about how she was treated when approaching Niang. Words like ‘pounding’ and ‘beating are used to build up the sensation of nervousness and apprehension. Adeline shares her life events in order to evoke sympathy from the reader and to inspire other unwanted children. “To those who were neglected and unloved as children, I have a particular message. In spite of what your abusers would have you believe, please be convinced that each of you has within you something precious and unique.” Adeline believes that every child is unique and should be encouraged to do anything. She uses a wide variety of graphic content throughout the book to capture the reader’s sympathy and action towards her. This graphic content shapes the audience’s thoughts, opinions and their

I believe I was around ten or eleven so this would have been 2008 - 2009 I was living with my aunt and uncle up in the Rocky Mountains around Denver, Colorado. It was summer about July and I had just got back from Charleston, South Carolina my mother was teaching some bachelor level painting courses like Advanced methods of Painting and Art history at Claflin University. I had been home for about

Second grade was when it all started. I do not remember a lot of the details that took place, but it is probably better that way. We moved into my grandparents’ house that year. My siblings and I were euphoric that day because we thought we had made it big time. What child would not love to get to live with their grandparents. Living with them took away some of the stress with what all was going on.

As a young seven year old I had just mastered how to ride my bike perfectly. I was taking a ride and saw a driveway that looked fun to speed down, as I rode through the forestry driveway I came to a sudden stop. Where my face had just met the hard cold ground, immediately I started to cry.