Summary Of ' I Forgive You '

Many people would say that forgiving is good for both the forgiver and the forgiven, but do we have the responsibility to forgive? Two articles especially stand out about forgiveness Six Reasons Not to Forgive, Not Yet and It’s for You to Know That You Forgive, an article about Eva Kor’s experience at the concentration camp being a mengele twin and forgiving the Nazi’s. She is a good example that people have the responsibility to forgive , but only when they are ready.

Forgive today, live in peace tomorrow. Forgiveness; one of the many hardships we encounter throughout life. As Marianne Williamson, an American author, stated, “Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.” Forgiveness leads to peace because it lets go of all the negative feelings and allows freedom from disturbance to take place.

Sometimes things are better off forgotten so one does not get too caught up in hatred. When the time comes to forgive someone or even oneself, one might find it very hard. The word forgiveness may have different meanings to some people. For example, some people may refer forgiveness as a way to lose weight off their backs. In Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer highlights the importance of forgiving the mistakes one has made, and the actions people around us make. Life’s experiences are not always easy to forget, nevertheless to move on from those experiences

In the words of Aristotle, “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self”, meaning that the true battle is the one waged inside ones’ soul (Aristotle). Amidst the inhuman slaughter of the Rwandan Holocaust Immaculée Ilibagiza found herself facing such a struggle as Aristotle spoke of. In the year 1994 Hutu extremists finally took action against the Tutsis after a plane carrying the Hutu president Habyarimana was shot down. In less than a year more than 800,000 Rwandans were killed and, for Hutus and Tutsis alike, life would never be the same. In her book, Left to Tell, Immaculée Ilibagiza discovers how to keep her faith in a time when doing so seems impossible as well as how to forgive the killers who took everything from her.

The motivation and tendency of people to forgive others remains an important topic of discussion. In today’s society most people at some period have experienced feeling of un forgiveness towards friend, or relatives. “Forgiveness was defined as the ability to relinquish of resentment towards others” (Baskin & Enright, 2004, p. 80).

In fact, many of her good friends were Hutus. Her parents too were ‘blind’ to the reality of hatred around them. They believed that nothing would harm them, given that they had done good things for their neighbours. When Habyarimana’s presidential plane was shot down on 6 April 1994, all that Immaculée’s parents believed was proven false. All she experienced from her neighbours as she grew up turned out to be like “a gathering storm” which anticipated a heavy “rain” to befall Rwanda – the genocide. This seems to the reason why she entitled the first section of her book, “A Gathering Storm.”

Forgiveness is not an easy process for any person that has been victimized in any

Immaculee cannot change the fact that she is Tutsis, but she makes an effort to stay alive. She runs to the house of a Hutu minister, and begs him to hide her. Fortunately

“Forgive your worst enemies and forgive everyone who has hurt you- it will heal your soul and set you free” ( Eva, A Tribute, page 1). Eva Mozes Kor is the prime example of forgiving people considering her horrific life she experienced starting at the young age of ten. She has always been a strong, independent woman and has proved it when she was young, while she was enduring the horrors of the Holocaust, and even after being liberated.

The most important questions are often the most controversial. The question of whether or not to forgive a wrongdoer is particularly debatable, especially when considering large-scale crimes. Large-scale crimes, or crimes against humanity, involve senselessly killing mass amounts of innocent people. There have been many examples of large-scale crimes in the history of mankind, and such atrocities are still occurring today. Forgiveness is the act of pardoning an offender, and for most people, it is easy to forgive small blunders made by others on a daily basis. But forgiveness becomes a lot more troubling for the victim when they are asked to forgive something as terrible as a large-scale crime, which has irreversible effects for millions of

As one grows from infant to adult an even elderly age, we experience many events in life. One only grows from mistakes that are inevitable to happen. Like the Yin Yang theory, for instance, shadow cannot exist without light. Therefor forgiveness comes into play, it is defined as the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven. In The Sunflower, by Simon Wiesenthal: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. It discusses the moral ethics of the matter of forgiveness. Questions are asked by Wiesenthal, what would you do? If a dying Nazi soldier asks for your forgiveness? Forgiveness can often be influenced by religious belief, psychological, and political point of view, one is always capable of asking for forgiveness or granting forgiveness to another, granted or not, one makes a choice and lives with that decision.

Though Immaculee was spared from death, she certainly encountered many life-threatening situations including, but not limited to witnessing crimes of cruelty and murder. Immaculee’s encounters started with all of the Tutsi villagers coming to her house in despair and ended with evading land mines on her way to the UN in Kigali. While home from University, for Easter Break, the Rwandan president was killed. The next day, Immaculee and her family were at home listening to the radio, when they started to hear about the Interahamwe, a group of Hutu killers that took drugs, drank, and killed as many innocent Tutsis as they could. After word got out that the Interahamwe was killing Tutsis, thousands of Tutsi neighbors showed up seeking advice from Immaculee’s father, a well-respected man.

Also, understanding is the key to forgive someone regrets his immoral acts against you. The story of Albert Speer reveals the sorrow and compassion of one of the culprit find himself face to face with a victim. Mr. Albert was supporting the Nazis against Jews during the Holocaust. He acknowledged his responsibility and guilt for the mass crime. With the guilty verdict, he imprisoned for twenty years for his legal inhuman acts. When Simon Wiesenthal met him, Albert considered his eyes to find compassion and humanity inside (The Sunflower 246). Thus, I believe that when victim lets down the revenge, he also removes most of the barriers for a substantial correction. In the meantime, if you forgive, you can stop the stupidity of haters and prove that you are much stronger. Besides the world has a lot of evidence proclaiming that the desire for revenge disappears even after a long time of reciprocal violence, but only the people who forgive are the last standing. Overall, to forgive is to build bridges between victims and culprits for a healthy

In the end everyone should realize forgiveness is something that will ease strife between one another. In today’s society when something or someone is treated wrong, everyone turns to violence. Violence is not the answer. The world should honor The Golden rule, it states “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.” The Nickel Mines Amish forgave Roberts and offered grace to the family the day the massacre

Forgiveness is a hard thing to give because forgiveness of another human being involves having you to forgive yourself. It seems a lot easier to withhold forgiveness and remain a victim. The forgiveness that I have given away or I have received has shaped who I am today, therefore becoming a part of me.