Monday, April 29, 2019
Assignment: #4 What is Guilt? Do we all have it? Is it part of being human? Can Someone live guilt free? (Alex Sandell)
Guilt is a main theme in A Separate Peace, it is what you feel when you make mistakes and everybody makes mistakes. In this scenario Gene made a mistake when he made Finny fall off the tree and shatter his leg. Gene feels so bad about what he did to Finny because he took away his ability to play sports, sports plays such an important role in Finny’s life and now is to never play them again. “...then if it isn’t amputated and the bones are still there, then it must come back the way it was, why wouldn't it? Of course it will” (Knowles 63). Gene realizes in this passage what he really did and the impact that one simple action can have. Guilt is indirectly unavoidable in someone's life. Guilt comes from a wrongdoing and wanting nothing more than to have a second chance to make something right. Every human will make a mistake with different levels of impact but will cause guilt nonetheless. Gene feels guilty for Finny's injury and how his actions can change someone's life drastically.
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I completely agree with what you said here. I think guilt is something that all humans get when they do something wrong and it ends up going against their morals. I would also like to add though that it is theoretically possible for someone to live guilt free, as long as they don’t make any mistakes. On the other hand, we will all make mistakes, it’s part of human nature. The mistakes that harm others are the ones that will make us feel guilty.
ReplyDeleteGuilt is definitely part of being human but I think that the degree of guiltiness you feel depends on the person. Whether we want to or not we as humans feel guilty after we know we have caused something that affected someone on an unpredicted level. We all feel guilt but I think depending on how much empathy or how much you recap on the situation affects the level of guiltiness you feel. I know plenty of people in my life who just don’t have that much empathy so even when they cause a big problem they move on relatively quickly because they don’t have empathy for how dire the situation was. I think what makes Gene feel so guilty about Finny’s injury is that he was so self-centered at the moment he jounced the tree. I think what added to his guilt was that he had a lot of empathy for Finny when he realized that Finny wouldn’t be able to do sports again. To Finny, sports is his world and Gene knows this, especially because Finny isn’t very academically strong. The guilt that Gene feels will affect his ability to be there for his friend like Dr. Stanpole says “As a friend you ought to help him face that and accept it” (Knowles 63).
ReplyDeleteI also completely agree with you analysis on guilt specifically when you said, "Guilt comes from a wrongdoing and wanting nothing more than to have a second chance to make something right" (Line 9). On the other hand I think that guilt has so many more feelings, emotions and words that can be associated with the feeling you described. Going into more detail, I think a good example of this is when Finny says, “And I thought we were competitors! It was so ludicrous I wanted to cry” (Knowles 66). I feel like this is a perfect line showing how the guilt that Gene feels, is killing him inside. In the book A Burial at Thebes I feel like there was a much different feeling of guilt. The guilt that Ismene has is different, she knows that she has disappointed Antigone already, but in A Separate Peace we haven’t gotten to that stage yet. Gene hasn’t told Finny, right now the guilt that Gene feels is the guilt that he shook the branch adding on to the fact that Finny doesn't know. Then finally pilling on top of the fact that this might ruin their friendship forever.
ReplyDeleteI respectfully agree with everything you said. I think you explained guilt perfectly in how it is something that everyone experiences. I feel that sometimes people deny the fact that they feel guilty about something to try and be strong or decisive (like the connection E-book made with Burial At Thebes) but inside they're suffering. I think sometimes it takes lots of time for the gravity of a situation to really hit down on someone and depending on the turnout of said situation a person can feel guilt for days or sometimes even years.
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