Showing Compassion Builds Character
Ms Luella Bates Washington Jones comes off as a very strong yet subtle character. She was walking by herself at 11 o’clock when a robber runs up to her and attempts to snatch her bag. Luella being the big woman she is, puts up a fight and tugs her purse till the strap broke. The robber fell on his back and Luella looked at him, noticed that he looked a little mucked up and demanded him to go back to her place so he could freshen up. Luella then nurtures and nourishes him. The robber, Roger, then tells her how he only stole the money because he wanted to buy a pair of blue suede shoes and because Luella was so compassionate, she gave to money to him to buy his shoes. I think this triggered Roger to become a better person. When Luella showed that she cared for him Roger want to change his habits and walk off with a smile, knowing someone cares for him.
Compassion can be looked at in different ways. In the short movie, “Make a Difference”, a teacher is unaware of the struggles her student, Teddy Stallard, is going through. Until one day she decides to go thought his past records and find out that Teddy was once a bright child, but it was one tragedy that changed everything. She shows compassion towards him and changes him. She decides to do this when she realised what happened in his life and became ashamed of herself. She then decides to quit teaching reading, writing and math and began to teach children. Teddy then immediately changed as soon as he noticed Ms. Thompson’s change. She paid more attention to him and encouraged him a lot more and by the end of the year, he was one of the top students. Her compassion in Teddy shows that even with a little encouragement and a positive thinking can make a difference. Years went on and Teddy still remained very successful. Now and then, Teddy would write Ms. Thompson letters telling her that she was the best teacher he’d ever have. She was there for him everyone had given up. Her compassion built up a new Teddy Stallard because she showed him that he had the brains and the smiles, no one else just bothered to bring it out of him. A little faith was all he needed.
Compassion is when someone takes the time to show you that they care and when this happens, it helps builds character. “Thank You, Ma’am” and “Make A Difference” both show someone taking their time to make somebody else better. Ms. Jones took Roger home so she could teach him the rights and wrongs. Miss Thompson saw Teddy’s struggle and showed compassion to help him get through it. Sometimes all you need is a helping had in order to get over boundaries.
Compassion can be looked at in different ways. In the short movie, “Make a Difference”, a teacher is unaware of the struggles her student, Teddy Stallard, is going through. Until one day she decides to go thought his past records and find out that Teddy was once a bright child, but it was one tragedy that changed everything. She shows compassion towards him and changes him. She decides to do this when she realised what happened in his life and became ashamed of herself. She then decides to quit teaching reading, writing and math and began to teach children. Teddy then immediately changed as soon as he noticed Ms. Thompson’s change. She paid more attention to him and encouraged him a lot more and by the end of the year, he was one of the top students. Her compassion in Teddy shows that even with a little encouragement and a positive thinking can make a difference. Years went on and Teddy still remained very successful. Now and then, Teddy would write Ms. Thompson letters telling her that she was the best teacher he’d ever have. She was there for him everyone had given up. Her compassion built up a new Teddy Stallard because she showed him that he had the brains and the smiles, no one else just bothered to bring it out of him. A little faith was all he needed.
Compassion is when someone takes the time to show you that they care and when this happens, it helps builds character. “Thank You, Ma’am” and “Make A Difference” both show someone taking their time to make somebody else better. Ms. Jones took Roger home so she could teach him the rights and wrongs. Miss Thompson saw Teddy’s struggle and showed compassion to help him get through it. Sometimes all you need is a helping had in order to get over boundaries.
August 16th 2010
Betrayal Scars the Soul
Betrayal scars the soul is a dominant theme in Roald Dahl's short story, "Lamb to the Slaughter." Mary Maloney started off as a very calm and "perfect" house-wife. She was willing to do anything to keep her husband happy - she waited for her husband to come home, she prepared a lovely meal for him and she made sure everything was clean, ready and perfect for him. Mary was shattered when her husband broke her perfect bubble by telling her that he was leaving her. Mary reacts to this by hitting Patrick Moloney on the back of his head with a frozen leg of lamb causing him to die. She loved and trusted him so much, and for him to just take away his words and betray her like that leaded her to kill him. She was scarred by his words.
I found an article on the computer after discussing a few different topics and the one that stood out the most was the sexual abuse cases in the Catholic churches. I believe this is betrayal at it's worst. People view religion as sacred. The church and priest are the representatives of the Catholic religion. As a child, these abuse victims went to church with their families to worship. They were abused by the one person they trusted the most, their parish priest. Most of the abuse victims suffered silently, not telling anyone in their family because it was unimaginable that a priest would do such thing to a child. To be betrayed by your religion scars someone for the rest of their lives. The majority of the sexual abuse victims never went to church again because they felt betrayed. This form of betrayal leave the deepest scars for someone because they went through it at such a young age. Imagine the confusion a child feels when they are told that going to church is the right thing to do only to have to go through something so horrendous silently and alone because they are scared of the repercussions. Many suffered silently for decades. "..the church obviously is pained mainly by the suffering of the victims and their families because of the profound wounds caused by the serious and inexcusable behavior of some of its members". Even though the settlement will probably give the victims some sense of closure, the physiological scars the victims carry will last forever.
Even though these two stories are totally different in context, the betrayal is the same because it comes from somebody trusting and loving somebody so much, only to have that trust and love taken away from them suddenly. I also find similarities between the victims getting compensated for the alleged abuse cases and Mary killing her husband. In both cases what the victims believe will give some sort of closure to the incidents does not. The money they receive and the murder she committed does not change what happened.
