Essay #18 - Forgivness

Forgive and Forget
An Essay on Learning to Move on

(TS)Though we like to consider ourselves civilized humans, everyone of us has an abundance (Thesaurus Word) of basic primitive reactions. Mayella Ewell has made many choices in her life that, in most cases, our first priority in life is to ensure our safety. (SD)Mayella has had to take care of her family as well as herself for her entire life. She has lived in a world that has danger lurking around every corner, whether it be her drunken father or the disgusting conditions of her home. It would be hard to understand why she made some of the decisions she did unless you look at her life from every angle. (CM)Mayella's father, Bob Ewell, was and angry drunk. He often took out his aggressions on her, and from a young age she has had to learn how to stay alive. When her father told her to lie about him assaulting her, she knew she had no other choice but to do as she was told if she wanted to live to see tomorrow. Though she knew lying about what really happened was wrong, her survival instinct was stronger, making her blind to the other dangers she was about to face. (CM)Without this information many people would automatically assume that Mayella was a bad person who would lie and end up killing an innocent man. But when faced with this information, would you have done differently? If your life depended on you lying, would you do so? If you step into Mayella's shoes, you might realize that although the choice she made was wrong, it might be the one you would have chosen. (SD)Many agree that Bob Ewell is both a bad father as well as a bad man. He spends money that should be going to his children on alcohol, making him dangerous and a bad influence on his children. The choices he made might be because he is a foul person, but there could be more behind the surface. (CM)Bob Ewell has the same survival instinct that Mayella has, only he interprets it differently. When he is stressed or scared, he turns to drinking to numb his senses. This not only numbs his senses but numbs his survival instinct, giving him the opportunity to do reckless things without the constant nagging voice in the back of his head telling him "This is dangerous!". (CM)This is the only way Bob Ewell knows how to survive; without alcohol, his painful life could potentially kill him. Though his methods of surviving are wrong and selfish, it helps to understand why he makes the choices he does. Some would not forgive him, even after knowing why he does what he does. Some would be sympathetic, realizing why he hides from the world, even if they do not accept it. (SD)To forgive someone for the terrible acts they have done can be the hardest thing you ever have to do. (CM)Some never forgive, others forgive and move on. Tom Robinson might have one day forgiven Mayella for lying and sending him to jail if he understood her reasoning and survival instincts. He might not forgive her, saying she should have taken the risk and done the right thing. (CM)Mayella, who probably won't tell her father for fear of her well being, might never forgive him. She could spend the rest of her life resenting him silently in her head, never truly moving forward. Holding on to something like this can destroy someone. Spending all their energy on remembering when forgetting would be the best thing to do. (CS)Sometimes, even if you don't want to, even if it's painful, even if it seems like it might kill you, moving on and forgiving someone may be the right thing to do not only for yourself, but for those who are around you. (Tricolon)

(TS)We all need forgiveness in our lives, whether it be forgiving someone else, yourself, or the world. We are all human, therefore we all make mistakes. There are some mistakes that can be forgiven, and others that cannot. (SD)If you look at mistakes from a political standpoint, more often than not, you will see that mistakes are something of a calamity.(Thesaurus word). (CM)It seems that throughout history, any human that has been in politics, and that has made a mistake was degraded for their lack of proper leadership. Little to no people forgave them for their mistakes, undermining the fact that everyone is human. (CM)Though not everyone deserves to be forgiven for their mistakes depending on their severity, our world might be a much different place, perhaps a better place, if we had learned to forgive and forget. (SD)Forgiving someone can be hard. You may never truly forgive someone, even if you are convinced that you can move on. (CM)There have been times when I fought with my little brother. Usually over unintelligent and pointless subjects. Usually we get over our differences and move on, but there have been times when I though I would never be able to forgive him. (CM)For example, when I was seven years old my brother snuck into my room and tore the head off my favorite stuffed animal. I was convinced that I would never be able to forgive him for this inexcusable act. It took me five years to be able to truly forgive him, even though I had said I forgave him after the first three years. This just shows that sometimes we need time to forgive, and rushing this emotion will only cause more problems. (SD)To forgive and forget is one of the most important things you have to learn in life because with out it, you will be weighed down with feelings of sorrow and grief. Many people learn this skill and are able to live happy lives, but some forget to add a very important person to their forgiveness list, themselves. (CM)So many people forget to forgive themselves for a mistake they have made in the past and continue to blame themselves everyday. They live life with a rock in the bottom of their stomach, unable to truly be. (CM)If you have made a mistake in the past, and have paid your dues, move on. Whats the point of holding onto misery if you can move on and live to see another mistake-filled day? (TS)Everyone makes mistakes, its natural, its essential, its normal. (Tricolon)