Sam Hamill said many interesting things in his essay. Out of all the material that I read one sentence kept my attention throughout the rest of the essay. “-the only conditi
on worse than being a victim is to be an executioner”(Hamill 1990). This sentence was taken out of the paragraph that was talking about battery. It was saying that coincidently a lot of the men in jail for battery had also been a victim themselves. Relating this to one of my psychology classes, when we are younger we look to our parents on how to act. They may not know it but as children we are observing their every move and that is partly how we develop. Thus, it only makes sense that a child being a victim of battery will also victimize their children. When I read the sentence I thought to myself, why would any one want to cause the same pain that they went through as a child on their own children? They know how bad it hurts, how bad it makes one feel and the damage it does psychologically. For one person to realize the only thing worse than feeling this type of pain is to inflict the same pain onto another is an accomplishment. This small lesson will be noticed among others and hopefully be repeated.
This essay is related to the “Poems of Witness” in that people witness horrible things happen right before them and choose to do nothing to stop it. Sam Hamill’s essay talked about abuse being passed down from one generation to another. Somewhere down the line someone could have noticed this and chosen to stop this behavior. In “Song of Napalm,” the man witnessed a little girl burning to death and he sat back and watched her die. Also, in “Charlie Howard’s Descent” the parents of the boy’s that killed Charlie encouraged his murder rather than prevent it. Not choosing to take action to prevent something will keep the horrible pattern going.
on worse than being a victim is to be an executioner”(Hamill 1990). This sentence was taken out of the paragraph that was talking about battery. It was saying that coincidently a lot of the men in jail for battery had also been a victim themselves. Relating this to one of my psychology classes, when we are younger we look to our parents on how to act. They may not know it but as children we are observing their every move and that is partly how we develop. Thus, it only makes sense that a child being a victim of battery will also victimize their children. When I read the sentence I thought to myself, why would any one want to cause the same pain that they went through as a child on their own children? They know how bad it hurts, how bad it makes one feel and the damage it does psychologically. For one person to realize the only thing worse than feeling this type of pain is to inflict the same pain onto another is an accomplishment. This small lesson will be noticed among others and hopefully be repeated.This essay is related to the “Poems of Witness” in that people witness horrible things happen right before them and choose to do nothing to stop it. Sam Hamill’s essay talked about abuse being passed down from one generation to another. Somewhere down the line someone could have noticed this and chosen to stop this behavior. In “Song of Napalm,” the man witnessed a little girl burning to death and he sat back and watched her die. Also, in “Charlie Howard’s Descent” the parents of the boy’s that killed Charlie encouraged his murder rather than prevent it. Not choosing to take action to prevent something will keep the horrible pattern going.
No comments:
Post a Comment