Thursday, April 11 - Begin reading.
Thursday, April 25 - Chapter 25 due.
Thursday, May 2 - Chapter 35 due. Seminar this date at 7:35 AM.
Thursday, May 16 - Chapter 55 due.
Thursday, May 30 - Book due. Seminar this date at 7:35 AM.
You should use your nightly 20 minutes of reading homework as well as your in class reading for this assignment. As you read, take some notes in preparation for the seminar. They do not need to be extensive - about half a dozen things that strike you as important to talk about during the seminar. See me if you have questions.
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5 comments:
In my opinion, revenge is morally acceptable as long as it is equal to or less harmful than what the person has done to you. If someone has done something to you that you do not like, you are entitled to do the same thing to that person, or something equivalent. For example, if someone breaks your pencil, you can break theirs, and nothing is wrong with that. But, if someone breaks your pencil, and you break their leg, then that is crossing the line and is too serious of revenge.
Forgiveness is what someone chooses to do, not something that has to happen. If someone has already gotten revenge, then forgiveness isn't required because both parties have equaled each other out, but if someone has not yet had revenge, then they can choose whether or not to forgive someone.
I disagree with Sahith, revenge is not an acceptable concept. People don't usually do less damage than the other person did to them. But she does have a point with the pencil example, but what I've heard so far from the plot of the book I predict that Dante will try and inflict a lot of damage with his plot of revenge because of what the conspirators did to him. Its immoral to hold plots of revenge against people. As Gandhi once said "An eye for an eye makes the world go blind." Gandhi knew what he was talking about when he said this. We cant have people going around being mad at each other and inflicting revenge on each other. If revenge was moral then it would be acceptable to jab out a guys eye then have him jab out yours according to Gandhi. This would keep happening until finally the entire world would be blind. The Catholic teachings say to forgive but if you inflict revenge then you are going against this teaching. This is why revenge is never a good thing.
I agree with sahith that revenge can be acceptable if it is equal or less harmful, but only to an extent. If someone killed my family, I would want them to die, but I would be ok if they went to jail for life. I think if someone breaks by pencil, then it is ok to break theirs. I also think that, like in the article we read about the woman who got hit by the flying frozen turkey, forgiveness is necessary. The woman forgave the man who threw the turkey, and we should forgive others that do bad things to us. I am pretty sure in the book, Dante will inflct revenge on the people who framed him.
I think that hurtful revenge that seriously affects a person physically or emotionally is a bad thing. People try to get revenge to make themselves feel better about something someone else did to them. In the end though, revenge never makes the problem go away, and often, the victim of the original crime who committed the revenge will feel even worse than they did by the original act. Revenge that is in jest (like breaking someone's pencil) isn't really a horrible thing because no one is hurt, but breaking someone's leg because they broke yours? It isn't going to make you feel any better about your broken leg, so it is better to just forgive and move on. Maybe the person will feel guilty and learn their lesson by seeing how blameless the person they injured is. Revenge will only cause a cycle of endless fighting between people as they try to "get even" with each other.
This doesn't mean the revenge isn't understandable. As Harry said, if someone killed someone close to me, I would want to do something really horrible to them, but it doesn't mean I should, or Dantes should.
Revenge should be morally acceptable, especially if the person has done something to change your life for the worse, but the revenge you exact should not exceed the harm that the other person did to you. The whole purpose of revenge is to get even, not completely destroy the other person's life.
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