Hello All!
So I am going to jump back a couple weeks to Pod #6! I really enjoyed the few stories that I read through this pod, but one story that stuck out to me was the "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner. This story for some odd reason kept me captivated. I think because I like the more dramatic and destructive aspect of it! A big question in this story was is it okay for this man to burn down the barns and ruin people lives? Just because that is what made him feel better?
I do not think that just because you are unhappy with your life that that gives you any reason or justification to ruin others lives around you to make you happy. When I think of this situation, it makes me think of bullying. When people bully others it is usually because they have a hard life and want to make others around them miserable with them as well. You could have do nothing wrong to make the bully made, but they still take it out on you.
When this man went and burned down the people's barns, he got satisfaction from that because that messed with them. Since he was not as rich as the other people or as well off as others around them, he wanted to bring them down to his level, which is so wrong in so many ways.
So what is your opinion? Do you think that under some circumstances it is okay to seek revenge from others, or do you think that revenge is wrong no matter what and that just brings you down to other people's level?
For some reason there are people who enjoy destroying property of others. I encountered high school students who had no qualms about writing on desks, carving their initials into anything they could, keying shiny cars, cutting down the new trees in front of the school, bashing in mail boxes, just because they could...or just because they didn't like someone, or someone had denied them a job, or cut them from the team, or gave them a bad grade (not that teachers 'give' grades--students earn them). I have never understood that way of thinking, maybe because I was raised to respect others and their property. Maybe it was because my dad said we would not stoop to that level of behavior. Maybe it was because my grandmother always said, "Don't worry! They will get what is coming to them eventually. Maybe not right now, but eventually." I don't think It is acceptable to seek revenge on others as Abner did. I didn't think it was acceptable for a group of four students to steal our mailbox and throw it in the Tippecanoe River just because they didn't want to write a research paper. They didn't think it was so funny when they discovered it was a federal offense and when the State Police came to the school looking for them because they were taunting me in the hallway ("Hey, Mrs. Siemens....get any mail lately? Look in the river!!") I didn't think it was right for a student to throw eggs at the front of our house, scaring our 10 year old daughter whose bedroom window faced the road so much she refused to sleep there for weeks. The reason why he did it? He received a C on his report card in my class. His mother supported his decision to vandalize. She bought the eggs for him.
ReplyDeleteI am sure you know how I stand on this issue since this is turning into a rant of sorts. Revenge. Bullying. For what purpose? Some people must have poor self-image or self-respect to stoop that low.