I was really moved by this story. I knew slaves weren't treated as people, only as objects, and I knew some of them were beaten, but I really had no idea how some of these people lived their lives. Throughout the essay, there were times I started to feel sorry for her and feel sympathy towards her, but then I would stop myself, because several times in the essay she says that she isn't writing the essay to "excite sympathy for my own sufferings" but that she wants to "arous the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffereing what I suffered, and most of them far worse." She doesn't say that every time, but she expresses that she's not looking for sympathy by writing this essay, only understanding of what other women in the south are going through.
I think that I most identify with the grandmother. The reason I say that is because the grandmother has so much faith in God. I, too, am that way. In the essay when the grandmother and Benjamin are talking through Benjamin's cell bars Benjamin says that all he could think about was her (the grandmother) when he casted himself into the river. He said no when grandmother asked him if he thought about God. He said that, "When a man is hunted like a wild beast he forgets there is a God, a heaven. He forgets everything in his struggle to get beyond the read of the bloodhounds." The grandmother replies to him saying, "Put your trust in God...". Basically what she says thoroughout the essay, and what I full heartedly agree with and believe in is that sometimes we don't know why God gives us the battles we go through in life, but whatever it is we need to keep in mind 3 things: 1) God will never give us something we can't handle, 2) whatever struggles we go through in life, it's meant to happen - God has planned our lives out and he knows why, for whatever reason, we need this struggle in our life, and 3) To ALWAYS keep faith that God is right there by your side, and never think that he ever "abandons" us (as most people would put it.
There are so many times in my life that I have thought God has abandoned me or isn't there for me or wants me to suffer, but in the end, I end up praying to God, telling him that his will be done and I am his to do with what he wants. I pray to God to make the situation easier or make me stronger or make the situation better and in the end, if I just give myself up to God, things ALWAYS get better. Another thing that I've noticed is everything happens for a reason - sometimes you never get to find out that reason, but it does. I'll elaborate on experiences if someone wants to ask me. But I have total faith in God and I know he's out there and I know he's the reason my ENTIRE life (struggles or not) has been a great and joyful one.
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3 comments:
I like your entry and you put a lot on God. I do have a question though, how can you keep faith in God if some things happen in your life that you can't find a reason for?
Well, because maybe it's not because you don't know the reason, maybe I feel like it's because the reason isn't obvious. My only experience I can think of to follow "even if you don't know the reason" is when my Mom was 15, her mom died. Well, we don't really know why my grandma died when my mom was such a young girl, or maybe we just haven't seen the answer yet or I don't know. I keep faith in God because I look around every day and see everything that he has made. I also look back on my life and I've seen all the good AND bad that's happened and know that the bad was for a better door to open. Did I answer your question?
I guess you did, I'm just trying to be the devil's advocate I guess, I just have a hard time with that subject, I'm in the middle right now, thanks though.
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