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Open the Door to ForgivenessOpen the Door to Forgiveness

(Unit 16)(Unit 16)

Course-book: An Integrated English Course (II)Course-book: An Integrated English Course (II)

(published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press in 2005)(published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press in 2005)

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A PreviewA Preview

• Background (students to present)• Global understanding• Paraphrasing & language appreciation• Group discussion & debate:

– Should we always forgive?– What other guideline(s) could be followed?

• Summary & assignments

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Global Understanding - 1Global Understanding - 1

How does the writer get started? What is his viewpoint regarding the issue of forgiveness? In what way does he support his point? (para. 1-5)

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1. Introduction1. Introduction

It is common for people to feel being hurt.

• “Someone hurt you, and you cannot forget it. It has lodged itself in your memory, where it keeps on hurting.”

• “You are not alone. We all muddle our way through a world where even well-meaning people hurt one other.”

• “A friend betrays us; a parent abuses us; a spouse leaves us.” (different forms of hurt)

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2. Viewpoint Clearly Stated2. Viewpoint Clearly Stated

-- THE RIGHT APPROACH TO HEALING IS TO FORGIVE.

To support, the writer • quotes a philosopher’s words• Gives the example of Pope John Paul II

GO TO

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• “The only power that can stop the stream of painful memories is the ‘faculty of forgiving.’” (Hannah Arendt)

BACK

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• Pope John Paul II, who walked into a cell to meet Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish who attempted to assassinate him, took his hand and forgave him

BACK

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3. A Step Back 3. A Step Back • He comments on our reactions to “deep and unfair hurts”.

(para. 4 & 5) • He admits:

– “It is not easy to forgive.”– “Forgiveness seems almost unnatural.”– “Our sense of fairness tells us that people should pay for the wro

ng they do.”– “Hate is our natural response to deep and unfair hurts.”

• But, he believes in the true merits of forgiveness:– “In forgiving we can move from hurting and hating to healing an

d reconciliation.”– “Hate is the malignancy that festers and grows, stifling you and t

hreatening our health.”– “It (Hate) hurts the hater more than the hated.”

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4. Viewpoint Enunciated4. Viewpoint Enunciated

In this way, the author drives home his point of view –

forgiveness is a more sensible choice, and “it must be cut out – for our own sake”.

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Global Understanding - 2Global Understanding - 2

Transition (para. 6)

• “But how can this be done? How can you let go of a hurt, the way a child opens his hands and frees a trapped butterfly?”

What does the author mean here?

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Global Understanding - 3Global Understanding - 3

What are the author’s suggestions regarding

how to practice forgiveness?

Guidelines

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GuidelinesGuidelines

• Confront your malice (para.7-9)

• Separate the wrongdoer from the wrong (para.10-12)

• Let go of the past (para.13-16)

• Don’t give up on forgiveness (para.17-18)

questions

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Answer these questions concerning Answer these questions concerning the four guidelines:the four guidelines:

• What is the first problem in our attempt to achieve forgiveness?

• What can be learnt from Liz’s case?• What can we learn from the case of the

author’s adopted daughter?• How does the author understand the

guideline “Let go of the past” in relation with forgiveness?

• What does C. S. Lewis’s example indicate?

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Globel Understanding - 4Globel Understanding - 4

The text does not end here …

Arguments against forgiveness are cited – TARGET-SETTING

• “the wrongdoer should not be let off the hook”• “forgiveness is a sign of weakness”• (forgiveness is) “a beggar’s refuge”

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Counter-ArgumentsCounter-Arguments

• “Vengeance never evens the score.”

• “It ties both the injured and the injurer to an endless escalator of retaliation.”

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Further ArgumentsFurther Arguments

• “We are seldom merely sinned against.”

• “You may contribute to your spouse’s infidelity by ignoring …,

• or bring on your children’s rebellion by …”

The example of Mark --

What does the writer want to show with this example?

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ConclusionConclusion

Reiteration of proposition (viewpoint): (para.23)

“When we forgive, we come as close as an

y human can to the essentially divine act of creation. We heal the hurt and create a new beginning out of past pain.”

MENU

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Paraphrasing – 1Paraphrasing – 1

1. It’s surgery of the soul, the loving, healing way to create new beginnings out of past pain. (introductory remarks)

2. Hate is a malignancy that festers and grows, stifling joy and threatening our health. (Para. 5)

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Paraphrasing - 2Paraphrasing - 2

3. The fury denied rages beneath the surface and infects all our relationships. (Para. 7)

4. She could not keep up the duplicity. One day she confronted him. His embarrassed denial enabled Liz to see him for the weak person he was. (Para. 9)

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Paraphrasing - 3Paraphrasing - 3

5. Forgiving is finding a new vision of the person who has wronged us, the person stripped of his sins – who really lives beneath the cloak of his wrongdoing. (Para. 10)

6. Forgetting too soon may be a dangerous way to escape forgiving’s inner surgery. (Para.16)

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Paraphrasing - 4Paraphrasing - 4

7. Vengeance never evens the score. It ties both the injured and the injurer to an endless escalator or retaliation.(Para. 20)

8. When we forgive, we come as close as any human can to the essentially divine act of creation. We heal the hurt and create a new beginning out of past pain. (Para. 23)

MENU

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Let’s work together now …Let’s work together now …

1. Should we always forgive?

2. What are other guidelines for those who are suffering from deep and unfair hurts?

MENU

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Summary: Organization RevisitedSummary: Organization Revisited

• Introduction (para.1-5): – Giving context and background– Stating viewpoint

• Guidelines (para.6-18)– Offering suggestions

• Refutation (para.19-22)– raising the opposite view, preparing ground for counte

r-argument

• Conclusion (para.23)– Reiterating viewpoint

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Features of WritingFeatures of Writing

• Distinctness of viewpoint

• Powerfulness of arguments

• Strictness of logic reasoning

BACK

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Powerfulness of ArgumentsPowerfulness of Arguments

Examples of famous figures & ordinary people– Pope John Paul II, C. S. Lewis, a well-established Iris

h author and scholar– Liz (assistant professor), Cathy (author’s adopted dau

ghter), unknown actress (author’s friend), Mark (“a man”)

Quotations from Hannah Arendt (philosopher), Bernard Shaw (playwrig

ht), Gandhi (political leader), Reinhold Niebuhr (theologian)

BACK

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Strictness in Logic ReasoningStrictness in Logic Reasoning

• Setting context and background

• Presenting viewpoint

• Enunciating viewpoint

• Refuting viewpoint

• Reinforcing viewpoint

BACK

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Assignments Assignments

1. Exercises: p. 236 – 237

(vocabulary + grammar + translation)

2. Find more quotations or proverbs on forgiveness (pros and cons) in both Chinese and English. Any parallelism? Any differences? Try to give a cultural interpretation.

example

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For example: Pros (1)For example: Pros (1)

• Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

(Mark Twain)

( 一只脚踩扁了紫罗兰，它却把香留在那脚跟上，这就是宽恕。 )

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For example: Pros (2)For example: Pros (2)

To err is human, the forgive, divine.

犯错者，人；宽恕者，神。 Alexander Pope

人非圣贤，孰能无过。《左传 · 宣公二年》 （左丘明）

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For example: Pros (3)For example: Pros (3)

• 严以律己，宽以待人。 (Forgive others often, but rarely yourself.)

• 忍一时风平浪静，退一步海阔天空。 (Compromise will make a conflict much eas

y to resolve.)

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For example: ConsFor example: Cons

• Tit for tat• An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.• …

• 睚眦必报• 以牙还牙，以眼还眼• 人不犯我，我不犯人；人若犯我，我必犯人。• ……

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The end. Thanks!

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