Honors English Deibler 4

1.   I don’t believe that it is ever okay to commit suicide ever. It is as bad as taking someone else’s life, but at the same time, I can understand why Mark would think like this. He has gone through tremendous hardships in his life. His dad is abusive, a drunkard, and ultra-demanding. He is constantly beat at school, and he has to live everyday with raids by unmerciful policemen. He grows up with apartheid, so his life is extremely unfair.

I can understand why he would want to die because he feels like there is no more hope left in the world, and I think that if I were in his situation, I would feel the same way. He sees his race constantly being attacked and persecuted, and he doesn’t see anyone, except white people, succeeding in life. He is black, so he feels like there is not much hope for him because of his race. Basically, the reasons why he wants to die make sense, but I do not think it is okay at all to commit suicide, because I believe that there always is still hope.

2.

“An icy chill of death froze the world around me. For a long time I remained stock-still in the tall grass, in the limpid night, scarcely breathing, watching the naked, mutilated, lifeless body contorted on the ground, in a pool of blood. Each gaze made it seem to come alive, to stir, to slowly rise, like an entombed Egyptian mummy coming back to life. I panicked, and shot out of the grass as though I had been shot out of a cannon, howling like a maniac, as if tenscore devils were after me. Blinded by terror, I was mindless of my safety as I ran all the way home without stopping, dodging cars, bumping into obstacles and people, and leaping over dongas. Upon entering the house I fainted. My mother revived me by pouring water over me.”

-Kaffir Boy pg. 164

I really believe that this moment was extremely significant because it was so terrifying for him to see this happen. This is the main event that led to him wanting to kill himself. In this event he doesn’t understand why someone would do such a thing to another person. He says, “to me life meant love, understanding, compassion” (Kaffir Boy 166). This event kind of makes him realize that those are the key elements to life and that those are the feelings in life that are really important.

3.    Like Mark mentioned, why do people hate so much? Why would they waist their energy harboring bad feelings toward someone?

The question is whether a dystopian society is better represented in a fictional story or a nonfictional story. I believe it is more effective when reading a nonfiction story. In “The Lottery,” the stoning that happened in the end was definitely scary, but reading a nonfiction story scares me even more. The reason for this is because in a nonfiction story, the events that happen in the book happened in real life. Knowing that terrible things, like the events in Kaffir Boy, is really horrifying to me. Knowing that there were terrible raids by police, and unfair treatment towards blacks makes me sick. Also, I am absolutely disgusted that men would accept boy prostitutes for food. The fact that they would do that to children is disgusting. For these reasons, that is why nonfiction is more effective at showing a dystopia.