TO DO OR NOT TO DO

To do or not to do? Parveen 300712643 Centennial College

TO DO OR NOT TO DO

The Step Not Taken by Paul D' Angelo is short piece of literature who expresses his journey of regret, guilt and personal reflection. Author is worried about the other people who are limited till themselves, rather than a good human being. This essay gives an explanation of the three stages which are separation, struggle or initiation, and return or reintegration. In this story narrator is the hero himself. In the Forgiveness June Callwood shares her personal experiences through numerous examples. She explains that what are the advantages and disadvantages of being able to forgive because this task is not easy to accomplish. It requires an individual to release all negative emotions related with the transgressions against them. Social responsibility means taking the power or courage to reply to life. There are some similarities between these two essays but there are more differences in terms of narration, style and purpose regarding the issue of social responsibility.

In this article Angelo demonstrates that people should be responsible for their society because it consists of the duty or obligation that one owes to another or oneself. Social responsibility helps to include the engagement of each person towards the community where she/he lives. For example, if everybody is aware for social responsibility then nobody needs to regret as the author is feeling guilty. Additionally, Callwood shows that everybody should be able to forgive because it is also a kind of social responsibility to forgive someone. For example, Nelson Mandela forgave his adversaries after twenty-seven years of brutal imprisonment. Mandela gave a worldwide figure of wonder, when he invited his white jailor to his inauguration

TO DO OR NOT TO DO as South Africa's president. Moreover, Angelo didn't take any decision when the young man drops his briefcase and bursts into tears, their eyes connect for a moment before man snaps his face and buries himself in his remorse. The hero is then faced with two options, either to accept the quest and aid the poor man with his emotional troubles otherwise just ignore him. Then continues in to the struggle or initiation stage where the author is faced with the consequences of his decision. He falls into deep thought about what the poor man was weeping about and questions himself saying "is he mentally disturbed or is he a suicide just waiting to happen?" As a result of guilt, Angelo reminisces about a lost opportunity, in which he failed to help an emotionally wrecked man. In the other article Collwood explains about forgiveness that it is a decision to let go of resentment and thoughts of revenge. The act that hurt or offended you might always remain a part of your life, but forgiveness can lessen its grip on you and help you focus on other, positive parts of your life. Forgiveness even lead to feelings of understanding empathy and compassion for the one who hurt you. She gives an example when Simon Wiesenthal was in a German concentration camp, he found himself in a strange situation. He was on the beside of a dying SS officer, a youth who had killed many Jews, and the young man asked him, a Jew, for forgiveness. Wiesenthal was silently left the room, but was haunted ever after. Thirty years later, he contacted some of the world's great thinkers and asked, what I have done? After that different people gave numerous suggestions. Eventually, it is not necessary to stay silent all the time like Angelo and Wiesenthal were because sometimes it can creates a lot of problem in their life so they should take action at the right time otherwise nothing will be remaining except repent.

Furthermore, in the both the articles authors are worried about other people and as a human being they should be worry about others if something is happening wrong with them

TO DO OR NOT TO DO because it is a kind of social responsibility. Unfortunately they are worried for them after taking place of all the incidents. Like Angelo is worried about the stranger but until he got off the elevator and left the young man to cry all alone. He immediately questions his decisions to leave the young man and a guide appears to help him start his quest. The guide is his own curiosity and concern for the young man. Many questions came up and he couldn't leave with the "sense of regret" of not knowing the answer to these questions or if he did the right thing by leaving the young man alone. He begins his quest to find the knowledge he needs to answer his unanswered questions. In the struggle stage he confronts his deepest fears and frustrations. He kept

imagining the worst scenarios about the young man and what made him burst into tears, was it because "he had just visited the doctor and found out he had an incurable disease ... if he had any friends". He decided to seek out help from others. Others told him he did the right thing, by leaving the young man alone". He knew "they were wrong" He knew that he "should have done the right thing". He knows he should have been there for the help of young man. In the same way, The essay by June Callwood examines two different relationships that involve wrongdoing and benefits of forgiving. The young man's abusive father beats him with "chains, belt, sticks and his fists" in hopes that this would deter him from becoming gay. Whether ignorant and unaware that homosexuality isn't a choice, the father thought beating his son would be effective. After few years, the son has become young and speaks out about his experience saying, what he did is not forgivable". The article doesn't delve any further into this man's life to see if not being able to forgive his father has burdened him anyway. The man is probably living with a ample amount of build up hate towards his father, but even more towards himself. The benefits of forgiving sometimes not outweigh the cost. As Callwood stated, forgiving hurts. An individual who forgives is the better person because they relinquish their right to do unto others as others have

TO DO OR NOT TO DO done to them. The mother and her biracial baby is another situation entirely. When the woman showed the infant proudly to her mother whose reaction was a look of naked disgust. Her mother and that son, now a charming and successful adult but the daughter has not forgotten and forgiven the expression on her mother's face. All in all, it shows that as a social responsibility, behaviour of Angela with the stranger was not good similarly in the other article behaviour of his father for his son and expression of grandmother for her son were not good.

On the other hand, purpose of both the articles is different and Angela shared one incident of his life. This essay gives an explanation of three stages which are separation, struggle and reintegration. The three paragraph describes the author as the protagonist, the fourth paragraph was about the author's epiphany on how it is a relevant realization in modern time. The first paragraph is call to adventure, the second is his benevolent which is his internal force, the third is realized his mistake and the fourth is shared his experiences. The benevolent gives him power to move on and shared the experience with the other people by writing "The Step Not Taken". He motivated by the fact that he didn't want his son to be

left alone in a position of need. The whole point of the article is "let alone" it's about the Karma what you did in the life affects your future. However, Collwood is not involved in the any incident of the article but the purpose of the article is just to give the message or create awareness among the people to make them understood about forgiveness. She divided this story in the four separate articles to make it easier to understand and so people can learn something easily. For example, issue of the story is same but both authors using the different narration style. Callwood gave numerous examples to examine the essay but Angelo describes the interaction between two persons. Callwood explained the social equality which is a kind of social

TO DO OR NOT TO DO issue. It is a root of number of problems where things such as gender racial and age. Initially, Callwood demonstrates the two different relationships; first one is about a gay man and his abusive father. His father beat him because he is a gay. In the next paragraph she discuss about the mother and her biracial baby. It insinuates the grandmother's racial discrepancies against her daughter and her infant. Overall, the issue of both the article is same but we can't over shadow its purposes which is completely different.

In the end, both the writer shared their incident and experiences from their personal life to spread the awareness among people that how to be responsible and able to forgive for the society. So they can understand about their social responsibilities but do not forget that sorrow of this world is endless.

TO DO OR NOT TO DO

References DAngelo, P. (2011). The Step Not Taken. In F. Gavin, E. Donville & D. Vavrusa (Eds.), Effective Reading and Writing for COMM 170 and Beyond (148-149). Boston, Toronto: Pearson. Callwood, J. (2011). Forgiveness. In F. Gavin, E. Donville & D. Vavrusa (Eds.), Effective Reading and Writing for COMM 170 and Beyond (152-155). Boston, Toronto: Pearson.