The Power of a Perspective
One of the most challenging things I face is the ability to comfort friends who are experiencing difficulties because I can never understand the situation from their point of view. Often times when I suggest a way to make their problem better, I get turned down by a response of “but it’s not like that” or “it’s not that easy.” My only intention is to help my friends, but it is hard for me to comfort them when I'm unaware of the whole situation. This corresponds perfectly to Atticus Finch's famous line in To Kill a Mockingbird of, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," as I cannot comfort them when I do not know their perspective (39).
Last week in English, I found a similar struggle to mine in the comic book Maus, which involves a son writing about his father’s Holocaust experience. Although this book describes the Holocaust, the audience truly cannot understand the reality of it just through words and pictures. In fact, Jim Powell uses Postmodernism for Beginners to state his beliefs that the Holocaust should remain “immemorial” since only those who actually experienced it understand how horrible the citizens were treated (Powell). This relates to my struggle, as it is difficult to have a clear understanding of someone in a given situation when they do not personally know the severity of the event.
I agree with what you're saying. It is extremely difficult to understand how someone is truly feeling since you can never know every single detail about the circumstances. It is impossible to get inside their heads and understand the situation from their point of view. The only thing we can do is try our very best to understand and help, because no matter what, we should never give up on anyone.
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