Forgiveness

Forgiveness

"Apologia pro sua vita" is an ancient Italian saying that explains why we do what we do. In life, our choices and experiences are what create and define each individual. Each person represents themselves in their own society by living each day and choosing their actions that make themselves feel whole. While we have control of some situations that we come across, other times our experiences are completely out of our hands and rather forced upon us. In Simon Wiesenthal's novel, The Sunflower, a man by the name of Karl shares his survival story of working during the Holocaust.

Normally society hears the more commonly shared stories of the survivors from the concentration camps, however Wiesenthal focuses on Karl; a young man on the Nazi side. He chooses to tell about his life from behind the Nazi lines and share how he feels as each day passes. Over time during the Holocaust, Karl finally came to ask himself if he could ever be forgiven for the pain he inflicted upon so many innocent victims. While Karl lays in solitude on his death bed, he ponders this question of forgiveness and wonders where to seek forgiveness.

Leo Tolstoy's short story titled What Men Live By, focuses on the emotions that result from the suffering in a very similar way to The Sunflower. Tolstoy's short story follows the belief of logotherapy, which states that one finally survives when they find meaning in their suffering. In the case of Karl in The Sunflower, he is barely hanging onto his life by the end of the novel because he has yet to accept and understand the suffering that he created. While suffering is the catalyst for our growth, Tolstoy also abides by the statement "I love, therefore I am." Because Karl lacks the ability to love himself and the others he harmed, he is empty within. Due to Karl not having the capability to love himself, the task for finding forgiveness will be difficult; whether it is sought from the family members of those he killed, a Jew, or even God.

The question that still has yet to be answered is who will forgive Karl for his horrific actions against these innocent people. Since Karl is now lying on his death bed in misery, lacking forgiveness, he questions whether God is even present in his life. "So one begins to doubt, one begins to cease to believe in a world order in which God has a definite place. One really begins to think that God is on leave. Otherwise the present state of things would not be possible. God must be away" (Wiesenthal 9). If God was absent during Karl's quest for forgiveness, should he even be forgiven?

In response to The Sunflower, Robert Coles believes that Karl was simply searching for commonality; the need for forgiveness