October 27,2017
Anna Sajecki
English 103
Raab, Kelly Mayo. “Self-Forgiveness, Trauma, and Community: An Ethical Perspective.” Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, vol. 6, 21 Dec. 2011, pp. 1–4.
“I attempt to demonstrate that in order for self-forgiveness to occur, a moral community must take a role in providing safety and restorative love.“ (Raab 1) Summary: Past studies have connected self-forgiveness with an improvement of mental health. Traumatic experiences may affect individuals for the rest of their lives, thus forgiveness of self and others is important. But since forgiveness is an ambiguous term in the mental health field, Raab defines it using by exploring various steps toward forgiveness suggested …show more content…
The novel “The World Before Us” follows Jane’s journey towards self-forgiveness as she realizes that she has been holding on to her past for too long while people around her has already moved on, this parallels the article talking about the importance of past and present. Since I’m talking about how people cope up with traumatic events, the article will help me focus on how Jane tried to seek closure through a community, which is her family but failed to do so. The article also talked about “restorative love” (Raab 3), and how acceptance of pain may only come when the victim has been shown a different kind of love, in Jane’s case, …show more content…
Jane in the novel The World Before Us has described the traumatic experience of losing Lily as almost a burden that dragged her down, I can connect this to the idea from the article that forgiving is freeing. The article also discusses the importance of parental influence, and since Jane’s parents have never shown acceptance of the event, Jane also has a hard time addressing the event herself and represses her feelings. Finally, I can use the idea from the article that forgiveness leads to a positive feeling towards professional life and commitment in relationships, and parallel it to the novel’s ending when Jane feels good about her accomplishment of finding N's identity and is now ready to pursue a possible relationship with