Understanding people
Understanding peopleDifferent people see the world from different perspectives. In our society, there will always be misunderstandings between people and those people’s reactions will differ. Some choose to mope, groan, and even get angry about the way that themselves or others are treated while some decide to try and do something about it. Still, there are others who think to themselves that maybe the best way to deal with the issues among people is to try and comprehend what they mean and just live by them. As Benedict Spinoza put it, “I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.” Authors now try to understand actions that people make instead of ridiculing them. The following explains these authors and how they have been able to identify with others.
“Under the Influence” is an essay written by Scott Russell Sanders. In this writing he tells how he grew up with an alcoholic as a father. His life was not at all easy. He had to deal with issues that young children should not have to deal with. In this essay he makes the reader understand what an alcoholic is and how the actions of one person who has this disease can affect himself and so many other people. Sanders does this by explaining the horror that he and his family had to go through during the years of his father’s problem. The family was never sure whether they would be happy at the sight of the father or horrified by his presence. As a child, Sanders believed that his father’s problem was somewhat his fault because he was not a good son. “I tell myself he drinks to ease an ache that gnaws at his belly, an ache I must have caused by disappointing him somehow…” (Sanders 64). As he grows up, the truth comes out and he realizes that his father being an alcoholic is not his fault. Sanders understands the his Dad’s problem was not his problem to deal with. It was something that had taken over his father long before he could ever stop or take blame. He learns from this. He learns that this is not the way to live someone’s life, so he promises himself that he will not be like his father. He makes sure that he will never suffer the fate that killed his father.
Another essay, from Judith Ortiz Cofer, is entitled “More Room”. In a life filled with religion, her grandmother just wanted to be able to live her days to the fullest. Being so religious, she could not share the same bed with her husband knowing that if she did, she was sure to have more children. As much as her grandmother loved her young...
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