All over the world, people have different values and beliefs on how they assess and weigh the impact of individual choices. Yet not only does this vary incredibly from country to country, or city to city, but even in the same community two people of different backgrounds may believe the other is completely immoral and insensitive. In the novel Island of a Thousand Mirrors, Nayomi Munaweera, 2012, paints the stories of intertwining characters, one of which who becomes a suicide bomber in Sri Lanka. Looking into young Saraswathi’s life, Munaweera introduced her as an intelligent girl who dreamed of one day becoming a school teacher. Yet unfortunately, she was living in a time of civil war and bloody massacres. After being stripped from her home
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Many times it can be an act of vengeance rather than the pursuit of justice. Yet the bloodthirsty vengeance that Saraswathi displayed was definitely something I hadn’t considered. To heal, she needed to throw back violence in the face of those who oppressed, spoiled, and destroyed her. It was not only to kill herself but to make a political and social statement about the lack of justice within the civil war. She mentioned that after being raped, she felt as if she was a “blank page” having lost the beauty and purity of her past. The movement leader was able to write a new story and purpose for her which seemed to be something she always longed for from authority figures. As I read her heartbreaking story, her destructive detonation made sense. I sympathized with Saraswathi as she strived for this peace and redemption. Being influenced by mass propaganda while also falling into a deep depression after her dream of becoming a school teacher was no longer possible, Saraswathi’s choice to join the Tamil Tigers was not a surprise. Her own mother said, “You must go to the training camp. Learn to fight. Become a hero” (Munaweera, p.159). At first this terrified her, yet as the training went on and she was finally able to reclaim her strength and aside from previously being a cautious young woman, Saraswathi lost her fear of death. Just as dancing under the mango tree gave her value and worth of approval from her mother, her suicide gave her that same freeing but also purposeful
Many times it can be an act of vengeance rather than the pursuit of justice. Yet the bloodthirsty vengeance that Saraswathi displayed was definitely something I hadn’t considered. To heal, she needed to throw back violence in the face of those who oppressed, spoiled, and destroyed her. It was not only to kill herself but to make a political and social statement about the lack of justice within the civil war. She mentioned that after being raped, she felt as if she was a “blank page” having lost the beauty and purity of her past. The movement leader was able to write a new story and purpose for her which seemed to be something she always longed for from authority figures. As I read her heartbreaking story, her destructive detonation made sense. I sympathized with Saraswathi as she strived for this peace and redemption. Being influenced by mass propaganda while also falling into a deep depression after her dream of becoming a school teacher was no longer possible, Saraswathi’s choice to join the Tamil Tigers was not a surprise. Her own mother said, “You must go to the training camp. Learn to fight. Become a hero” (Munaweera, p.159). At first this terrified her, yet as the training went on and she was finally able to reclaim her strength and aside from previously being a cautious young woman, Saraswathi lost her fear of death. Just as dancing under the mango tree gave her value and worth of approval from her mother, her suicide gave her that same freeing but also purposeful