Guilt is a heavy burden to bare; its hold is strong and often times will not diminish over time. Throughout the semester and throughout the titles we have read, an overlaying and prevalent theme is guilt: specifically guilt is the heaviest burden a person carries with them. Guilt will not go away, even after long periods of time; guilt will also hold you back from success. The saying “time heals all wounds” is horribly inaccurate: guilt can often last a lifetime. In the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, one of the main characters, Tim, feels the lasting guilt of losing a friend in war. Twenty years after the war, Tim returns to the sight of Kiowa’s death, and even after all this time he thought to himself “I wanted to tell Kiowa
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Siddhartha is a perfect example of guilt holding you back from, in his case, enlightenment. For Siddhartha “there was no more goals, there was nothing left but the deep, painful yearning to shake off this whole desolate dream, to spit out this stale wine, to put an end to this miserable and shameful life”, something he almost ended up doing (48). Siddhartha was guilt ridden over spending years of his life consumed by greed, wealth, and pleasures. This heavy guilt leads him to even contemplating suicide; although he was able to reach a sense of enlightenment that saved him from guilt’s grasp upon him. He was held back from his goal of achieving enlightenment because of all the regret and guilt he held over those years wasted divulging in human sin. Guilt has also held back Dave Jensen, from The Things They Carried. Dave accused Lee Strunk of stealing his knife, and the two got into a fist fight, ending with Dave smashing in Lee’s nose. Since Lee got back from medical leave to fix his nose the guilt of accusing Lee and paranoia that Lee would exact revenge against him drove him mad. It got to the point where he “borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own nose” in order to show a sort of repentance to Lee (60). Before being driven to this extreme point of smashing in his own nose Dave lost focus of the war, who was an enemy and who wasn’t, his guilt holding him back from fighting the war. Both Siddhartha and Dave were held back by their guilt; both almost ending in terrible, violent ways. The burden that the guilt placed upon them was heavier than anything else going on in their
Siddhartha is a perfect example of guilt holding you back from, in his case, enlightenment. For Siddhartha “there was no more goals, there was nothing left but the deep, painful yearning to shake off this whole desolate dream, to spit out this stale wine, to put an end to this miserable and shameful life”, something he almost ended up doing (48). Siddhartha was guilt ridden over spending years of his life consumed by greed, wealth, and pleasures. This heavy guilt leads him to even contemplating suicide; although he was able to reach a sense of enlightenment that saved him from guilt’s grasp upon him. He was held back from his goal of achieving enlightenment because of all the regret and guilt he held over those years wasted divulging in human sin. Guilt has also held back Dave Jensen, from The Things They Carried. Dave accused Lee Strunk of stealing his knife, and the two got into a fist fight, ending with Dave smashing in Lee’s nose. Since Lee got back from medical leave to fix his nose the guilt of accusing Lee and paranoia that Lee would exact revenge against him drove him mad. It got to the point where he “borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own nose” in order to show a sort of repentance to Lee (60). Before being driven to this extreme point of smashing in his own nose Dave lost focus of the war, who was an enemy and who wasn’t, his guilt holding him back from fighting the war. Both Siddhartha and Dave were held back by their guilt; both almost ending in terrible, violent ways. The burden that the guilt placed upon them was heavier than anything else going on in their