I am convinced that the theme in the book Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton is forgiveness. Both of the main characters; Ronald and Jennifer demonstrate forgiveness throughout the book. Ronald learns to forgive the people who put him in prison while Jennifer learns to forgive herself for her mistakes. Ronald spent eleven years in prison but he never once gave up. The one thing that got him through the most horrific days of his life was God.
“I still prayed to God that I would be free again, but the more I thought about it, the more Diane was right: You had to be free in your heart. Guilt, fear, anger- they were all their own kinds of prison. You could be out in the world and still be doing time. Part of my finding that …show more content…
She truly feels terrible for putting an innocent man behind bars, so terrible that she wants to meet with Ronald in person, she later tells him “Mr. Cotton. I don’t even know what to call you. Ron? Ronald? Mr. Cotton? if I spend the rest of my life telling you how sorry I am, it wouldn’t come close to how I feel” (pg 244). Jennifer’s main purpose is to express how sorry she is for his false imprisonment. Jennifer also feels guilty “we don’t really know who he is. I just know that I took him away from his family for so many years, it’s not right (pg 239). She sees how she took him away from his family and that is time someone cannot get …show more content…
In my opinion, I thought you never forget a tragic event but after reading this story really made me think differently. I look back at a tragic event in my life and wonder if I am remembering it correctly. I pondered questions after reading this story like how many other innocent people were wrongly convicted or how many other people were given the death sentence for something they did not do just because someone identified them. You used to hear it all the time on the news, people being convicted due to someone’s testimony because courts often want to close a case fast. Now a day we have DNA and more evidence to prove which makes me hopeful that there convicting the right people for
“I still prayed to God that I would be free again, but the more I thought about it, the more Diane was right: You had to be free in your heart. Guilt, fear, anger- they were all their own kinds of prison. You could be out in the world and still be doing time. Part of my finding that …show more content…
She truly feels terrible for putting an innocent man behind bars, so terrible that she wants to meet with Ronald in person, she later tells him “Mr. Cotton. I don’t even know what to call you. Ron? Ronald? Mr. Cotton? if I spend the rest of my life telling you how sorry I am, it wouldn’t come close to how I feel” (pg 244). Jennifer’s main purpose is to express how sorry she is for his false imprisonment. Jennifer also feels guilty “we don’t really know who he is. I just know that I took him away from his family for so many years, it’s not right (pg 239). She sees how she took him away from his family and that is time someone cannot get …show more content…
In my opinion, I thought you never forget a tragic event but after reading this story really made me think differently. I look back at a tragic event in my life and wonder if I am remembering it correctly. I pondered questions after reading this story like how many other innocent people were wrongly convicted or how many other people were given the death sentence for something they did not do just because someone identified them. You used to hear it all the time on the news, people being convicted due to someone’s testimony because courts often want to close a case fast. Now a day we have DNA and more evidence to prove which makes me hopeful that there convicting the right people for