A Related Journey: "The Prophet" On Crime and Punishment - Essay

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran 

<Crime and Punishment>

Hosung Kim A

If a crime is committed it is natural to be punished. But in the modern society as we are living a system called Capitalism, money can solve these problems.

I'm Free because I'm Rich!

So what did Kahlil Gibran state in the story Crime and Punishment? If we look at the beginning of the poem, the line “That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself” we can indicate that Gibran wanted to emphasize that if humans are alone we turn to our natural appearances. If people are around us it’s natural to act kind or look like being kind. It’s because your social status obligates you to be an honorable man. So it is probable to say that we are an animal that has two faces. A kind one outside and a sneer smile in the inside. So it’s actually easy for people to commit a crime because it’s as easy as changing a mask. You may turn to your true selves. But this influences other people around us. Committing a crime is basically creating an atmosphere to promote crime. If we interpret this easily it just means committing a crime and influencing others in a bad way by stealing or harming them. But if we look at it more deeply it also makes people feel uneasy and gives confidence to the criminals. This affects you indirectly as well. If you steal things or commit crimes the crimes or the punishment shall all return to you as you are the source of these catastrophes. This is further explained along the lines of the poem “Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured” The guilty is also given the burden of one’s consciousness as they live their lives.

Are we God?

Another sentence that is emphasized is this. “Much is you is still man, and much in you is not yet man” If people are half man what does it mean? It explains previously that the ocean and the sun is our god selves as we remain forever undefiled. Also the sun knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent. The god selves that we all have don’t even know how to commit a crime and is pure as a flowing stream of water. If we were fully gods we wouldn't commit any crimes. We can see the metaphor here that Gibran wanted to impose upon us. Humans are not fully gods and we are not fully human. So we have the capacity to be kind and helpful. But we also have the possibility of being evil as well. It shows the two-sidedness of humans. In a positive view we should all direct our attention to being gods in order to act like one.

To relate this poem to my true self I would like to suppose an experience that I will have later. I’m now a member of the Department of Justice this department must draw a clear line of crimes and punishment. Anyone can commit a crime as explained previously. It’s as easy as changing a mask. But giving them punishments are entitled to the judge and the jury. The choices that they make decide their whole lives. “What penalty lay you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?” This sentence implies lots of meanings as it indicates that the criminal’s are also human and have suffered after their crimes. Is the right to decide a punishment being given to the judge or the jury? Aren't they all humans? We make mistakes as we are only half-gods. “And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?” If a criminal remorse about his crimes should we give him another chance? Or are we just to believe that someone must pay for their wrongdoings. And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light? The human mind is as easy to change as the river flows down to a stream. 

Judge!

So it is concluded that even the judge couldn't make the just choices. But we should bear it in mind, I should bear in it mind that the law isn't always perfect, crimes are not always guilty, and punishments are not always necessary. With these doubts in mind we must pursue the meanings of justice. Doubts may be the things that strangle you, but it can also be the motive power for the boost of the justice system. 

A Different Journey: "The Prophet" On Crime and Punishment

On my first 사제동행 (Teacher-student book reading) I needed to memorize poems and write essays about it. It took me 2 weeks to memorize this particular poem... And there were 6 more poems that I needed to memorize... However somehow I managed to do it all! In reading Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet  I managed to understand poems in depth and memorized various poems that inflicts upon our various lives such as love, prayer, and death.

Crime and Punishment

It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind,
That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.
And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.


Like the ocean is your god-self;
It remains for ever undefiled.
And like the ether it lifts but the winged.
Even like the sun is your god-self;
It knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent.
But your god-self does not dwell alone in your being.
Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man,
But a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening.


And of the man in you would I now speak.
For it is he and not your god-self nor the pigmy in the mist, that knows crime and the punishment of crime.
Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.

You are the way and the wayfarers.
And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.
Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.
And this also, though the word lie heavy upon your hearts:
The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,
And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.
The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,
And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.
Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured,


And still more often the condemned is the burden-bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.
You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;
For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together.
And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also.
If any of you would bring judgment the unfaithful wife,


Let him also weight the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements.
And let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended.
And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;
And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.


And you judges who would be just,
What judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit?
What penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?
And how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor,
Yet who also is aggrieved and outraged?

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?
Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?
Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.
Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.
And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?


Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,
And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.

Journey Five: Academic Film Review "The Age of Stupid"

   

We know it's there but because of who?

Alas! The time has already passed when we could have saved ourselves. We are aware that there's global warming but seem to lack the idea of why it occurred in the first place. ‘What am I doing in this hostile situation?’ Am I helping the world or harming it? We clean our own houses in order to live in a purified environment. But what are we doing to our real home “Earth?” People yell towards humanity to be aware of global warming, but are they? The ego-centrism of humanity has led to suicide and an apocalyptic future.

Yes, Put it out right now!

The Age of Stupid is a documentary directed by Franny Armstrong released in 2009. The main theme portrayed is global warming and climate change. The movie starts with  Peter Postlethwaite who is an archivist, guarding all of humanity’s achievements. The archivist looks back to 2008 from 2055 trying to find out the reason why we have forced suicide upon us. 2055, humanity has already met an end to its survival. The movie begins with a shocking image of the future showing the harsh environments of Earth and how we have reached extinction. The scene gives a pivotal sense that we should make change now as the reviewing pasts are the current situation to us!

The Apocalypse

 Armstrong’s main word in the film was ‘stupid’. The film relates consumerism, war, and climate change to global warming. It is a fact that humanity is developing at a remarkable speed but as to the development we’re not changing.

 

The main method that Armstrong uses in the film is showing. Rather than telling facts, the film shows stories. The 6 characters in the story reveals the cause and effect of global warming using the irony of a character. Irony emphasizes each point better as the story goes on. The stories are based on real-life events and it examines the character closely like a documentary film. The main irony which is depicted in the film concerns the character Jeh, an Indian entrepreneur who’s determined to make India’s cheapest plane company. He believes that climate change and poverty are the most essential goals that humanity should solve. To achieve this he constructs airplanes. Airplanes consume lots of oil and is responsible for emitting over 4~8% of green house gases each and every year. Since the 1850s it has contributed in the temperature increase of 0.03~0.06°C overall. Airplanes are one of the transportation that produce the most amounts of emissions. And ‘climate protector’ Jeh tries to make airplanes as much as possible to eradicate poverty. 

“Ultimately we all contribute to green house gases, we all contribute to the crisis that we have today with the planet. So ultimately ensuring our planet is safe and healthy is each one’s job, task whether you do it in your own way using less tissue paper, buying green cars or not flying.”                                                                                         -Jeh, Entrepreneur of GOJET- 

Like this, Armstrong portrays the irony of humans. Economically it’s called a trade-off, the two goals that are contradicting each other. We try to achieve goals that are perhaps ideal. But to argue that we are concerning for global warming, perhaps a glance towards the back would help us all.

             By showing the changes in Mont Blanc and the events in Iran and Nigeria we see the results of our energy consuming lives. But what's done is done! We need the solutions for the problems that we face today. The film gives an idea that until 2015 we should have stabilized the emissions. It is apparent that we should act now, but is it easy? The film shows the hardships in solving global warming. Humanity has stepped into a stage where aesthetics and money are the most important aspects of life. Piers Guy, a wind turbine maker who uses renewable resources that are available, like the wind to stop global warming. However the people of Cornwall are concerned about the aesthetics while our home Earth is being tortured.  We humans are the major setbacks for our problems.

         “Local anti campaigns are one of the key factors stopping about 80% of the proposed wind energy project, have they all been built 10% of our electricity would be non-pollutant."  -From "The Age of Stupid"...-

           

 We know the solution is there somewhere, the only thing that stands in front of us is the reflection of ourselves. The irony is within us, we have concerns for global warming but we are the ones blocking the way. The age of stupid is upon us, the film explains thoroughly about the significance of global warming using irony and showing various causes of global warming. But the film is merely a mean to awake the behavior that sleeps inside our minds. The behavior that tells us "What are we doing right now, it's time to solve."

 

Sources

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091221/full/news.2009.1157.html

http://www.spannerfilms.net/films/ageofstupid

http://academichelp.net/academic-assignments/review/write-film-review.html

http://www.enviromedia.com/enviroblog/

http://phys.org/news/2011-03-airplane-contrails-worse-co2-emissions.html

Journey four: Personal Narrative Speech (Final Draft)

Personal Narrative Speech

As I am sure every boy was, I had been asked out by a girl.

Holding Hands

When I was in elementary school I was a very quiet boy and one of the boys who sat in the back corner of the classroom. I always just did my things and didn't really talk to anyone. But I remember a girl who I really like for a long time. She was really beautiful in my perspective. I tried to ask her out but I was too shy... Then the incident happened that changed my life.

It was a warm summer day when the incident happened. After a long class of mathematics I went to my locker to bring books. I slowly opened it and put my hand in. “Click!” There was a strange sound in my locker. I looked in, horrified of the sound. And guess what was inside. There was a ring and a letter inside my locker. I thought, bemused ‘Did I put a ring here?’ But I had no memory of it. So I started to read the letter. It said “I like you. Will you be my boyfriend?” It took a while to soak in the message. Then it just hit me. ‘Is this girl asking me out?’ I turned it over; there was more to the letter. “I’ll put on the same ring that I gave you, find me.” The strangest event in my whole life was happening right now at that very moment. It felt strange. But I liked it.

Swans

An internal struggle was happening inside my mind. My parents always told me that dating is a negative thing. “It’s what bad people do.” they said. “You’re too young to date so never ask a girl out even if you like her!” But then I found out that their words of wisdom had a fatal flaw in it. ‘What should I do if a girl asks me out?’ There was no answer. I thought hard for a minute. My mind was racing through all the experiences and knowledge I learned. It was then when I found out that Korean education was useless, they never tell you how to cope with these kinds of dilemmas. So with a strange doubt in my mind I turned around and searched for the girl, having a little hope that it was the girl I liked.

It was like finding a needle in a haystack. I couldn't ask girls to show their hands to me, I would be considered as a pervert in Korean 변태. Then 3 girls came over and asked me to play a hand game. It was strange that these girls suddenly came over and suggested me to play “a hand game.” I was afraid of them, but with the help of my friend I played the game. It was that moment when I saw the tiny silver object glittering on a girl’s hand. I looked up and saw her face.

Was she the prettiest girl I've ever met? Well to be frank “No.” She was not that pretty or ugly but just a normal girl. My mind was a blank piece of paper. But at that moment the girl I really liked for 2 years, passed by looking at me. She was the prettiest girl that I've ever met. I couldn't give up on her. So I made up my mind.

I asked to the girl wearing the ring, “Is it you who gave me the ring?”

“Yes” she replied.

“I’m really sorry but let’s just be friends. I think it’s too early for us to date and my parents won’t let me.”

She made a sad face, but said “Okay.” I couldn't face her so I turned around; I saw a little tear drop on the edge of her eye.

Then is the story finished here? No, there’s still a twist in the end. It turns out that the girl I liked for two years had a bad characteristic. She was the most arrogant and selfish girl that I've ever met. And as time passed the girl who confessed her feelings to me had a beautiful heart. She always helped others and always laughed. I don’t know why I didn't notice it then but she was the most beautiful girl I've ever met. And the courage she showed to me was admirable. From this experience I don’t judge people by their looks anymore. It’s a selfish and a childish thing to do. What really matters is the inside.

Thank you for listening.