I’d like you to spend some time reflecting this week on
the Common Read theme of forgiveness in Picking Cotton. Some questions to consider as we finish the
book:
- How/why is forgiveness important for Ronald Cotton? How is it important for Jennifer Thompson-Cannino?
- What relation does forgiveness have to do with healing? With justice?
- How does the theme of healing overlap with our class’s theme, “Why me?” How does that question change if applied to first Ronald and then Jennifer? How is that question the same or similar for both?
- How has your own thinking on the theme of forgiveness changed over the course of reading this memoir?
I wonder about this theme of "forgiveness." What if Ronald hadn't forgiven Jennifer. She wanted him to die, she wanted him to suffer and be raped in prison. And he didn't do anything. What if didn't forgive her? Would we be as reassured by this story? He lost a decade of his life. He's been scarred so that he feels marked as a rapist even though he's not one. The state of NC paid him a little more than $200,000 dollars for ten years of his life. It seems that he has the right to hang onto his anger, to not forgive. What would we do if we had to face the fact that this man is not going to forgive, is going to hang onto his anger? It's a reassuring to us that he forgives, but what if he didn't?
ReplyDeleteThe forgiveness is important to Ronald Cotton because what he has gone through in his life because of Jennifer's wrong decision gives him the right to get forgiven from everyone. For Jennifer the forgiveness is important because how she chose a wrong person who didn't committed the crime and led him into the jail for a long time, the forgiveness from Ronald is really important for Jennifer.
ReplyDeleteRonald Cotton forgives Jennifer, I think only someone with a big heart can forgive someone after they serve 10 years of their life. After all these years most people would hate the person they went to jail for. But he has a good heart and he understood Jennifer's anger towards her attacker. I am not so sure If I was in Ronald's place if I would be able to forgive someone like that.
ReplyDeleteMy thinking of forgiveness hasn't changed one bit after reading the memoir still. I don't forgive people usually if they did something to me. For example, why would ronald forgive jennifer? She blamed him for raping her when he didn't. Because she made a mistake of saying he was the one raping her and for that he went to jail for more than 10 years. Because of someones mistake, you have to suffer. That's why i don't usually forget someone.
ReplyDeleteIn Picking Cotton and generally overall, forgiveness plays a great role on the process of healing. Although Ronald Cotton was unjustifiably accused of an awful rape, he knew it wasn't him. He seeked redemption and at last got some recognition. In the rape case specifically, it mightn't felt merely impossible to forgive someone who brutally attacked you but, knowing that the person you blamed it on that was actually innocent can change that. In order to heal, you must forgive and try to forget. In the eyes of justice, forgiving to heal is a different concept. For Jennifer, at least, to know that the man who "raped" her served so much time innocently, the process of healing for both Ronald and Jennifer may not be so easily handled. Both went through traumatic experiences, especially Jennifer.
ReplyDeleteRonald cotton spent a decade in prison for something he did not commit because Jennifer Thompson said that he was the man that raped her. Even after all that Ronald Cotton chose to forgive her. He has said that he went to jail an angry man but he learn to let go of the hate and to live and forget. They were both traumatized and they both understood that. Ronald felt as if forgiving will help him heal. Instead of living his life with hate towards Jeniffer
ReplyDeleteTo begin with forgiveness is important for Ronald Cotton. How you ask? He forgave Jennifer Thompson-Cannino for picking him. It may also have been a tool he used to help him during his time in jail. He expressed that overtime he came to forget about being wrongly convicted while in jail. He may have forgot then during that time, he may have forgave not during that time. Forgiveness is similar to forgetting some would say. All in all he used forgiveness to face his source of torment. Jennifer holds a lot in seemingly, she uses forgiveness when writing her letter to her true rapist. Jennifer does the same as Ronald seemingly when getting in touch with her tormentor for the first time after picking the wrong guy. It almost uncertain whether or not she completely forgave and forgot at a certain point. Healing is healing. Forgiveness is forgiveness. Justice is the account of two intertwining when unavailable evidence doesn't meet profound intellectual expressions. Healing is time if healing is pending for someone. Why me is time when you don't understand. Why me is the question asked up until the point when there is fulfillment of the understanding of healing. Ronald is under pressure at the same time Jennifer is and isn't. It hasn't. It never did. Question?
ReplyDelete