"Three Weeks After Storm, a Grim Task of Recovery." The New York Times 5 Oct. 2008: A20.
*Does anyone know how to get an underline? I have tried both ctrl u and copying it from Word, but neither seems to work.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
A Journey to Recovery
Three weeks after hurricane Ike stormed over the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas, at least 34 people are unaccounted for, and many are presumed dead. Relatives of those missing have been calling shelters and hospitals, frantically trying to locate their loved ones. Some of those relatives received calls from victims who were trapped by the floods, saying goodbye. As horrible as it must be to receive a call from a relative who knows they are going to die, there are also miraculous stories of survival. People survived by floating on coolers, debris or anything else they could find. However, the journey to recovery will be long and difficult, both physically and emotionally. Physically, people have lost homes and valued property. Emotionally, the scars are much deeper. Some relatives listened as victims called to tell them they were going to drown, and others were expecting evacuees who never arrived. A grandson listened to his grandmother describe how the floods had washed the neighbors' houses away, then experienced the silence when his grandmother's cell phone went dead. A boyfriend watched as his girlfriend was swept out to sea. These traumatic experiences will take years and much pain to heal. Much like Odysseus, who struggles to get home, these people will take a long time to return to normal. Likewise, those whose relatives are still missing may never find out their loved one's fate, like Penelope has no idea when or if Odysseus will return home. The journey back to normalcy will be long and difficult, and some might never achieve it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I believe you are right on most accounts of such tragic losses. I like your examples from the Odyssey. Now that we are reading Siddhartha and learning about Buddhism I think that your reasoning does not apply to all circumstances. A Buddhist would be sad that the person died, but they wouldn't be too sad or let it affect them too much. They wouldn't let this happen because events in time all happen at once and so they would be peaceful and content because of the time when the tragic people who died were alive.
You did a good job summarizing the article you read as well as applying it to our unit. Perhaps make your anaylsis more clearly separated from the summary, because I couldn't really tell where the article stopped and your own imput began. I saw the same strong parallels to "The Odyssey". Overally good work.
Post a Comment