Examples Of Enduring Agony

Enduring Agony Pain, hurt, suffering, anguish. These are all words to describe a deep sensitivity everyone feels. People experience agony if a loved one dies, or if a they endure extreme physical or mental trauma. This term is used in our everyday lives quite accurately, as a way to express complete, overwhelming pain. The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines it as, “extreme mental or physical pain” (“Agony”). I feel that agony is more than that. I feel that it is the worst pain possible, like surviving a bullet through the heart, or always being just less than enough. Agony is not just pain. Pain is simply a feeling of distress, whether emotionally or physically. Pain can range anywhere from a small scratch to a broken bone,

Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban and lived to tell the story. As the Taliban took over her home, the Swat Valley in Pakistan, they banned girls’ education (“Diary of a Pakistani Girl”). From a young age, Malala has been an advocate for education. She would sit in on meetings with her father, and discuss rights with his friends (Yousafzai and Lamb 139). Pettinger said in his short biography about Malala, “In 2009, she began writing an anonymous blog for the BBC expressing her views on education and life under the threat of the Taliban taking over her valley” (Pettinger). Malala was featured in a BBC documentary, won Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize, and was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. All this press drew the Taliban’s attention, and they made a plot to kill. On October 9, 2012 a man stopped the bus Malala was riding on the way home from school and said, “Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot at you all” (Pettinger). This man proceeded to shoot her at point blank range. Malala was shot in the head, neck, and shoulder. Two of the girls sitting near her were hit with stray bullets but they were not severely injured (Pettinger). Malala experienced terrible agony when she was shot that day; she stood up for what she believed in, was shot in the head, and can no longer return to her home