The Importance Of The Sunflowers In Simon's Life

After finishing The Sunflower, I realized that sunflowers obviously played an important part in Simon’s life. Simon and Arthur are both in this Nazis Concentration Camp. They are both part of the group that actually gets to leave their living quarters for work detail. One day they pass a military cemetery and Simon notices “on each grave there was planted a sunflower, as straight as a soldier on parade” (14). Simon realizes that is death won’t be recognized in any way like this but the site of the sunflowers gives him hope and hope that he might see them again. Simon immediately realized that there would be no sunflower on his grave, where corpses were piled on top of each other. There would be no sunflower to connect him with the world or bring him light, no butterflies to visit his grave. This here shows that when Simon and other Jews die, they will

For the rest of Simon’s life he remains tormented by Karl’s apology and even asks his readers at the end of The Sunflower to ask himself: “What would I have done?” (98) When we respond to this question, we have to keep in consideration the amount of atrocities and suffering the Jewish population went through. I feel that it is not our right to deeply forgive another for their sins. To forgive by word of mouth seems to me to be so superficial. A deeper forgiveness does not come from us but from God. Who are we to say that someone is truly forgiven for their sins? It is not our right. I do, however, believe that we should remain compassionate and kind to everyone, even the sinful. My response is that Simon Wiesenthal did the right thing by keeping his silence when the Nazi soldier asked for forgiveness. Simon could not have forgiven the Nazi for crimes and brutalities he did to other Jews. Even though Simon didn’t forgive Karl, he will still be buried in a cemetery with a sunflower planted over his final resting