The Sunflower Mary Gordon Research Paper

Mary Gordon, a famous author who was born in 1949 in Far Rockaway, New York. She was born into a strict Catholic home by Anna Gagliano and David Gordon (Gordon). In Mary’s younger years she had wanted to be nun, but it all changed after the death of her father David. After David died from heart failure in 1957, Mary’s mother sold the house and took Mary back to live in the house that she has grew up in. They both went to take care of Mary’s grandmother, but not long after the grandmother had passed away Mary’s mother became alcoholic, which lead to Mary being alone most of the time since Mary’s mother’s side of the family never liked her (Gordon). Being lonely most of the time, which made her to started writing. Mary excelled in school and had made lasting friendships with

Mary stated, “ he is asking for private forgiveness, not from the person he has harmed, but in the name of others (Gordon 152).” She does not know why the Nazi is asking for forgiveness, “what does the Nazi expect to gain from being forgiven (Gordon 152)?” Mary believed that forgiveness will not undo what had happened. It is not going to bring all of the Jew’s lives back. Forgiveness can be good for both sides, but the pain would still be there, in those people who had suffered from all the torture. She said the Nazi is wrong in two ways for asking Simon for forgivenesses. First of all, the Nazi is using Simon as a symbol to represent all of the Jews (Gordon 153) . According to what Mary said, “A symbol, by its nature, is communal, and its status can be bestowed only by the community. There is no such thing as a privately symbolic figure (Gordon 153).” The Nazi should’ve apologized publicly instead of privately. “No one can grant forgiveness as a private person in the name of another, for that would be theft of the wounded person’s right to forgive or not forgive,” quoted