Pieter Brueghel’s painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” and William Carlos Williams’ ekphrastic poem of the same name ask students to consider the theme of man’s indifference to suffering. Both works suggest that life goes on amid casualties and …
Suffering is a fact of life. Sometimes the suffering occurs on an individual level; others times it is shared with others. People react to suffering in very different ways. Some become bitter while others use the suffering as a motivating force to help other people. Suffering causes reflection and sets the framework for our ethical choices around what type of person we want to become.
I would use the book Walking for My Life, written by Jennifer Dewey, to teach students about the ways in which suffering can help a person become more knowledgeable and understanding. In this story, the narrator walks through the desert …