Critical appreciation of the poem Good and Evil by Kahlil Gibran
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
I like this meditation on good and evil. It challenges assumptions and and raises important questions. Gibran suggests there is only good, for that is everyone’s inherent nature, and what we call evil is simply being lost and uninspired. He calls us to be compassionate to those who are selfish and cruel, for they suffer from greater poverty than the homeless and greater hunger than the starving; they suffer from poverty of the soul.
I strongly feel one should never passively allow the hard-hearted to inflict harm or hoard what belongs to all. Such actions must be opposed with strength and courage and cunning. The vulnerable must always be protected. That is a basic duty. But even complete success in one action does not stop the fundamental dynamic of harm, just that particular instance. We must always remember that those who inflict harm and encode selfishness into systems and institutions, those people are also seeking their way, just blinded by their spiritual poverty. That’s where the real, patient work of the ages is found… finding how to open eyes and hearts long used to to being shut, finding how to redirect them toward the forgotten goodness and generosity held within.
This is where I have to take issue with the Gibran’s line, “Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.” We are neither stags nor turtles, and the speed of our spiritual unfolding is not fixed at birth. Every human being harbors something of the heavenly within. There is no speed to the process. All that is needed is the right reminder of what we already are. Then begins the steady process of discovering how to encourage that ember and let its warmth permeate all aspects of our lives. Turtles don’t need to become stags. Humans simply need to become themselves. Humans just need to become more human.
But how to reach those who would armor themselves against the urging of their own hearts? No simple formula, nor single action nor organization can accomplish this. Not a year nor a generation nor a century will accomplish this. Still, that is what must be done. That is the real, hard, slow work given to us all to accomplish, each in our own lives, our work, our world.
Knowing our work, let’s be impatient to begin and supremely patient in its accomplishment. Knowing our work, what cause is there for anything but joy in turning to it each day?
In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.
Hope it helps
This poem introduces al-Mustafa who, for twelve years, has lived in the town of Orphalese, waiting for a ship to carry it back to his birth island. Once the ship reaches, the Orphalese people go and bid him goodbye, and Almitra (the only disciple mentioned in the Prophet) asks him to answer all the questions his followers ask before his departure for advice.
Explanation:
- In the Poem Good and Evil by Kahlil Gibran , A town elder asks Almustafa to talk about good and bad, responding that he can only think about good because bad is so well punished by hunger and thirst. Being good is one with one another, and being bad is the contrary. A house divided is not a thieves 'den, only a house divided. A ship without a rudder can wander but can not sink forever.
- Another is good when you want to offer strives to give yourself and bad if you are trying for personal gain. Striving for benefit is like a root connected to the ground, and the fruits can't it to become ripe and give the way it does. The fruit needs to be given, and the root needs to be accepted.
- In many cases, people are good; yet, when they are not good, they are not bad. Gibran finds people nice, but if they are not in agreement with theirself, then they are not wrong.