Thursday, January 18, 2007

 Choose a representative passage from this novel that holds particular significence to you. Type it in and comment on its significance.


On page 239“Now new hopes, soaring like the pinnacle of their Sawidome, stir them toward new horizons both spiritual and secular, though their means of achieving their secular goals are at present still pitifully inadequate.”This passage held particular significance to me because I learned many valuable lessons from reading this book. First, I learned that we should never lose our hope even in desperate situations; rather, we should strive to achieve what we have aimed for. Initially, the book described the way how Sawi people lived. The book describes how it was their cultural norm to practice cannibalism and the treachery was rewarded in this society. The first thought that evoked from reading the book was that they could never accept the new “reform” movements, rather, they would only continue their traditional way of living. Additionally, they lacked what we viewed as “essentials” in life, such as stable houses, clothes, and stable way of producing food. However, Don Richardson’s continual efforts succeded in accomplishing the “miracle” within the Sawi society. The construction of such a magnificent conference building only to serve God in Sawi society means a lot to the society. It is a “Great Leap Forward” for the Sawi who had transformed from the “uncivilized” to the people who tend to accept the changes that gives greater potential for them to be civilized and develop in fast pace. However, behind all these accomplishments, there were consistent effort of Don Richardson who literally “translated” all the vocabulary that might describe our “God”. In the process, he attempted to make connection with their culture, in which, he observed their ritual practices carefully and later applied their kind of understanding to certain culture into describing God. Although, Don Richardson had a lot of conflicts in going through all this, such as going on a verge of war between the tribes, however, his consistent preaching and continual of applying the God into the culture of Sawi enabled them to accept more of the lifestyle that Tuan is offerings. And they had demonstrated such an acceptance as they had built the building.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi this is jaedoo
hi james how r u man
y r we talking on steves blog?
we're pretty smart :)

Anonymous said...

hi this is jaedoo
hi james how r u man
y r we talking on steves blog?
we're pretty smart :)

hongyuan77 said...

lol~ zz Jaedoo i'm your fan

Justin An said...

i have your bag.........














guraya

hongyuan77 said...

...Justin
Gu run gou gu na??
MY hope rul collapse si ki nun go gu na?

brian said...

dude ur comment's like a sentence and it has nuttin to do with peace child..i hate manchurians..lol jk

Anonymous said...

i agree