1. You can’t go to the past to fix the present.” - Esperanza said when Henry visited his parents' house. Agree or disagree? Why?
2. Noam Chomsky said: "As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss" 1.
Patience quotes him in the movie, and then follows it up with these lines: "It means that not everything needs an explanation. Sometimes, things happen b/c we choose for them to happen. I chose to believe."
Is she saying that because she believed the miracle on Henry's wall to be true, then that made it true? Or is she saying something else? If you could choose for one thing to come true / exist, what would that be and why?
3. During the dinner date, Dawn said to Henry as he tried backing away from getting closer to her was: "I know you're gonna die. But all that either of us have is right now, and we should pay attention to that." We talked today about how Henry might be feeling selfish and keeping people out w/ the way he's acting. But when he said, "I am paying attention." And that's why he can't do this (meaning fall for Dawn, go where the date will eventually lead ). Did Henry stop being selfish there for a moment? Or did he revert back to himself again? Why?
4. I get the feeling that Henry senses that there are greater forces at work, somehow helping him, coming to heal him, yet he feels unworthy of this sense of grace. Why he feels unworthy, I don't know. Maybe it's not unworthy, maybe it's pride or stubbornness in his own beliefs that life has just dealt him an awful hand. Maybe he has accepted this fate, for lack of a better word, and decided to deal with it in his own way despite a higher power demanding an audience. What do you think of this idea?
5. There's got to be a reason why Patience is named Patience. What about the name Esperanza? It's Spanish for Hope. what made me think about Hope (besides the Obama-themed poster of Henry) was when he was about to destroy the wall and he yelled, "Hope can't save you!" And the last of the virtues would be Love symbolized by Dawn and Faith by Millie (who was the first one to test the validity of the wall).
Henry, on the other hand, would symbolize the seven deadly sins - sloth, gluttony, lust, greed, anger, envy and pride. A stretch? Maybe. How would he symbolize the seven?
6. Do you think Henry symbolizes Descartes' skepticism of one's senses? Or does Henry go beyond that to a total skepticism of everything: religion, senses, peoples' good intentions, etc. until he finally discovers that he's not going to die? Why?
7. "Everything happens for a reason." When Esperanza talks to Henry about her old boyfriend, Leo, and how that she prayed to God to give her a sign that Leo was o.k., how does the sign on Henry's wall signify an answer to her prayers?
PICK ONE OF THESE QUESTIONS AND ANSWER IT FULLY. 250 WORDS. DUE THURSDAY, 1/11/18 BY CLASS.
7. "Everything happens for a reason." When Esperanza talks to Henry about her old boyfriend, Leo, and how that she prayed to God to give her a sign that Leo was o.k., how does the sign on Henry's wall signify an answer to her prayers?
PICK ONE OF THESE QUESTIONS AND ANSWER IT FULLY. 250 WORDS. DUE THURSDAY, 1/11/18 BY CLASS.
4. I get the feeling that Henry senses that there are greater forces at work, somehow helping him, coming to heal him, yet he feels unworthy of this sense of grace. Why he feels unworthy, I don't know. Maybe it's not unworthy, maybe it's pride or stubbornness in his own beliefs that life has just dealt him an awful hand. Maybe he has accepted this fate, for lack of a better word, and decided to deal with it in his own way despite a higher power demanding an audience. What do you think of this idea?
ReplyDeleteGiven Henry’s history of his family, I think Henry almost was starting to accept his timely demise. He would always tell people no to worry, and that he’d be gone soon. It seemed the whole movie was based around the premise that he knew he would die, and just wanted it to happen. He did nothing to try to prevent it, even when given the opportunity with the wall. I think part of it was him not believing what was there, was really a miracle, and part was him trying not to give into Esperanza and all the other believers. There’s a part where he’s arguing with esperanza about how she wants him to touch the wall because if he does, it’ll make her beliefs stronger. It’ll back her thoughts, and strengthen them. He didn’t want to do this because he didn't believe in what she did. Towards the end of the movie, while Dawn takes Millie to bed during their date, he almost touches the wall, but pulls away at the last second. I think this was the crossroad for him. The angel and evil, so to speak. Touch the wall and find out what happens, or chose to stay the stubborn person you are, and don't. After Dawn comes back, Henry says all of this is wrong and that they shouldn’t fall in love. She rebuttals with the fact that all they know is now, and that's where they should live. At the end of the movie, i’m not sure even if he still believed that the wall was a miracle. Dawn says he was never sick, which backs his theory that everything is random. And Henry never touched the wall, he even tore it down, which Esperanza says is a sin, so why would god reward him with getting rid of the disease. I think in the movie there are a ton of little cues the director meant for us to catch, but I might have missed them, so maybe he does believe in the end.
Prompt number 6: I think Henry really does symbolize Descartes’ skepticism of his senses. You meet a man who seems to be numb to the world around him. It’s not that he doesn’t trust his senses necessarily, its just that he doesn’t use his. Henry wants to be skeptical of everyone because I think its a coping mechanism for him. He doesn’t want to be attached to anyone and he doesn’t want to be hopeful for something that might let him down. He has to live with the burden of being ill and knowing that he has less than six months to live. He turned away from religion, if he was ever semi religious and he ignored everyone’s attempt to be kind. At first I thought that Esperanza was annoying, but I realized that he needed that someone to constantly tell him the one thing he didn’t want to hear but needed to hear. I’m not saying that it was Jesus that cured him, or that touching the house would heal him like it healed everyone else. He was just so persistent on being ignorant that he accepted his illness without a fight. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his senses at all, he just refused to use them, or use the information they were giving him.I think the reason why he changes his tune when he survives, is because his survival finally gave him a reason to hope. Patience and her eyesight didn’t help him, and Millie speaking again didn’t help him either. I think basically, if you’re open to the idea of hoping and receiving help from any source out there, you’re more susceptible to receiving that help. That isn’t necessarily true, but for him it clearly is.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if he did open up when he was talking to Dawn and when he was enjoying himself with Millie because of the fact that you clearly see him laughing and smiling compared to other moments in the movie when he wasn’t. When Dawn’s and Henry’s conversation was over and the response to that gave me the impression that he did open up but tried his hardest to stay “closed” because he didn’t want the people he cared most for to be heartbroken over him. He was trying to die where he had no attachments left so no one would feel pain from his passing. By him saying that he’s “paying attention”, led me to believe that he opened up enough to show his feelings towards both Dawn and Millie, expressing the care he felt for both of them but didn’t want them to feel sad for when he’s gone. However, he didn’t give much thought about their say in the matter. Dawn at least knew already that he was going to die and yet she still wanted to be with him. I truly don’t think he was being selfish but more so inconsiderate. He didn’t revert back into his old self because later on he does stay open later in the movie until Milli stops talking again. Once this happens, his emotions do show that he did believe, he was beginning to love, he was being patient in his own special way, and began to open up to people. His final lashing out moment was his spirits being crushed as he started to believe so much that he began to be afraid of a false sign. I would be afraid and upset if everything I started to believe in started to cave in on itself and my hope. I felt that this was his turn to have a miracle done upon him so he knows that everything was going to be alright. -Marcus Powell
ReplyDelete“You can’t go back to the past to fix the present”. This is said by Esperanza from Henry Poole is Here. I like this quote because it very much resonates with my philosophy of what was in the past was in the past. We make mistakes all the time and as much as we wish we could go back in time and change that simply won’t happen, so it would be best to just move on from it but also learn from the experience. I think I can connect this quote with whenever I get a bad grade on a test or an assignment. In some cases instead of studying I will blow it off, distracting myself from what I’m supposed to do by watching youtube videos or looking up meaningless things. In the back of my mind it tells me to study, but I simply ignore it and continue to procrastinate. As a result, on the day of the test I find myself barely knowing the material and getting lost, resulting in a bad grade. This regret makes me want to go back in time and force myself to work, as maybe then would I get a better grade. However, that can’t happen as mentioned before, but I can prevent from happening again. Instead of dwelling on the past it’s best to focus on the present and see what you can do now instead of what you couldn’t have done. After all, if we had the ability to fix everything in the past, would we really learn a lesson? Would life even be worth living if there wasn’t a risk to it?
ReplyDelete6. Henry certainly symbolizes skepticism in general. Throughout the first part of the movie, people repeatedly tell him things and his response is to immediately dismiss them if they are even remotely unlikely. A great example of this is when Esperanza first thinks that the stain on his wall is the face of God. His immediate response is to point out that the wall was re-stuccoed and that that must be the cause. Even when Esperanza finds more reasons to believe in the face’s nature, Henry still thinks they are all bs. Another example of his initial skepticism is when Millie starts talking again after touching the wall. Even then, he still believes that there was another reason for Millie’s change. You could take these as Henry doubting what his senses are telling him, or that he has reasoned out something that contradicts his senses, so his senses are wrong. Either way, Henry doesn’t buy the stain being anything special until it does something for him.
ReplyDeleteI think that Patience carries this name due to the fact that she is persistent in instilling at least a little bit of optimism in Henry. After the first time she checked out his groceries and had a conversation with him about his evident unhappiness, she still continued to be a presence in his life like when she was in his backyard and when she saw him again at the grocery store to say the Noam Chomsky quote. She is patient with Henry and his progression of slowly straying from his nihilism, even when he showed no signs of ever changing and seemed like a lost cause to many people. This also applies to how Esperanza is appropriately name Hope, in that not only did she evidently wish to instill hope in Henry, but she had faith that he was capable of feeling so. She was idealist enough to have faith in him to feel hope even though he seems by many in the film as well as the audience that there was no way he was ever going to care about his life.
ReplyDeleteHenry, however, is undoubtedly not a representation of virtues but rather the opposite. I believe that of the seven deadly sins, he undoubtedly possesses the trait of sloth. He does not care one bit about the world around him for the first part of the movie, and seems to have given up trying to find one thing in his life to care about. Henry seems to take life for granted and is not willing to go the extra mile to find a purpose, not even finding an outlet to guide him out of his supposed helplessness. He also displays wrath when he gets so defensive when Esperanza or anyone in the movie talks about home, not even giving their input the time of day and immediately retorting that they’re wrong and too idealist.I don’t at all see how he could possess gluttony since he doesn’t have a hunger or strive for anything in his life, simply just wanting to get by and be left all to himself. He displays envy, however, in that he seems envious of his childhood self, in the last part of the movie when he talks about his childhood home and how it was the last place he was happy. He seems to want to go back and experience being a child again, rueing his new life and all of the hardships that have lead him to become the nihilistic man he’s notoriously known for in the movie. Arguably, Henry could be seen as representing the deadly sin of pride since he is inconsiderate of Esperanza’s feelings and attachment to the stain on his wall. Specifically when he knocks down the wall in front of the hopeful spectators, he was being selfish since he was only thinking about his annoyance at all of the people being on his property rather than considering their faith and fascination with the stain. Additionally, Henry also displays the sin of hubris and too much pride when he immediately dismisses Esperanza’s beliefs in Christ and hope, which also ties into the sin of wrath. I don’t think he necessarily displays greed or lust, because while he can be very self-serving I don’t think he is using anyone. Even in the middle of the film when he starts dating Millie’s mom, he seems to have a genuine interest in her as a person rather than using her for superficial reasons. I don’t see how he could be greedy either since he doesn’t want anything from other people, constantly pushing them away in pursuit of spending his supposed last few months alive in peaceful solitude.
The third prompt addresses the scene in the film of Henry and Dawn sharing a very romantic date. They seem to be having a great time until Millie leaves Esperanza's house and interrupts the dinner. As Dawn goes to put her back to bed, Henry takes a moment to think. No words are said for about a minute but I believe that Henry was thinking of his options and attempting to do at least one good thing before he dies. This is a shift from Henry's usual philosophy or outlook because he regularly does absolutely nothing but lay in self loathing and anger. This time he was trying to be a good person, he decided to leave before he fell for Dawn and Millie saw him as a father figure. He had a realization that he could not hurt either of them by being in their lives just to die a few months after. He especially couldn't do that to Millie who had just began to speak, so he does the only thing he think can do and ends it. He is pushing everyone away in an attempt to protect them from his upcoming death. This entire idea reminds me a lot of The 'Fault In Our Stars' because the main character in that attempted to be a good person by pushing people out and away before their inevitable end. Therefore Henry is trying to be a good person and make a change to help people for a change but the way he is going about it is complex and outright sad to those of us not in his shoes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that you can't go into the past to fix the present. I believe that everything happens for a reason. Even if you don't particularly like or agree with what's happening, it's happening for a reason. What happened in the past is in the past. You can't go back and change anything, it's stuck in the past. Our decisions are permanent and affect our present. You have to live by your decisions. Your present might be messed up because of choices you made in the past, but you have to take responsibility for that. You can change your present, but no matter how much you might wish you can't go back into the past. In the present, it is what it is, and you have to live with you. You have to accept the decisions you've made in the past and learn how to deal with what's going on in the present, what to do. Henry can't change the fact that his parents fought, that he felt, or anything else. All that he can do is come to terms with what did happen and try to move on. You can't live in the past. Henry is haunted in some ways by what happened in the past and isn't able to leave it in the past. He's been trying to relive certain parts of his childhood in a way, such as by visiting his childhood and the spot he hid in by the river when his parents were fighting. I think especially because he's told he's going to die, Henry doesn't live in the present. He doesn't take advantage of every day and every moment because he doesn't think it matters. But I think if you're dying, now more than ever you have to live in the present. Like Dawn said, now is all we have and we have to take advantage of it.
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ReplyDeleteDuring the dinner date, when Dawn says,"I know you're gonna die. But all that either of us have is right now, and we should pay attention to that." and Henry responds with, "I am paying attention.", I don't necessarily know if he's being selfish or if he's trying to save Dawn from getting hurt as well. At the beginning of the date, Henry admits that he really enjoys spending time with Dawn and getting to know her better, but after Dawn goes to put Millie to bed, something changes. Henry momentarily reverts back to his old ways in terms of not letting anyone in, but I think that this time he did so not only to save heartbreak from himself, but to save it from Millie and Dawn. I think that he was afraid that if he got too attached to them and then he died, they would suffer. When Henry first bought the house, he wasn't sociable and you could tell he didn't want to make new friends because he thought it wasn't worth the effort, knowing he would soon be leaving the earth. After he meets Millie and Dawn, I think that he shifts from worrying about hurting himself with what he thinks is inevitable fate, to worrying about hurting those around him. When Henry is with Dawn and Millie he lives more presently, appreciating the things that he's doing in the moment, and maybe his feelings grew too strong and he got scared, resulting in his only defense mechanism, pushing others away.
Alexis Kruntovski H Philosophy 4
ReplyDeleteI think Patience is saying that when she believed in the miracle on Henry’s wall to be true then it became true. I think that because she changed her thinking and focused on believing, her faith turned into something that some external force (God) made happen. She made it possible in her mind and to her that made it possible in real life. Her complete shift in thinking and willing her wishes to come true led to, in her mind, a miracle that can’t be explained in any other way. This quote applies to Patience’s situation because when science failed her, her faith came through. Patience’s eyesight was obviously seriously impaired, and no thoroughly researched modern technology had fixed it. When Patience put her hand on the wall and put all of her faith in it her problem was cured. The unexplainable took up when she willed it to, and science can’t explain the events that occured when she did. If I could choose one thing to come true it would be to be happy and for my family to be happy. I know that several things make you happy or disappoint you, but I think feeling truly happy for even just a moment would be what I’d want to come true. I think this can be interpreted in many ways, I think Esperanza felt true happiness when she saw the face. I think when Patience got her eyesight back she felt true happiness. I also think that the underlying cause of true happiness in the movie is that once they believed and had faith their wills manifested themselves in different ways, even if the constraints of science can’t explain the direct results.
Question 4
ReplyDeleteI think that Henry definitely does feel unworthy of help. He has accepted that he is going to die and when something, like the wall, brings hope he denies it in order to protect himself from being hurt. Henry has decided that he is going to die and he is going to do it on his own terms. He is very logical and unfaithful so he doesn't even consider the option of avoiding death by some miracle. Getting the news that you only have six months to live would be hard for anyone. I think that because of this news Henry had to become hard on the outside and keep hope out because any glimmer of hope would remind him that he is going to die and there is no way around it. The fact that the wall has the ‘face’ on it and refuses to go away does seem to be something trying to get Henry’s attention. It’s as if fate put him in that neighborhood, with those people, and the wall to push him into accepting hope. But no matter how hard the universe pushes, Henry refuses to budge. It’s almost as if he wants to live miserably until the end. He does not want to get close to anyone, which is understandable, but he even keeps his house empty. If I only had six months to live I feel like I would want to see the world or at least have fun in the meantime. Henry on the other hand is the opposite and seems to maybe think he doesn’t deserve to enjoy his last months. Towards the end, Henry falls into a relationship with Dawn. It is obvious that it was not his plan to get close to anyone and when they get closer he pushes away. It is obvious that this is not what Henry planned but makes him consider that he could enjoy his last months.
I will address prompt 4. I believe Henry's sense of unworthiness, and his belief that he's been dealt a bad hand at life is because it is much easier to believe that rather than take responsibility for his life. When faced with any hardship, it is easy to say that it was out of your control. What is more difficult to admit is that the problem could have been prevented. For Henry, it’s easier to consider himself unworthy because his life sucks than to do the harder thing and have faith in the people (and higher powers) trying to help him. Believing that there is no hope allows Henry to do things carelessly like buy a house no matter the cost, not worry about it’s condition, and eat a terribly unhealthy diet. However, if he believed that there was a power trying to save him, he would have to make choices that actually mattered and requires the effort of living. An example for me, and even many high schoolers would be the lack of sleep from doing homework late and procrastinating. We complain that we get little sleep because of our homework, but many people have the time to spare if they prioritized their homework before their free time. But like I said, this is the harder option compared to putting off your homework until you need to do it, at which point that urgency gives you motivation to finish and you suffer the few sleeping hours. Many of us consider our situation to be out of our control since we don’t have to take responsibility and have somethings else to blame it on other than ourselves, which is exactly what Henry does with his life.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I am confused with is how Patience found out that Henry had a miracle wall in his backyard. She doesn’t live in the neighborhood meaning Esperanza didn’t tell her. I thought that he just found her there in the middle of the day touching the wall. Anyway, she was always really joyful and talkative at the grocery store, fitting the same characteristics as everyone else who believes in the wall. It didn’t surprise me at all that she believed in it. What did surprise me on the other hand is the warm rush throughout her body she claimed she felt when she touched it that somehow gave her 20/20 vision. Patience quoting Noam Chomsky explains why she trusts the wall because she claims that you don’t need real evidence or reasoning, just a feeling. I think when she said she “chose to believe” she really meant that it is up to you to truly believe in something. Personally I need evidence to understand something and agree with it.
ReplyDeleteIf I had one thing come true it would be knowing the meaning of life. This is a question I debate in my head at least every week. This is a philosophical question we don’t even have a clue to the answer. It would solve so many problems in the world, especially money. The American Dream is solely based upon making money in any job you want. Knowing the purpose of human existence would straighten everyone’s priorities out.
Jackie Sullivan
Lindsay H.
ReplyDeleteI chose to do question number one. When Esperanza and Henry were visiting Henry’s old parent’s house, Esperanza said that you can’t go to the past to fix the present. I both disagree and agree with this statement. First, I agree with Esperanza because I think that trying to relive your past or go back and feel what you used to feel, that’s not going to get you anywhere and it will not fix anything. Things are always changing as time passes and it is unrealistic to try to go back to your childhood and use how you felt then or whatever fix how crappy your life is now. You have to move on and make progress and try to be better. I also don’t understand why Henry feels that going back to his childhood home will help fix him now. The film mentions several times that Henry’s parents spent his childhood fighting, but that’s the last time he felt happy (when he was in his old house). I think the film could have done a better job of explaining how Henry was last happy in that house but the only other things they mention about him growing up is how is parents fought all the time. However, I disagree with Esperanza because sometimes things that happen in the past have a profound impact on people later in life. For example, sometimes people who experience a childhood trauma will deal with issues as a result of that trauma. Some therapies include going back and thinking about what happened and exploring the emotions and things surrounding the trauma to heal. I don’t think this is the case with Henry though, so in the context of the film, I’d likely agree with Esperanza more that disagree with her.
This statement is very strong and in my opinion means a lot, but I do not agree with it exactly. No, obviously I do not think you can physically go into the past, but I do think you can go back mentally and think about moments that have happened in the past. In some situations, people dwell in the past, and in order to move past that or the thing that happened in the past they need to be able to think about it and go ‘back to the moment’ to be able to realize what they need to fix now to move on. Relating this to Henrys situation, I think him living on the street he used to live on, (essentially going back to his past) helps him to find some comfort in the present with everything that is going on in his life. So I would disagree that he can’t go to his past to help his life in the present. Although I disagree with Esperanza’s statement overall, I agree that if you are in the present and constantly looking or thinking back to old times, you won’t be able to enjoy right now/ the present, thus unable to be able to ‘fix the present’; but Henry was not necessarily doing this. Overall, in some situations in order to have closure you have to be able to look at past and then you are able to move on, in other situations going to the past can only make things worse.
ReplyDeleteHunter Vainik's Answer To Question #1:
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Esperanza that you can't go into the past to fix the present. I think the past actually holds valuable information that can be used to fix a situation in the present day. For example, let's say that I have a math test tomorrow (I do) that I really need an A on. The problem is I have only gotten low grades on math tests in this class so far (we've only had one test and a quiz but still). So what I could do is figure out what I was doing wrong in the past and apply those lessons to today. I could realize that I wasn't studying enough and work to study more. Or that I wasn't paying attention in class and pay more attention. So in Henry's case he could find out what in his past makes him so sad and angry today and try to work around that. I do agree, however, with a different interpretation of this quote. If she meant to say that you shouldn't linger on to the past than I do agree with that. Many people (me included) will play a very good round of golf but will always think that they could've done better. This ultimately ends up making golf less fun for them in the future because they can't get past the fact that if they had only done one thing slight different they would've done better.
Gio R|
ReplyDeleteI don’t think that focusing on the past can help or even affect the future. You can’t change the past, and when you live in the past there is no way for you to even live your life. I think that the only way for you to grow or even live, you have to focus on the present and working for goals for your future. People who focus in the past cannot move forward and end up stuck, so when Henry went to his parent’s house he was living in the past. He wasn’t doing anything productive with his life, and he wasn’t fixing anything, he was just wallowing in his sorrow.
Going backwards to fix the future doesn’t help mostly because you can’t right anything that you had done wrong back then, you can only make amends and make up for the mistakes you made back then. When he went back it felt like he was trying to escape his problems, not trying to fix anything. You can’t dwell on the problems of the past, you can only push through them and make yourself a better person so those problems don’t happen again. Trying to escape your problems by living in the past is a fruitless; firstly you can’t fix anything you wanted to in the past, second of all you are going to have to live in the present at some time, it might as well be now. I think that when Henry did this he was just trying to escape what he was going through, he just couldn’t figure out how to deal with it in the moment, so he went to a time when he didn’t have to deal with his illness.
I think she is saying that because she thought Henry's wall was "magical" so to speak, that it made it true. I am a big believer in the philosophy of the law of attraction, where basically what you believes, becomes your reality. I think believing in what you do is very powerful and doubts in yourself, beliefs, and actions is unhealthy. Doubting your actions in my opinion just leads to a reality you don’t want because you are so fixated on the what you don’t have therefore your reality will showcase what you don’t want. Henry is a perfect example of it, he doesn't believe in getting better, therefore he will not. His mind depicts his own reality. In class, we talked about the phenomenon also about how you can think your sick, you can become sick, and I feel like he had that, along with a built up of stress and anger caused him to feel even worse. That's why when he finally realized that the miracle was real, he was then “treated” for his terminal illness that he was about to die from. In addition, If I could choose one thing to come true, it would probably be unlimited wishes which seems like an obvious one. Because with that, I can wish for world peace, justice and equality, and treat myself to what I want and help give my friends and family some of the things they deserve/want.
ReplyDelete-Gabby A
I think Henry Poole is Here is one of the stranger movies I’ve seen. Although I was slightly disconcerted by the Jesus water stain that performed miracles, the movie definitely made me think. Ultimately, I agree with the recurring message that it is important to live in the present and have faith that some things will work out in the future. By the end, I think Henry realized this too. Although, I have a feeling that Henry’s faith sprouted long before the end of the movie (probably right after Millie regained her speech). I don’t know if Henry feels unworthy. I think he’s probably just scared. He has this seedling of hope growing inside of him, even though the source of it contradicts all his beliefs (those being that life is random and miracles do not occur). And if he touches that wall and it doesn’t work, then all his hope will be gone. So he refuses to touch the wall and he tells himself that the reason he won’t touch it is because he doesn’t believe in it. I think if he hadn’t had his little breakdown and destroyed the wall, he would’ve eventually touched it when he was closer to death – and if it didn’t work, he would die a hopeless and sad man. Personally, I think that fear is a great motivator for both denying and accepting faith. In seventh grade, one of my Christian friends tried to “save” me. I went to her church for a few weeks and I felt exactly like Henry did. I had an inkling of hope that it was all real, but I refused to let myself indulge in this faith, because I was scared of worshiping something and then being disappointed by it. I didn’t go back to church, because I eventually accepted that I wouldn’t be afforded any miracles by having faith in Christianity. I touched the wall, but nothing happened.
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