Looking through a lens

Sam Chandraraj
Nov 6 · 4 min read

“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

The world can be seen from many perspectives and people can different feelings toward the same event. For example, if someone receives a pay raise, they are probably going to be happy about it. However, that same event could make someone else feel disappointed because they have missed out on a pay raise. With all the pressure society puts on us, sometimes we focus too much on ourselves and neglect to notice the consequences of our actions and the feelings of others. Reading provides a way for us to escape our worries and experience the world through the lens of someone else. While reading, we travel with characters through their crushing defeats and glorious triumphs. The journey we go on with these characters makes us more empathetic to not only them but people in the real world who are like them.

Death on the Nile

In Agatha Christie’s novel, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot finds the murderer by looking at the motivations of different characters and the evidence at hand. After the murder of Linnet Ridgeway, Poirot starts asking the passengers on the cruise questions. Rosalie Otterbourne is asked about whether she heard a splashing noise during the night and she denies it. However, she was the cause of the splashing noise because she was throwing out her mother’s drinks so she definitely did hear a noise. Because Rosalie did not want everyone to know about her mother’s drinking problem, she lies to Poirot. Poirot being the brilliant detective he is is able to see through the lie and uncovers the truth. Because Poirot is able to reveal, the true feelings of people, I was slowly able to see more of the bigger picture and understand the characters better. Similarly, Poirot reveals the intentions of Jaqueline De Bellefort. Jaqueline was just a lovesick girl who wanted to do what her boyfriend wanted. Because I knew about Jacqueline’s complicated situation, I felt sorry for her. This book has helped me to understand how powerful a motivator love can be so I can show more understanding for people who make mistakes because of love.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

In Heather Morris’s book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Lale learns how to be selfless through helping others. When Lale is first captured, he is dressed impeccably, unconcerned about the welfare of the others in his train carriage and thinking about a way to get out. As the story progresses, Lale starts to care more and more for his fellow prisoners. Lale shows that he cares for others by risking his life to get small treats for them and sometimes managing to save their lives by talking to officials. Seeing what life in a concentration camp was like from Lale’s point of view showed me how tough life was for all the people in the concentration camp. After reading this book, I am now more inclined to care for others who are going through a hard time because I understand their pain better.

The Nowhere Child

In Christian White’s story, The Nowhere Child, the seemingly heinous act of kidnapping a baby is broken down into lots of smaller less egregious acts. When Becky Creech finds out that the Church of Light Within is going to kidnap Sammy Went to “get the devil out of her,” she feels as if she has no choice but to snatch the baby and move out of the country. This choice has a massive effect on the Went family as it is torn apart as the mental health of the children decline, the mother becomes too attached to the church and the father leaves as he is caught having an affair. Ordinarily, I would have thought that every kidnapper or criminal has a bad motive but now I am able to see that situations are not always black and white and I will not judge a criminal immediately without getting the full context.

These books help us to better understand many different types of people. Death on the Nile helped us understand the actions of people motivated by love, The Tattooist of Auschwitz helped us understand the pain of people in horrible situations and The Nowhere Child helped us realise that people who have done seemingly immoral things are not always horrible people. Reading these books has helped me gain a better understanding of the world and the people in it. It has given me a peek through their lens.

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