Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Forgiveness and Compassion
Religion and Moral Truth
Remembrance
Anti-Semitism and Dehumanization
Silence, Guilt, and Resistance
Summary
Analysis
Soelle writes that she has two contradictory replies, which she finds that Simon also makes: “No, I cannot forgive you,” and “Yes, I can believe your remorse.” As a German, she thinks, she may not have the right to say anything besides “no,” but as a Christian, she cannot separate herself from an instinct of “yes.” She does not know which she might have said.
Simon’s kindness does imply belief in the sincerity of Karl’s remorse, even if he doesn’t implicitly forgive him. Soelle also becomes another in the list of Christian respondents who would have forgiven (even though she hesitates to stand firm on her answer because she is German).
Themes
