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
Hobday introduces herself as a woman of Native American descent, who has listened to the stories of genocide committed against her own people. However, when reading Simon’s story, she is reminded her mother’s advice when she told Hobday that she should learn how to let go of the poison inside her.
Hobday is one of the few respondents whose philosophy falls outside of Judeo-Christian tadition. Her heritage gives her a unique perspective as he ultimately chooses forgiveness, but for different reasons than many of the Christian respondents.
Themes
Hobday says that forgetting and forgiving stem from the same place, and in order to forgive one must also forget. She believes that forgiveness is necessary not for Karl’s peace of mind, but for Simon’s. No memory should have the power to hold someone down.
