Personal sacrifice is not an obscure idea; it is power held within the majestic bodies of life. It is a compelling notion which has shaped the world microscopically where no eye could see. It is a grand gesture, yet it is the simplest of means. It is a burning passion of repetitive hatredness and love. It is fire with the power to spread and flourish as well as burn and eradicate. The bond secured is invincible. Personal sacrifice is vital to the society presented today. It may not be seen by the eye, but it is felt everywhere.
Individuals are acquired to sacrifice a piece of their joy, happiness, and comfort to others; it is an involuntary action which proceeds in a revolution. Personal sacrifice is necessary for immense change, particularly, in order to commence a transition in life, produce a group effort, and to induce the picturesque view of life an individual wants to see. As the international definition of life states, life is “the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death”(“Life”).
Life is a spectacle in representation of an enormous phenomena. Life is a transition of dynamic events of mourn, joy, and… sacrifice. There is no situation in which an individual is capable of grasping every detail wanted or desired. In movies, those rich, who seem to have it all, indeed are missing a fraction of happiness, bullies seem to have needed love, work-loaded ambitioners needed time for their lives, and these obscured ordeals are infinite. The law of sacrifice explains that “you cannot get something you want, without giving up something in return” (Mckay).
Infact, “the denial of the law of sacrifice keeps a man from progressing in life. To reach your goals, you must move forward, which necessitates leaving some things behind”(Mckay). This fascinating idea explicates that the individual has the power of deciding which qualities to keep a hold of and which need to dissipate. In relation, while someone may have secluded happiness and gained luxury, another would have sacrificed affluence for family and love. “The law of sacrifice reveals and operates according to our personal value system”(Mckay).
As the notable phrase of Star Wars states, may the force be with you, prestige is truly embedded in the hands of the individual. Many choose to live their course of life in repudiation of the law of sacrifice while some allow their hearts to choose their paths. Life is a cycle; it is a repetitive notion of error, honor, victory, and failure. One cannot barricade their path to live with what they have; life is meant to be a struggle in order to initiate light at the end of the journey.
As the influential Irish playwright, critic and controversialist George Bernard Shaw elucidated, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who can not change their minds cannot change anything”(Shaw). There is no l in group is quite a repetitive phrase which has been controversial among different perspectives, but, when the subject relates to sacrifice, personal sacrifice is needed to induce a group effort. No individual wishes to take the first step towards ambition, but if no one took the first step there would be no opportunity for anyone to follow.
Everyone is given courage; the strength is revealed in whether this power is used. The Giver is a well known novel written by Lois Lowry which has depicted numerous themes conveying life’s journey, one of which portray reason to sacrifice. In a society where individuality has been secluded within a boundary, people live under complete equality. Emotions, color, thoughts, dreams, and all essences of life which are most valued were diminished by the elders. Among the society, there was an exception– the giver. The giver, represented by Jonas, held memories from generations’ past.
The society sacrificed one individual to sacrifice the pain and misery but also live in the spectrum of love and happiness. As Jonas is taught by the elder giver, he is perilously desired to share the whirlwind of new ideas he has learned. In one sitting, Jonas states, “but why can’t everyone have the memories? I think it would seem a little easier if the memories were shared. You and I wouldn’t have to bear so much by ourselves, if everyone took a part”(Lowry 14. 46-47). If everyone sacrificed something for the group, sacrifice would not hold as much authority over the sacrificer.
One would be able to free themselves from the individual pain as well as commit themselves to a greater responsibility. Vince Lombardi, an American football player, coach, and executive, strongly believes in a team’s effort for victory. Team is a correlation to a group of individual players who have honored the commitment to each devote their time and will for each other because “individual commitment to a group effort -that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work”(“Famous Quotes”). No one can free themselves from the will to sacrifice.
Personal sacrifice will eventually lead to a whole, and personal sacrifice will aid to more than a cause. Hubert S. Turner, a U. S. veteran, had long lived his life by serving for others. Through decisive terms, he confides that “life began with self-sacrifice, and self sacrifice will have to continue as long as there is a single cell of life to evolve into something higher”(Turner). Personal sacrifice is a powerful phrase which holds much responsibility above the lives of many individuals; it can, however, be used to morph an individual’s life to the way one seeks.
Every individual is placed on earth to attain the responsibility of shaping others’ lives, to the better, as well as the life of oneself. One should sacrifice a portion of his or her life to initiate a mirror like image of what one dreams into the forced reality. Memories of elation, triumph, affection as well as suffering, agony, and anguish should all be entrenched within the hearts and minds of every being. Jonas, in The Giver, is one of few who are honored with the discovery of life, the journey from the joyous start to the exhilarating hardships of middle until the unseen end.
Memories should be shared because “the worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it” (Lowry 20. 33). Personal sacrifice also necessitates one’s own need for satisfaction. Through sacrifice for others, one is able to discover life as one imagines. If an individual sacrifices his or her own joy to others who need it more, it may prevent a mourning individual from extreme minorities such as suicide and death but also from simplicities like the inclination to frown. This fraction of change is one which may lead to a chain reaction pursuing an improved world.
Jonas, towards the end of the novel, chooses to cross the border of memories to sacrifice himself for the people whom he loved and to share his experience of the unseen. Along with him, he had brought Gabriel, a young baby, who would in future years be the Giver. They both depicted suffrage for the whole. The author spoke, “Gabriel had not cried during the long frightening journey. Now he did. He cried because he was hungry and cold and terribly weak. Jonas cried too, for the same reason, and another reason as well. He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel.
He no longer cared about himself” (Lowry 22. 23). When one is caught in misery, personal sacrifice strikes upon secluding time for thought or reason. Jonas, too, was in pain, but he endured the extra mile to look back at the world with bright eyes staring back. He wanted to see his pain reflected back as euphoria and prosperity. As A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India, elucidates, one should sacrifice to achieve the natural scenic beauty the world should always maintain; “let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow”(Kalam).
Personal sacrifice, a wide topic enveloped with an array of contrasting arguments, is one of the most discussed topics around the world endured daily. While personal sacrifice is a conveyor of benevolence, strength, and virtue to others and the world, many contend that the power within personal sacrifice is too often abused. There are those who depictly and forcefully believe that an individual suffers too much through personal sacrifice for any joy and personal gain to come out of. Many individuals argue that “sacrificers give up their own values, goals, and dreams”(Taylor).
In some cases, many have faith in the idea that sacrificers are taken advantage of” just like a slave”(Taylor). Although these opinions are honorably noted, they obscure the reality of a sacrifice. Personal sacrifice should be a virtue not a force or will. An individual must be aware of the tactic that not everyone or everything deserves to be sacrificed for while many need sacrifice more than one can imagine. One should have the right to decide what they are sacrificing for because “self-respecting men are their own masters… hen they fight for a cause, they fight for a cause that improves their own lives as well as the lives of their fellow men”(Taylor). Personal sacrifice has played a significant role in societies worldwide; it has been pivotal to nations’ convalescences and has inflicted empathy and sentimental relationships among individuals. It has patched hearts and evolved life itself. Personal sacrifice is not an overused term; it is an overlooked power which many hold but fail to use.
Personal sacrifice is necessary to one’s life because it induces change, it aids towards a whole, and portrays a scenic visual to the life every individual is given. Personal sacrifice is performed involuntarily; choose wisely is not a motto- it is a definition towards a pathway. Everyone has sacrificed; ensure that those sacrifices have been worth something. As Frederick Douglass, an African American abolitionist writer stated, “a man, at times, gets something for nothing, but it will, in his hands, amount to nothing”(Mckay).
