A confession stems from guilt. It begins like a tumor, small, benign, seemingly harmless, but as you feed it with feelings of guilt and shame, it will grow to the point when you just want to let it out. I believe a confession is when one knows and understands what he/she did wrong -- either from his/her own perspective or from society's perspective of what is right and what is wrong. But a confession does not necessarily mean people feel sorry for their actions, and that is where the difference lies between a confession and an apology.
An apology stems from regret. It is when people seek forgiveness, from G/god(s), family, friends, people of authority, or anyone for that matter. People confess their "acts of sin" to another, hoping the other will no longer resent them for their actions. Or people apologize when they understand someone else's feelings. They say, "I'm sorry for your loss," because they understand the difficulty of losing a loved one.
When people confess, without looking for forgiveness, they may simply want to relieve themselves of their guilt. The examples of confessions in Wear and Jones's "Bless Me Reader for I have Sinned" seem to be one-sided confessions; they aren't looking for a response. When people confess to another, then they want to be forgiven.
Based on a writing assignment from the past, drawing from personal experiences in writing can be helpful. We remember little details more vividly and can easily incorporate them into our writing, making it more personal and enticing. But at the same time it can hinder writing because it becomes simple to lose the focus of the paper and dwell in an entirely different event from the past.
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| xkcd: Control |
Hey Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the last part that the drawing from the past can also hurt and from personal experience say that it is definitely possible to lose focus on what you were originally writing.
Hi Tiffany, I thought your writing style for this post was great. Your use of similies and examples really brought me into your writing. Also, clearly defining the difference between confession and apology helps to make that difference more concrete.
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany! That was an awesome read. You set the two apart from each other so clearly that I couldn’t help but agree with your words. I really liked how you described a confession to be a relief for themselves while an apology stood for “seek(ing) forgiveness” from another. You even got to a different point in an apology that didn’t cross my mind when referring to this assignment, an apology for understanding another’s feelings and such. That was pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteYay, a simile! Like Eran's use of figurative language, yours helps make your ideas memorable and really stay with me as a reader: Guilt and a cancerous growth... and medicine related too. Cool. I also had not thought of expressing condolences as a kind of apology, and I like that. I agree -- in that example as in your others, the key is understanding another's feelings. This is empathy.
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