John Dewey, American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer, once proclaimed, “Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.” For millennia, the brightest minds of our society have praised mistakes as quintessential for our development as humans. With this in mind, what occurs when one refuses to acknowledge their wrong-doings? Certainly, they would find it exceedingly difficult improve, as they would continue to make the same mistakes time and time again. As such, denial of wrongdoing proves to act as an extraordinarily potent self-defeating behavior that has plagued mankind for millennia. In contemporary society, denial of responsibility remains a pertinent …show more content…
One morning, while two soldiers, Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk, are out on patrol in the jungles of Vietnam, they get into a fistfight over Jensen’s missing jackknife. As Strunk refuses to accept responsibility for stealing the knife, the fight becomes increasingly violent. Eventually, Strunk’s nose is broken and he is then airlifted to a wartime hospital. After Strunk’s return, a growing tension mounts between the soldiers as neither will admit their own wrongdoing in the fight. In regard to this ever growing tension, O’Brien …show more content…
In the film, the dynamic friendship of Amir, the son of a rich businessman, and Hassan, Amir’s servant, is a focal point of attention. Throughout the start of the film, the intense and unwavering loyalty between the boys is stressed through their unparalleled partnership in kite flying competitions. One day, after Hassan has been missing for several hours after setting off to retrieve Amir’s kite, Amir decides to go looking for him. Once Amir locates Hassan, he finds that he is being surrounded by the local bully, Assef, and his two henchmen. While Amir watches, the three boys violently assault Hassan. After the assault, Amir refuses to speak with Hassan and treats him with hostility as if he had done something wrong. In actuality, Amir was in the wrong, and deep down he knew it. Amir could have prevented the boys from assaulting Hassan by standing up to them. Yet, when his best friend needed him most, he was too afraid to take action. Amir, refusing to take responsibility for his mistake, pushes the blame for the incident off of himself and onto Hassan. In turn, the deep-rooted relationships the two boys shared is shattered and they grow increasingly distant as the film progresses. Amir eventually comes to terms with his mistakes; however, it is many years later after Hassan has