paper of awesome 3/?

[resa]

I think I did good work today. I reread The Exonerated, worked a bit on its structure, compared it to Guantanamo, and found a couple of more things in which these plays differ greatly. I think I know now why they had, on the one hand, a similar, and on the other, a totally different impact on me. Moreover, I think I might name this yet unwritten paper something along the lines of The Political Potential of Plays on Injustice: What They Can Do and What They Cannot. I'd like that. And it fits the idea for my little creative project lateron, too.


I'd like to quote a character from The Exonerated because I want to share the beauty of what I work on. Her name is Sunny and during the 16 years she was on death row being innocent, her parents died, her husband was executed (he was innocent, too), and she couldn't watch her children grow up... On the last page of the play, having been released from prison ten years ago, she says,

I want to be a living memorial. When I die, I want 'em to plant tomatoes on me, or apple trees or something, so that I can still be part of things. And while I'm still alive, I'm planting my seeds everywhere I go, so that they'll say, 'I once heard this woman, and she didn't let them stop her, and she didn't get crushed, and if that little woman person can do it, then I can do it.' And that's my revenge. That's my legacy, and my memorial.

Each one of the six stories in The Exonerated is painful, but all of the characters come out of theirs still human, still feeling. Words can't express how much I admire these people's strength.