Human Rights Issues and the Roles of Writers, Term Paper Example

At a recent discussion panel hosted by the PEN American Center, a panel of distinguished writers gathered to discuss human rights issues and the ways that writers can explore these issues both in fiction and in non-fiction and journalism. The guest speakers included Phillip Gourevitch, well-known author and journalist; author Natalia Ginzburg; poet Charlotte Delbo; author Taiko Hirabayashi; author and political activist Nawal El Saadawi; and author Ishmael Beah. The panelists hosted a discussion among themselves for the first part of the program before opening the discussion up to take questions from the audience. The following is a partial transcript of the Question and Answer segment of the PEN discussion panel on “Human Rights Issues and the Roles of Writers.”

Question: (to anyone)- “what is the most important thing for writers to consider when writing about human rights issues?”

Answer: (Gourevitch)- “I touched on this in my earlier presentation, but I’m glad you asked this question because it gives me the chance to give a short, direct answer. The single most important issue is finding the truth of a story. Even when writing fiction, it is necessary to tell a story in a way that feels honest and real to readers. A writer who exaggerates too much in order to get a point across to readers might end up having readers not believe them. At the same time, it is not good to hold too much back or leave things out, even if the truth of a story might be considered horrifying and make readers feel uncomfortable.”

Answer: (Ginzburg)- “Philip is absolutely correct. In his work he does not just say ‘this happened’ or ‘that happened.’ He develops characters in his stories that seen like real people, like actual human beings. So when he writes about terrible things that people have had to endure, or about terrible things that people do to each other, readers can understand the truth of what happened, and can even picture themselves in the story.”

Answer: (Beah)- In my book “A Long Way Gone,” I wrote about my experiences as a child soldier. I obviously did not have a notebook with me duri8ng all those experiences and events in the book, so I had to write from memory. My job, as I saw it, was not to make sure I got every single fact exactly right; my job was to find the truth in the story, to describe what I felt as a scared young boy running away from war, and how that changed as I was indoctrinated into becoming a soldier. I wanted my readers to understand the real emotions I felt and that other people felt –the panic, the fear, the anger, and the sadness. There are millions of people who are affected by human rights violations, and for many millions of other people, those victims are completely invisible. Until we can put ourselves in other people’s shoes, until we can see through their eyes, we will never understand what it means to suffer as they do. I don’t care of my readers remember every detail from my book, what is important to me is that they feel something. If I can make that happen for my readers, I believe I have found the truth of the story.”

Question: (to Charlotte Delbo)- If the purpose of writing about human rights issues is about finding the truth, what do you feel is the most important “true” part of your poem “Auschwitz”?

Answer: (Delbo laughs)- “I don’t want to be too specific, because I want my readers to decide for themselves what the message is. But Ishmael and Gourevitch are correct: getting to the truth is the ultimate goal for any writer, especially when writing about something as significant as the events of World War II and the horrors of concentration camps and other things victims had to endure. In “Auschwitz” I wanted readers to see through the eyes of someone who was caught up in the horror of being sent to a concentration camp, and show such terrible things can he happening while people look the other way, as if these victims are completely invisible.”

Answer: (Hirabayashi)- “In a sense, I was writing about some of the same ideas in my story ‘Blind Chinese Soldiers.’ In ‘Auschwitz,’ Charlotte describes how the women in the truck saw their own reflections in a store window, but could not even recognize themselves. That is what happens to victims of human rights abuses: their humanity is literally stolen from them. Charlotte uses the metaphor of the store window reflection to show how these victims could no longer see themselves in the mirror; they did not recognize their own image because their humanity was taken away. In ‘Blind Chinese Soldiers’ the victims were literally blinded by their captors, so much like the women in the truck in Charlotte’s poem, these soldiers could no longer see themselves. The people they used to be, as individual human beings, were all gone, taken away from themselves. Victims of human rights abuses are not just robbed of their possessions, or their homes, or their families, or even their lives. They are robbed of something even worse: they are robbed of their dignity and of their soul. Whatever it is that makes us human is taken away, and the strange thing is that the people who are committing this abuse also lose their humanity in the process.”

Question: (to El Saadawi)- The writers on this panel have all had different experiences that have given the insight into the issues they write about. In “Piercing the Blockade” you wrote about your own experiences as a prisoner. How much of what you wrote actually happened, and how did you decide what to include and what to leave out?

Answer: (El Saadawi)- “(laughing) Every word of it was true! Seriously, though, I agree with Phillip and Ishmael that it is important to find the truth in a story, and that sometimes there are differences between ‘facts’ and ‘the truth.’ I could have just written a list of facts based on my experiences, but I don’t know if that would have been enough to allow readers to understand the story, or to really feel on an emotional level the truth of what it is like to be in that situation. I describe facts, such as how my nails and hair grew because we could not have scissors. But the reason I included that was to give readers a sense of what it was like from someone on the inside instead of where the readers are, which is on the outside. When I look at my fingernails in the story, I ask myself ‘are they my own fingernails or the claws of an animal?’ I hope that when someone reads that line they will understand what it felt like to have everything stripped way to the point where I did not even know if I was a human being anymore.”

Answer: (Delbo)- “As you can see, this is a common thread among many of the poems and stories we are discussing here. In Ishmael’s book he writes, ‘killing had become a daily activity. I felt no pity for anyone. My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen.’ You can see how being made to fight in the war robbed Ishmael of not just his childhood, but of his humanity. At the start of the story he was just a normal young boy who went to school, listened to music and rapped with his friends, spent time with his family, and did all the other things that children typically do. Just a short time later he was turned into a brutal killing machine with a ‘frozen heart.’ So Ishmael was killing people, but a part of him was also killed. The young, innocent boy he had been was gone. This shows that when people treat each other this badly, everyone is a victim, everyone loses their humanity.”

Answer: (Beah)- “I agree with Charlotte, but I would like to add that I also wanted my readers to understand that there are reasons to be hopeful, and that it is possible to sometimes get back at least a small part of what was taken away. In Natalia’s story, she writes ‘those of us who have been fugitives will never be at peace.’ I can’t speak for Natalia, but I don’t completely agree with that. My life story makes it clear that with the help of amazing people and organizations I was able to leave that life behind. I will always have the memories and emotional scars I formed during those years, but I also have new experiences and new memories that have helped to heal some of those scars. I had my humanity stolen from me when I was made to fight in the war, but I also met some wonderful who later helped me find my way back after being ‘a long way gone.’ For me it is important to remember that despite how bad things can get, under the right conditions the human spirit can survive and be reborn.”