"Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."--Viktor E. Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning

I mentioned the concept of "delusion of reprieve" in class the other day while we were discussing Cornel West's notion of "trigicomic hope." Just as Frankl equates trigicomic hope or the delusion of reprieve to explain why the interned Jews remained relatively passive(he himself was interned for five years), West uses trigicomic hope in relation to African Americans' use of song. Here, the African American song becomes the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael. West argues, "The brutalities and atrocities in human history, the genocidal attempts in this century and the present-day barbarities require that those who accept the progressive and prophetic designations put forth some sense of the tragic."

While I'm not a teacher, I think that most composition curriculum should encourage the exploration the consequences of hatred, prejudice and discrimination. I think it should be every teacher's goal in the classroom to help their students "...accept the progressive and prophetic designations [in order to] put forth some sense of the tragic."

It is the idea of a small child walking into the gas chamber saying a prayer or the enslaved African American singing in the fields that moves us towards change. And it is the recognition of the tragic and the ability to empathize with trigicomic hope that helps us create a more perfect democracy.