AN ESSAY CONCERNING THE NECESSITY OF HELP (WRIT- TEN IN THE STYLE OF CHRISTA WOLF’S CASSANDRA)

This essay examines the necessity of help in seeing and moving beyond unjust or oppressive systems. To do so, the paper looks at individual characters and relationships from five important works of literature: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Christa Wolf’s Cassandra, Jeff Ho’s Antigone Fong, and Cervantes Don Quixote. The form of this essay is very closely based on Christa Wolf’s Cassandra. Cassandra has a very distinctive style, which I have attempted to replicate in my own writing. Further, my essay follows a narrative journey that, in some sense, parallels Cassandra’s. While Cassandra reflects on the most important learnings from her life in the moments leading up to her death, I reflect on the most important learnings from my semester in the moments leading up to its end. Beginning first by examining characters who act in isolation, the essay moves on to centrally focus on what types of relationships and communities allow for full sight and movement beyond oppressive systems. The essay asks readers to consider the limitations of refusing help and opens the reader’s eyes to the possibilities that come from accepting it, however difficult that may be. The essay concludes by bringing together the learnings from the various books to generate a discussion of how to enable permanent transformation of systems characterized by injustice and oppression.