“I was realizing that forgiveness was a decision I would have to revisit over and over. It was turning out to be a process, not a single act.”
Shannon wakes up to the shocking truth that her husband, Jason, has been charged with sexual assault, violent acts, and kidnapping of two women at his workplace. Thus, her life after that fact would completely change her life forever and consequently she harbored so much resentment against him. The media and public scrutiny that came with being the wife of the formerly convicted and now repeat offender was overwhelming to her. But in order to move on and detach from the trauma of the experience she had to find closure through forgiveness. The assertion refers to the nature of forgiveness for her taking into account the ripple-effect of Jason’s actions that will forever be incessant.
“What forgiveness did do was remind me that there was a human being behind the violence, and that his heinous acts did not represent the sum of who he was.”
The novel handles the idea of second chances and how it sometimes becomes complicated when it does not prove fruitful. In this case Jason was a convicted murder felon in his younger years, after the stint and series of redeeming acts he rejoins society as a model citizen. Shannon aware of his past gives him a second chance in life by being his life partner. However, his violent acts against two women down the line muddies the water of redemption. The statement is Shannon’s outlook on how to look at and forgive such a character after a second chance gone wrong. In that, often people like Jason have an evil side to them that cannot be redeemed but still does not fully encompass who they are as a person.
