Zoo island tomas rivera summary
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He does give back the money he stole from the couple, thinking that it is right to compensate a victim’s loss. Sponono also doesn’t see how retribution helps. Sponono doesn’t understand how deterrence relates to reforming himself or others. The Principal works with hundreds of boys in the reformatory and he wants the punishments to deter others from misbehaving. Sponono thinks that being sorry is the way to re-make your ideals. The Principal thinks that can only be done through punishment. The word “re-form,” literally means to form yourself again. Sponono and the Principal both take the idea of reform fairly literally.
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He thinks he just needs to be genuinely sorry for what he has done. Sponono though, doesn’t see the purpose of the punishment. The Principal wants to punish rather than forgive because he thinks that will be a more effective way to reform Sponono. Sponono sees his actions as mistakes on the road to reforming and the Principal sees them as crimes and signs that Sponono will never reform. The principal though, seems to base his ideas about forgiveness more on the Old Testament teaching about “an eye for an eye.” The principal feels that Sponono must be punished in some way for his mistakes/crimes. Sponono had listened carefully to his catechism lessons and liked Jesus’ teachings about forgiveness: “Jesus said that we must forgive those who offend against us, even unto seventy times seven” (61). Sponono, in spite of his faults and mistakes, honestly wants to reform. The principal and him, have very different ideas about forgiveness. The Principal grows weary of this tomfoolery and is not as keen to repeat this cycle of constant forgiveness. He steals and he gets in fights, but each time he misbehaves, he expects to be forgiven. Throughout the rest of the story, Sponono makes mistake after mistake.
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This early look at how reformation works sets the tone for the reader’s understanding of Sponono’s reform attempts later in the story. The principal is persuaded and agrees to give Johannes another chance. But if I go to prison, I shall learn to steal more than before’” (53). If I come back here, I shall learn completely. Johannes himself state s: “‘I am learning,’ he said, ‘but not yet enough. Sponono argues that since the goal of the school is to reform the boys (it is, after all, a “REFORMatory”), sending Johannes to prison would in fact make him more of a criminal. Sponono, realizing the Principal may choose Johannes fate, tries to persuade the principal to offer the boy another chance. Johannes, an older reformatory student had stolen a watch and was likely to be expelled from the school and then imprisoned. The reader first sees Sponono when he asks to speak the principal in order to defend and protect a fellow student. Sponono, a member of the Xhosa tribe, has a very different cultural background than those who run the school. “Sponono,” by Alan Paton, is about a boy who attends a reformatory school in South Africa.