Final Part 2

Seven Pounds: In order to help others you must sometimes make a sacrifice for the greater good. Like what Tim did for Emily, Ezra, and all the others. “Who’s the victim?” “I am” He does this to save Emily’s life by giving her his heart, therefor making a sacrifice for what in Tim's eyes is the greater good. All throughout the film Tim made it his goal to help others in a very miraculous way. “You know, Ben, I keep asking you this but why me?” “Because you are a good man.” “No really.” “Even when you don't know people are watching you.” Here he is talking to the coach who he gives a kidney to after watching him and determining if he is a good man or not. Early in the movie he makes his goal in life clear to Holly who he gave part of his liver to. Tim asks her to find “Someone having a really hard time, that needs help, but may be too proud to ask for a handout.” He clearly wants to help people, it is just a matter if once he checks them out if he feels that they deserve it. Tim is a amazing man who’s soul purpose in life after his accident is to help others.

Craigslist Joe: When you have to rely on other people for your survival you can truly see the good in humanity. He met many people that helped him out in a tremendous way. “We can take care of each other.” Although he did not have anything to trade when asking people for help he would do everything possible to make it worth their while. Some people would say that there is little hope for humanity because everybody is so selfish, but this film proves it wrong. “Some say we have lost the sense of community that used to carry us through tough times, however, after this experience I have obtained enough knowledge about our society to confidently say that is not true.” It's things like this that give people hope that our race can still thrive as one. When he was talking to the first group of people he met they were dumbfounded that he would even try this experiment. “Yeah it was a risk doing it but if i continue to meet people like you it should work out perfectly.” Throughout this entire experience he met many people that helped him and changed his life forever, and he truly saw the good in humanity.

Smoke Signals: Thomas helped Victor on his emotional journey of trying to find his father, and trying to find himself. From the very beginning Thomas just wanted to be friends with Victor and was willing to do most anything to help him. “Thomas brings his jar of change and spare bills to help him and Victor make it to where his dad is.” Victor originally thought that he could not make it to his dad because he had no money but when Thomas offered to use all of his money for someone else's journey, it shows how willing he is to help others. No matter who is in pain or in need Thomas is willing to help, for instance “Victor’s mom is crying and Thomas gives her a big hug and tries to take care of her.” That just shows how willing to help anyone some people are, and it is when you help people that you feel the best about yourself, which is why Thomas is so happy. Thomas would often try to help Victor by hinting things that he did wrong, for example. "You make your mom cry!" "Shut up Thomas!" "You make your mom cry. your dad left her sure, but you left her too, but what you did was worse, you stayed." When Victors father left he lost a piece of himself as well, and his mom could tell. Over the time Victor and his mother grew apart and Thomas noticed that and tried to do everything in his power to help.

PTSD: Often the only way to cure PTSD is to have help and support from your loved ones. PTSD is often caused by a traumatic event, commonly found in veterans coming back to the real world and trying to cope with all the shit they saw overseas. “You can develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when you go through, see or learn about an event involving actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation.” Doctors still aren't sure why some people get PTSD but they do know once you get it it’s hard to get away from.  PTSD can bring a lot of stress and pain to one’s life, and is very hard to get away from it. “Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.” Veterans often have flashbacks from war about the terrible things that happened and once you see things like that, it is very hard to forget about them. Symptoms of PTSD can get worse over time so it is better if you treat them early. “Dealing with them now might help stop it from getting worse in the future.” Getting help from loved ones is one of the most effective ways to cure PTSD as well as getting help from a therapist.

Culture and Communication: Cultures provide people with different ways of thinking and seeing the world, and communication helps us understand those different cultures. Most people grow up just knowing one culture and just one language, so it is often very hard to learn about others. If you want to try and experience or learn about a different culture chances are they speak a different language so the chance of misunderstanding increases. "When The U.S. first discovered Indians we did not even take a chance to try and learn about their culture we just assumed they were bad people." If we would of tried to understand their culture and their language it might have ended up a completely different situation. Today with all the advancements in technology it is easier than ever to understand and try to learn about different cultures. The first step to learning a new culture is often to understand their language. Things like "Rosetta stone" help make it easier than ever to understand new languages, and with that comes the opportunity to understand different cultures. Back when the world first started realizing that there were different cultures and different ways of living they had no way of understanding each other. "But now with the advancement in technology like being able to travel by plane to basically wherever you want" This has helped us come together and know more about the entire world tremendously, and without it all we would be able to do is learn about other cultures through electronics or books and not get the real world experience.