In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself by Wislawa Symborska is an indirect address to the Nazis and those who aided the Nazis during the Holocaust. In this poem, she characterizes various predators as having no remorse for attacking their prey, ironically comparing these animals to the Nazi who also have no remorse. The intent behind Symborska’s poem is to reflect how senseless it is to try to understand or rationalize the behaviors of individuals who can create such violence and trauma as the Nazis did; instead of acting as humans, who are typically capable of remorse and thus setting them apart from animals, they are acting more like animals who act upon instinct along. Because of the vagueness of this poem, the ironic comparison can be applied to any events or individuals who commit heinous crimes without any sign of remorse, such as Osama bin Laden for 9/11 or the Rwandan genocide.…show more content… Because of his blatant disregard for the scarcity of life, and the brutal attack on American soil, Osama bin Laden was tracked and hunted for close to 10 years. Much like the animals of Symborska’s poem, bin Laden did not understand remorse or take any blame— in his view, he took credit for the attack: “The buzzard never says it is to blame/… A jackal doesn’t understand remorse”(Symborska 1-5). In this regard, In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself is applicable to Osama bin Laden as it is to the Nazis of World War
