Who Is Pandora's Strength In What Remains?

The Greek mythology of Pandora’s box may not be well known among many, let alone its raison d'être. Pandora was sent to Earth by Zeus with a locked box and was ordered never to open it. It turns out that she opened the box and out flew the embodiment of worldly troubles (i.e. sickness, worry, crime, envy, etc.). Pandora became upset at the chaos she had released into the world, until she saw one that had remained, and this was Hope. This legend explains the existence of evil and more importantly, the promise of hope in times of darkness. In Strength in What Remains (SIWR), Tracy Kidder captures Deo’s journey through nations with little to no adherence to law to changes that happen when actions are taken, especially in war-torn countries. Amidst
Abbé Zacharie’s success in building “an example of unity” revealed that there was still hope for Tutsis and Hutus to live together harmoniously. Although the soldiers attacked the students for not abiding their instructions to abandon their Tutsi friends, their spirit of togetherness is worthy of admiration as some of the boys died begging “God to forgive their killers because they didn’t know what they were doing.” Through this, we see that even at Death’s doorstep, Zacharie’s students empathized their killers to a degree that many of us will probably fail to do if we were in their shoes. To me, Zacharie had not only “pulled off something remarkable” by “mak[ing] peace within the student body” but also to show us that the emphasis on morals in times of darkness is capable of fostering righteous individuals
We see a government that subjects its nation to discrimination and this further begs the question of whether the proper tools of enforcement are being used to promote stability in a country. If the UDHR had been in existence around this time, shouldn’t the law be the same for everyone? How was it possible for the government to carry out such an extensive amount of racial discrimination even with the existence of the UDHR? The answer is simple; the UDHR is disregarded if the only thing that enforced it is empty promises of law and order. The problem only worsened with the abuse of law, which resulted in the genocide. It doesn’t end there; the world proceeded to take it out on the government for accelerating the genocide when it had been everyone’s fault. Tell me, where was the world when Burundi and Rwanda’s rivers ran with innocent blood? How is it that the cries of women and children went unheard? If I may be so bold, I would say that the genocide might have actually been for the greater good because it serves as a painful reminder “that mass slaughters hadn’t been prevented in places all over the world – and they weren’t being prevented now” (248). Not only did the genocide open the eyes of the world to the horrors mankind is capable of, but it also gave us a ‘natural experiment’ that can be used as a reference point to promote prosperity in countries on the verge of civil