Socratic Seminar question

                While reading through the Socratic Seminar list, the question that really caught my eye was number 5. “Of pain you could only wish one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was as bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes.”  It caught my eye because I don’t believe that physical pain is the worst thing in the world, and I’ve in a way experienced it firsthand. I won’t argue that I personally wouldn’t want it to go away, but there’s a reason behind pain, and sometimes the reason is much greater than the actual pain.

                For my mother, having to maintain me alive and giving birth was one of her greatest physical pains. She visited the hospital daily to get injections to keep me from dyeing and went through many painful medical procedures that put her through hell, and yet through all the pain she suffered losing me would have been worse than everything she felt along the way. She fought through the pain and would’ve given up her life for mine in an instance. In the face of pain she was a hero because she didn't give into it and fought through it.

                I use my mother's story as an example because she is living proof that emotion overpowers pain, something that Orwell contradicts. It’s arguable that what my mom did was out of motherly love, but her emotions drove her to block out the fact she would face pain. If people really believed that physical pain was the worst thing in the world many would give up at life. I completely disagree with the statement and think that its outrages.