Use the texts “Sympathy” and “Excerpt from Nelson Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” to answer the following question.

Question

Based on BOTH texts, what can be inferred about the relationship between suffering and progress?
A.Suffering often leads to immediate social change.
B.Progress can only be achieved through violent resistance.
C.Understanding and acknowledging suffering can motivate efforts for change.
D.Individual suffering has no impact on broader social movements.

(1) I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
(5) When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
(10) For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!

(15) I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
(20) But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!

Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1899). Retrieved from CommonLit. Public domain.

Excerpt from Nelson Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
Nelson Mandela

Note: Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was a South African leader who worked to end apartheid, a system of racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa from 1948 to 1991. Mandela was later elected as South Africa's first black president, and he served as president from 1994-1999. In 1993, Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, the last head of state of South Africa under the apartheid era, received the Nobel Peace Prize jointly for their work ending apartheid. The following text is Mandela's acceptance speech.
...
2) I extend my heartfelt thanks to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for elevating us to the status of a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
3) I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate my compatriot and fellow laureate, State President F.W. de Klerk, on his receipt of this high honor.
4) Together, we join two distinguished South Africans, the late Chief Albert Lutuli and His Grace Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to whose seminal contributions to the peaceful struggle against the evil system of apartheid you paid well-deserved tribute by awarding them the Nobel Peace Prize.
5) It will not be presumptuous of us if we also add, among our predecessors, the name of another outstanding Nobel Peace Prize winner, the late Rev Martin Luther King Jr.
6) He, too, grappled with and died in the effort to make a contribution to the just solution of the same great issues of the day which we have had to face as South Africans.
7) We speak here of the challenge of the dichotomies of war and peace, violence and nonviolence, racism and human dignity, oppression and repression and liberty and human rights, poverty and freedom from want.
8) We stand here today as nothing more than a representative of the millions of our people who dared to rise up against a social system whose very essence is war, violence, racism, oppression, repression and the impoverishment of an entire people.
9) I am also here today as a representative of the millions of people across the globe, the antiapartheid movement, the governments and organizations that joined with us, not to fight against South Africa as a country or any of its peoples, but to oppose an inhuman system and sue for a speedy end to the apartheid crime against humanity.
10) These countless human beings, both inside and outside our country, had the nobility of spirit to stand in the path of tyranny and injustice, without seeking selfish gain. They recognized that an injury to one is an injury to all and therefore acted together in defense of justice and a common human decency.
11) Because of their courage and persistence for many years, we can, today, even set the dates when all humanity will join together to celebrate one of the outstanding human victories of our century.
12) When that moment comes, we shall, together, rejoice in a common victory over racism, apartheid and white minority rule.
13) That triumph will finally bring to a close a history of five hundred years of African colonization that began with the establishment of the Portuguese empire.
14) Thus, it will mark a great step forward in history and also serve as a common pledge of the peoples of the world to fight racism, wherever it occurs and whatever guise it assumes.
15) At the southern tip of the continent of Africa, a rich reward in the making, an invaluable gift is in the preparation for those who suffered in the name of all humanity when they sacrificed everything - for liberty, peace, human dignity and human fulfillment.
16) This reward will not be measured in money. Nor can it be reckoned in the collective price of the rare metals and precious stones that rest in the bowels of the African soil we tread in the footsteps of our ancestors.
17) It will and must be measured by the happiness and welfare of the children, at once the most vulnerable citizens in any society and the greatest of our treasures.
18) The children must, at last, play in the open veld, no longer tortured by the pangs of hunger or ravaged by disease or threatened with the scourge of ignorance, and abuse, and no longer required to engage in deeds whose gravity exceeds the demands of their tender years.
19) In front of this distinguished audience, we commit the new South Africa to the relentless pursuit of the purposes defined in the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children…

Answer 1

Based on both texts, it can be inferred that C. Understanding and acknowledging suffering can motivate efforts for change.

In "Sympathy," the imagery of the caged bird serves as a powerful metaphor for suffering and expresses a deep understanding of the pain and longing for freedom. The line "I know why the caged bird beats his wing" conveys that there is a profound acknowledgment of suffering that exists within the desire for liberation. This understanding can resonate and inspire action toward change.

In Nelson Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, he emphasizes the collective struggle against apartheid and highlights the importance of recognizing suffering as a universal concern. Mandela speaks of people standing together in defense of justice, indicating that shared experiences of suffering can unite individuals and drive them to pursue social reform.

Together, these texts suggest that acknowledging and understanding suffering, both personal and collective, can serve as a powerful catalyst for motivation and social progress.