Adversity. A time of misfortune or distress. It’s like facing a problem that is super difficult to overcome. Many people think that they have gone through the worst—that they they have faced the most problems. But have they met Henrietta Lacks, Douglas Mawson, and Phineas Gage? Henrietta Lacks, Douglas Mawson, and Phineas Gage are all amazing people who have gone through the worst for the consideration of science. Doctors took healthy cells from Henrietta Lacks without her consent, and they then used them for research to make millions of dollars. Going on a hard, difficult journey was the story of Douglas Mawson; he also lost his only friends and almost died a few times. Phineas Gage’s story is also filled with adversity, in which he had an iron rod shoot through his head while staying conscious. Out of all of these people, however, Phineas Gage endured the most adversity for many reasons. …show more content…
First, he stayed conscious during his entire accident, which was diagnosed as an open brain injury; in other words, he was alive to feel the pain of the iron rod shooting through his head. Page six of Phineas Gage proves this is shocking by stating “Amazingly, Phineas is still alive… a minute later he speaks.” Second, as the iron rod damaged his brain (causing social problems), the iron rod damaged his skull and face. Gage had huge gashes, a cracked skull, a major loss of blood, and many more injuries revolving his head. On page nine of Phineas Gage, Gage’s immediate physical adversities are described: “He cleans the skin around the hole, extracts the small fragments of bone, and gently presses the larger pieces of skull back in place… he pulls the loose skin back into position…” As anyone can notice, Gage’s physical adversities were very, very harsh, and won’t compare to the adversities faced by Lacks and
Adversity is defined by the Merriam-Webster's dictionary as, “A state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.” The Supreme Justice Sonia Sotomayor has overcome adversity many times in her life. One of the first adversities she encountered was at the age of 7 when Sotomayor was diagnosed with diabetes. She soon realized that “She would not depend on the adults in her life to keep her alive. Instead she gave herself her own insulin shots”(Barnes). This shows that Sonia had little support from the adults around her. It also shows that Sonia knew that depending on others would only get you so far. Also Sotomayor overcame the limits of her cultural, social, and class background. A quote
After reading Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I observed that both these texts share a few similarities in the way the authors portray the difficulties their characters have to face, in order to get to where they are now. After researching a few rags to riches stories and using Slumdog Millionaire and The Pursuit of Happyness as my primary sources, I found out that successful individuals from harsh backgrounds shared similar complications, yet they had the will and perseverance to get to where they are now. They faced difficulties such as dealing with poverty and hardships of everyday life, struggling to overcome the effects of addiction and abuse. They found ways to overcome these difficulties through things like having some form of education, and utilizing their knowledge, to manipulate opportunities to their advantage in order to bring about success.
Survivor. This can be defined as “a person who survives, especially a person remaining alive after an event in which others have died”, or as “a person who copes well with difficulties in their life.” Being a survivor is having the ability to experience a difficult or traumatic situation and still being able to progress and contribute to the environment. Each person has a different mental and physical capacity of how much they can suffer through. A survivor can be both selfless and selfish. There is typically a happy medium between all survivors in which they balance worrying about themselves and worrying about others. A person who coped with difficulties was Mrs. Schindler, she dealt with the process of cancer and the aftermath. In the article “ Beyond Secret Tears “ by Lili Silberman, Lili would deal with the mental difficulties of a child and be separated from her mother and father. In the book Hiroshima by John Hersey, it talks about how the survivors of a nuclear bomb had to work together to stay alive and be physically well after being
Once, a wise soul has spoken, “Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful”. Adversity means having troubles and difficulties. It’s what you need to persevere through in order to do something you’ve wanted to do for a long time. If you want to pass that test, you’ve gotta conquer your fears and fight through all the troubles that arrive in front of you. Become your own hero. Adversity is a situation that took place in the novel “The Outsiders”, by S.E. Hinton.
Adversity is a time of trouble, problem or difficulty for a person. Adversity is a problem that makes a person struggle. Adversity also can affect a person in a positive or negative way. In the story of Victor Frankenstein, the Monster is a creature that Victor Frankenstein made. Once he took his first breath, he was being rejected by everyone which cause him to go through a lot of challenges. Similarly, in the biography of Frida, Frida was a talented artist who had a lot of difficulties in her life. The Monster faced more adversity in his life than Frida.
(Phineas Gage book) This ended up killing Gage. Phineas Gage’s contribution is that he taught doctors, scientist, and people more about the brain and
A major factor in the development of character through personal struggle is that it shows a person what they are willing to do to succeed. One example of this is the acclaimed author J.K. Rowling. She and her daughter suffered from poverty prior to, and during the beginning of writing the infamous Harry Potter series. She had to get undesirable jobs, and write in coffee shops without a computer or copy machine, which meant that she had to manually process each copy that she sent to publishers. Through every problem thrown at her, she persevered, and proved to herself and others that she would do anything to succeed and support her family. Everyone has limits that they can push, and lines
It’s a miracle that Gage did not die from his initial wound dressings after the incident. Gage was taken care of by the local doctor, Harlow (Costandi, 2006). Instead of sewing up the wound, Harlow cleaned up the wound the best he could, and left it to drain into the dressings. He removed several small fragments of his skull, replaced some of the larger skull pieces and used adhesive straps for the larger opening .Over a few days, Gage developed a fungus in his brain that could have killed him, but Harlow was able to drain his head of puss and infection (Costandi, 2006). Although he was never considered to be “the same Phineas Gage”, he functioned properly for more years to come while retaining his motor skills. He died 17 years later after the incident (Costandi, 2006).
In my opinion, some of these athletes like UFC fighters and football players’ are at a higher risk of their Orbitofrontal Cortex being damaged. What happened to Phineas Gage was a tragedy that could also happen to anyone. At least today, someone would have better chance of surviving or surviving without any permanent damage vs. the something like this happening in the 20th century. After researching more about this part of the brain, I also think about some of these young athletes that get concussions before their Orbitofrontal Cortex has matured. “Based on current neuroscience data, the assumption is that the brain does not fully mature until at least the mid-20s, so if a concussion occurs in a still-developing brain, the trajectory of that
2. The three incidents of people writing stories in terrible situations that Roger Rosenblatt shared are; JAL airliner going down in 1985, the last occupants of Warsaw Gettho, and Jean- Dominique Bauby finishing his autobiography after his stroke. One story I recieved from a terrible situation is my cousin's sucide note. Other situations that I could think of are if somone was lost in the wild, stuck on an unknow island, after discovering a government conspiracy they find them selves locked in a completely isolated prison, ancient egyptian time a king ordered his servant to be burried with them.
What are the possible effects it may have? An example of adversity is the Holocaust - Hitler‘s plan to exterminate the Jews. In the memoir, Night, we discover how Elie Wiesel changes in response to his concentration camp experiences. The separation from his loved ones and the horrible conditions of these camps affect Elie immensely. Elie is affected in the following ways: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The Holocaust had changed him into a completely different person.
Statement: The ability for an individual to endure hardship is a testament to the endurance of human spirt. The ability to defeat hardship isn 't something everyone has but I assume that having that ability is something that should be an essential human quality.
The case of Phineas Gage is a rather remarkable one. During the late 1800s, "doctors" didn't fully understand brain trauma so Mr. Gage's injury was not fully understood. However, after decades of research we now understand what damage to the frontal lobe can do to an individual's personality. Research has concluded that damage to the frontal lobe can result in changes in emotional behavior, promiscuity, motivation, lethargy, and inhibition. Individuals with brain trauma can also be prone to violent outbursts. I can definitely understand how bran injuries can result in changed behavior since the brain is essentially the master control of the human body. In addition to Phineas Gage, another famous case that illustrated how a traumatic brain
In life we all face obstacles. The troubles that we face don’t define us, how we overcome the situation is what makes us the people we are today. Throughout my life I have faced many trials and tribulations that I had to overcome with the help of my mother, ofcourse. I was smooth sailing in life until I started high school.
Success without adversity is impossible. Everyone in life has their ups and downs and nothing in this world is perfect. At some point in life, hardships begin to occur and that’s when the real test begins. Some people rise up and try their absolute best to take a stand against the challenge. Then there are others that would crawl back into their shells, crying for mercy. There should be no excuse for giving up or not putting in the effort. People are only successful in winning the battle of adversity when they are mentally tough. The intense game of adversity can be referred to football.