In life, most people always work hard and put forth their best effort to make their future life a success following the clique theme of never giving up. As characters grow in a story, they tend to learn that with dedication towards getting a better life it has to come with always pushing your hardest to get out of the struggles that they are in. In Michael Oher's, “I Beat the Odds”, and John Steinbeck’s, “The Pearl”, the two main characters never gave up to help themselves and their family while they both demonstrate that their determination to success paid off. Michael, the main character in “I Beat the Odds”, had a rough beginning to his life with not having a reliable mother to care for him and always living away from home similarly to Kino, …show more content…
He lived in a very poor community with his mother and a couple of his siblings but Michael had to move from his house many time to foster care because his mother could not take care of him. She was not the best parent for Michael because she was addicted to many drugs and just wasn’t there for him. But while explaining his past experiences, he says, “ No kid ever really forgets when they’ve experienced neglect, abuse, and heartbreak.” (Oher 217). In Michael’s childhood, he had to go through many emotions that many other children don’t have to worry about. He started off his life very poorly which caused many problems with his family and home. Michael also explains he had to go through “neglect, abuse, and heartbreak” which is showing how terrible his life was but the difference between him and most other characters is that he decided that it need to change. This determination causes a drastic change in Michael’s life, and to conclude the story, he says, “ People like to talk about Cinderella stories, but Cinderella didn't get her happy ending without lifting a finger… Of course she had help along the way, but ultimately it was up to her to make the fairy-tale ending happen.” Michael did everything he could to make all of the negative influences and memories out of his life. He never gave up on
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.
Life is like a game of blackjack where we unknowingly are dealt good or bad cards. This unpredictability makes it difficult to gamble decisions. Unfortunately many factors can lead to the bad card where in both the game and life, people are trying to prevent us from achieving the goal. There are two choices to change the outcome however, we may either give up (fold) or we may take a chance (call). The beauty of taking the risk is that if lucky, life gives you that much-needed card. When dealt that winning card, a person is immediately uplifted. That one good hand drives a person to outweigh the pros from the cons and continue to strive for the winning pot or in this case, the goal in life. Enrique in Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” is dealt both the good and bad cards in life, as he undergoes a battle of being pushed internally to continue while also being pulled externally to quit, thus leading him to unearth himself as a worthy human being while on the journey to the U.S; sadly however, his arrival in the U.S refutes what he clearly envisioned for himself.
Life is a struggle. All through their life meet an obstacle that they struggle to overcome, no matter what walk of life you will face struggle. Some struggles are ongoing and can only be overcome by the perseverance of those willing to fight to better themselves, and those they fight for. We see this in "The Street" by Ann Petry and "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt. Wherein the characters presented struggled to overcome the obstacle of poverty, poor living condition, and malnutrition, and ultimately persevered. When met with an overwhelming obstacle to succeed and overcome it, one must persevere and only then through their actions and strength of character will they overcome the obstacle at hand.
David Mamet once stated, “..it is the human lot to try and fail..” This quotation implies that an individual will attempt to achieve success throughout their lifetime, but he/she will also have to face the failures as well. The quote relates to the philosophy that in order to achieve something, one will have to work for it. This quotation is correct and is further supported by two literary works. The two novels are Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Pearl, also by John Steinbeck. In these two novels, the protagonists know that their goals are very farfetched and out of the norm, yet they both try to achieve it and ultimately fail.
All of these stories show what happens if you control your own goals and achieve them. Poor Angus hasn't found his yet but eventually he probably will. The point is that when you set goals and never give up almost nothing will stand in your way. People will disagree with you or doubt you but the closer they get to you the more they control your life. Think of it as if two really tall people were standing on each of your shoulders facing you. They act as blinders and the only thing you can see is stuff in front of you they put you towards a path that they want. But the more they back up and stay away from you, if you don't let them get to you, you start to see all around you. The world offers many paths to take. It is up to you to take whatever path you want. You control your life, you set your own goals. No one else and that's the best part about life, you control you. Don’t let other people alter your
Michael soon decides that if he can trust Joe enough to keep in silence, he may be able to out wit the police. When Michael makes his decision, he never considers the ramifications that will come of it. For example, Michael never even considers the long agonizing nights he will stay awake or the ling pain filled days he will go through thinking of Jenna Ward and her mother suffering day after day. On the contrary, Michael thinks he will be able to just move on and forget about it.
In the opening scene we get a sense of what Michael is like. He is driving a boat of a car across the barren desert, like he is scavenging for something. Strapped for money he stops at a somewhat abandoned gas station where he finds a bundle of twenty dollar bills out in plain view. We get the sense that he tries to be honest because he doesn’t take the money and he buys gas with the last five dollars that were in his wallet, just enough to get him to Red Rock and not any further. He then gets turned down from his job because he told the truth about his leg being injured. When he goes into the Red Rock Bar we can see the change in his life coming. He walks in from the bright daylight into the darkness of the dimly lit bar. This lighting hints to the audience that from that point on Michael is fated for disaster.
As a single parent, Michael takes on the roles of father and mother to his teenage son. His brother-in-law even refers to him as, “a non-traditional mother,” in, “S.O.Bs” (Day and Vallely). Michael is a non-traditional parent in that he displays the qualities of a traditional mother as well as a traditional father. He fulfills the expectations of traditional father in disciplining his son, George Michael. When Michael chooses to transfer his studious son to a new school in, “S.O.Bs,” he is oblivious to George Michael’s unhappiness (Day and Vallely). After discovering what he believes to be the truth regardi...
By the end of the novel Steinbeck illustrates the fragility of dreams by having many of the characters' dreams shattered. Still, even if dreams are often not realized, the book shows that men's aspirations give the strong drive to change the world and our lives for the
No one can be exempt from experiencing the hardships in life. Great success comes from failures. But not everyone has great success because they do not continue on after the failures. Some of us instead give up rather than continue to venture forward to achieve our goals and dreams. With that in mind, it is important to look at what motivates humans to continue on after failures. Walt Disney like everyone else in this world had successful ventures and complete failures. But, unlike those people who just give up after failing one time. Walt Disney kept on going and he soon succeeded. Walt Disney moved forward because of his goals and perseverance in life. There were many people who talked about Disney’s life, Neal Gabler stresses Disney’s early commitment to innovation’’(Gabler, 2006, p. 121). And as Schickel notes, ‘‘Mickey would become a symbol of the unconquerably chipper American spirit in the depths of the Depression’’(Schickel,1998, p.124). In essence, as shown by his life, his thoughts on work and achievements and his thought on his career and family, Walt Disney was motivated mostly by the goals he wished to achieve that had to do with motivation for art and his family rather than the being motivated by someone with incentives or being seemingly
This is where he fell in love with the game of football and he knows that to play in the pro league, he had to improve his education. He received educational support and it was critical since he did not develop education prior to living the the Tuohy’s. Moreover, when having a conversation with Leigh Anne Tuohy, his adopted mother, about his football decision, she replies: “It’s your life, Michael, it’s your life” (Hancock, Netter, Smith,..., 2010). Michael comes to the understanding that his identity as a Tuohy, a black male, and a football player, does not have to come with any pressures or expectations (Kim, 2017). He realizes that he is able to decide for himself who he wants to be, and chooses to attend University of Mississippi and accept his football scholarship . This is essential on his development because his choice to focus on athletics, improve his GPA, and choosing a school to attend and play football allows Michael to develop a sense of identity and
In conclusion, Frank McCourt and Anne Petry both establish the theme of persistance through hard struggles. In Angela's Ashes, the protagonist is forced to fend for himself and his family. In The Street, the protagonist and the people of Harlem struggle to find protection against the cold wind. Both support the idea to keep fighting through hard times. And in the end, that message relays to the reader by telling him/her to keep fighting in times of
In both “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” by Walter Dean Myers and The Pearl by John Steinbeck, the protagonists struggle with internal conflicts that ultimately change what they view to be important in life. Greg, who is attending high school, wants to play basketball, but is unable to as a result of poor grades. Kino, a man who loves his family more than anything, loses focus when he becomes drived by the prospect of riches. Both characters face challenges that eventually lead them to see what truly matters in life.
Within these separate films it is clearly shown how social context can manipulate the requirements of triumph over adversity and how these eventual triumphs will often lead to a change in aspects of life. Both Cauron and Hancock show how differing social contexts can affect the outcome of a goal to triumph and demonstrate how the resulting triumph can lead to alterations of family or personality. The various aspects of both these films demonstrate an array of factors that are required to obtain the desired triumph that each protagonist strives for through the adversity they face. The adversity that these characters face is very common in the modern world and can come in any sort of shape or form. It doesn’t matter whether you are a football star or a space explorer, to triumph adversity is a common part of everyday life.
“The failure is the mother of success” this Chinese quote said that failure is not the end. Failure is where people learn from their mistake. People cannot be successful all the time. Indeed, there are many people who learned from their failures before being successful. Each failure that people had met is a helpful lesson and valuable experience to help them become a better person.