Humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, and in all that time, people have faced immense obstacles. Yet, we are still here due to the resilience of the everyday person. This is a theme illustrated in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve, a story full of people who survive despite the world doing everything it could so that they couldn’t. Markandaya explores this power of the human spirit through the character of Nathan with his desire to live in the moment, his will to continue in the face of adversity, and his refusal to lose hope. Even when life gets him down, Nathan is a character who lives in the moment. When Deepavali comes around, Ira is already divorced and his two oldest sons have broken their caste to work at the tannery instead of on the farm. At that point in his life, nothing has really been worse. Yet, when the family goes to celebrate Deepavali, it would be impossible to tell that Nathan has been through that much. When Ruku asks him if he has forgotten his senses, he replies “No, only my cares.” (60). He just accepts that in that moment, “life is good and the children are good, and you [Ruku] are the best of all.” (61). It does not matter to him that he will have to return to the farm the next day and slave over land that is not even his because Nathan understands that he needs to enjoy …show more content…
For example, when there was a drought, everyone around him was starving and dying. He has seen two of his sons die due to reasons he cannot change and his daughter has become a prostitute. His family lives day to day, just scraping by until the time comes in which they can harvest their crops. Nathan has every reason to lose hope. Yet, when confronted with obstacle upon obstacle, he is sure that when “When the time comes [to harvest his crops]… the strength will be forthcoming.” (97). He somehow manages to to work up enough hope to continue even when his life is full of
One of the main themes in the novel “Tomorrow When The War Began” written by John Marsden is resilience when hardships arise. Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Ellie, the main character, strongly demonstrates
book remains a true testimony to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.
In the book “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park, Salva goes through a lot of loss and gains hope and persistence, which he learns will be necessary to succeed. This included the loss of loved ones, harsh changes in the weather, and the doubt of his ability which this helped him move through his long journey. In Linda Sue Park’s book, Salva deals with these obstacles, and other plot events by using hope and persistence which illustrates the main idea of the book.
Both awe-inspiring and indescribable is life, the defined “state of being” that historians and scholars alike have been trying to put into words ever since written language was first created. And in the words of one such intellectual, Joshua J. Marine, “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful”. Essentially, he is comparing life to a bowl of soup. Without challenges or hardship into which we can put forth effort and show our potential, it becomes a dull and flavorless broth. But for characters in novels like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the difficulties and trials that we all must face can transfigure the mundane liquid mixture of existence into a vibrant and fulfilling gumbo. The protagonists of these works are two strong-willed and highly admirable women, who prevail in the face of overwhelming odds stacked in everyone’s favor but theirs. In their trying periods of isolation brought about by cold and unwelcoming peers, particularly men, they give their lives meaning by simply pushing forward, and living to tell the tale.
In order to live a full, "wholehearted" life, we need to gain a better understanding of the true nature of vulnerability. Millions of children have been introduced to vulnerability by author J. D. Salinger. Salinger was vulnerable to rejection, criticism, failing. His novel, I’m sure you know it, “The Catcher in the Rye” was rejected 15 times. One editor tossed it aside as juvenile. Perhaps you remember the book’s last lines: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you’ll start missing everybody.” Sure Holden Caulfield put up a tough front but the character created by Salinger is endearing and enduring even to this day – in large part because of his vulnerability. So if we want joy, love, and empathy in our lives, we need to let vulnerability into our hea...
All human beings cope with different challenges in life. These challenges can be emotional, mental, financial, social, or spiritual. The challenges in life learned in this course will be examined in different literary works such as novels, plays, and short stories. Isolation and conflicts are the challenges involved in Ender’s Game. Then, The Miracle Worker deals with reaching out someone and to an individual with a disability. Finally, conflict involving technology is evident in The Veldt. The challenges revealed in different works of literature are essential because they enable people to develop human qualities that give them opportunities to succeed and move forward.
Life is a complicated process. It’s filled with many things that keep it interesting but at the same time, very dull. Life’s what you make it and for many, it’s something we all strive for. In the story, The Space Between, the author takes full advantage of the premise as there’s rarely a dull moment- as in life. The book is filled with many literary devices that work nicely with the plot and dialogue. These include; metaphors, similes, irony, personification, and many more. We follow a young man who is finding his way in the world. He has only a week to change his life for the better. But he will face many obstacles on the way that brings the readers into a startling and fun journey.
A human being is a complicated entity of a contradictory nature where creative and destructive, virtuous and vicious are interwoven. Each of us has gone through various kinds of struggle at least once in a lifetime ranging from everyday discrepancies to worldwide catastrophes. There are always different causes and reasons that trigger these struggles, however, there is common ground for them as well: people are different, even though it is a truism no one seems to able to realize this statement from beyond the bounds of one’s self and reach out to approach the Other.
While buried, so deep beneath the cavity of adversity, finding hope is nearly impossible. But, it is the ability of decisions that aids as the last gleam of hope retrievable. After facing many struggles, it becomes almost involuntary for someone to put up a guard. With using that strategy, and the transgression of time without progress, there’s a certain ignition of comprehension. Change needs to occur, and a complete remedy of that
Samuel Smiles, a Scottish author and government reformer, once stated, “Hope… is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.” Gerda Weissmann Klein, a Holocaust survivor, saw hope in people and her future of surviving. The theme in Gerda Weissmann Klein’s All But My Life illustrates how one can stay hopeful in a world full of mistreatment through the use of figurative language, internal monologue, and dialogue.
Resiliency is one concept that has never been the human races forte. Many things that happen in our current day and age require a great deal of perseverance and resiliency. People often will give in to the problems in their lives and learn to accept them, instead of persevering through them and working out the issues. The fact of the matter is, if you learn to persevere through problems, your life will be a lot more happy and pleasant to live. In Tennessee Williams’ play, “ A Streetcar Named Desire” suggests that you cannot give up on issues; you must be resilient to those issues and persevere to be happy.
Working-class families are anything but lazy. Fifty plus hours a week with an average of two to three mouths to feed and backs to cloth, doesn't leave much time left for sleep let alone family bonding. As a young child, Nathan understood one thing for sure - work equaled money and that you need money to survive, especially in the "white man's world." At age thirteen, Nathan was too young, innocent, and ignorant to the fact that racism existed anywhere and everywhere he went. Working to him at this stage in his life was just that...working.
We watch death explore the beauty and ugliness of the human race in Markus Zusak’s book The Book Thief. We watch as Liesel, Hans, and Rosa do everything they can to help out a group of people who were treated with such disrespect during this time period. This group, the Jews, were beaten for taking food that was given to them, and when they died no one would even care. But, these few people gave them food, a place to hide, a sense of belonging, and and a reason to live. They have to work day and night, and do everything they can. Even though people aren’t so beautiful at all times, there is still hope. As we have learned in this book that even when 99 percent of humans aren’t so marvelous there is still that one percent that is to delightful that it would touch anyones heart.
Going through life means experiencing great happiness but also great loss. Every loss we face may hurt and cause us grief, but we must let life take its course and endure the pain, for we cannot know true happiness without knowing true sorrow. Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” discusses the hardships that come with pain and loss and gives insight about how a person can overcome that pain. Even the pain might hurt a great deal right now, the wound will only heal if we allow ourselves to feel that pain. As famous poet Lao Tsu once said, “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
“The story employs a dramatic point of view that emphasizes the fragility of human relationships. It shows understanding and agreemen...