Michael Jordan once stated, “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb over it, go through it, or walk around it.” This inspirational quote motivated many to overcome adversity when challenged by it. The texts, Speak by Laurie Anderson, “Third and Final Continent” by Lahiri Lahiri, and “The Art of Resilience” by Hara Marano, all have themes similar to Jordan’s quotation. All three articles support this through symbolism, foreshadowing, and character interactions. A common theme that one must stay resilient in order to overcome challenges while also staying level-headed during the positive and negatives is shown in Speak, “The Third and Final Continent,” and “The Art of Resilience.” Throughout the literary pieces, devices are utilized to express the theme: one method the authors do this is through symbolism. To exemplify, in Speak, Melinda, a depressed survivor of rape, must draw a tree for art class. Throughout the story she has trouble creating this tree until Ivy gives her advice. Ivy explains, “It’s fine the way it is, it just needs some leaves. Layer the leaves and make them slightly different sizes and it will look great”(Anderson 146). In this novel, the tree symbolizes Melinda’s life. The moment her piece of art falls apart represents the time Melinda loses all of her innocence. The point in which Ivy gives her confidence represents Melinda changing her perspective on her situation. Furthermore, the article “The Art of Resilience” explains the theme through symbolism as well. To demonstrate, the words used by the author can be interpreted in a way to show the theme. She says, “Resilient people do not walk between the raindrops: they have scars to show for their experience. They struggle but keep focusing anyway” (Marano). Being resilient not only means staying strong, but also overcoming a problem harmed, but not defeated. In reality, one must be able to face challenges in life and not be afraid of backing down. Both authors express their theme through symbolism in their stories. These quotations show how overcoming adversity can strengthen one in the end result.
Throughout the story, character interactions led
In this week’s reading, Anna Harrington uses a quote from Victor Frankel: “The last of human freedoms… is the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances. What a great way of restating, “Your response is your responsibility.” (Eggerichs, 2014). She communicates some ideas about resiliency she calls elements: emotional, spiritual, social, family, and physical. (Harrington, 2012).
“The human capacity for Burden is like BamBoo- Far more flexiBle than you’d ever Believe at first glance.” ( Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper) In this essay it will show how Brian in the Book used resilience to get through all of the hardships in his story. In addition it will tell aBout a claim on what resilience is in life and in Brians WInter. Finally it will tell aBout a counterclaim in place of one claim.
Adversity and the struggles that we go through day to day are the moments that build us into the people that we become. Nobel Laureate Dennis Gabor wrote, “Humans are wonderful in adversity, weak in comfort, affluence and security.” Being weak in comfort, affluence, and security clearly points to people’s ability to remain stable. However, Gabor notes that the strength humans have is due to the ability to handle adversity. A well-used strength allows for these weaknesses to not be the downfall of the race. Adversity can be confused with neglect in rough family situations. Jeannette Walls is an author that can represent adversity and explains them through her memoir The Glass Castle in several passages and even references the boundaries of
The conflicts in Speak and “The Art of Resilience” display the theme overcoming difficulties. In both texts, the challenge is the characters are going through a tough time. When they acted as if nothing bothered them, the issue became increasingly worse. Eventually, the main characters stood up to their problems and overcame them. At the end of Speak, Melinda, the main character of the novel explains, “ IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding. Andy Evans raped me in August when I was drunk and too young to know what was happening. It was my fault. He hurt me. It wasn’t my fault. And I’m not
Thistle’s memoir illustrates how resilience is about finding a way to grow and tackle hardships in order to improve your life, as a way to give yourself the strength needed to do better and make a change. In the memoir From the Ashes, Jesse Thistle learns to overcome and navigate adversity, trauma, and addiction, allowing Jesse to highlight the power of resilience and determination in navigating hardships throughout his life. In the memoir, Thistle describes his turbulent life journey from childhood to adulthood, where he faces many adversities that test his resilience. Throughout this timeline, Thistle describes his many hardships, where his resilience begins to emerge and acts as a guidance throughout all his major struggles, and it is ultimately what pulls him through the distress and fate of his life. Thistle’s resilience through the darkness of his past, where experiences left him feeling undeserving and less than what he was worth, is what demonstrates his admirable spirit throughout the memoir.
In this excerpt, Markus Zusak utilizes the literary device of allegory to depict resilience against adversity. “All my life, I’ve been scared of men standing over me” (224). “I like to fight. A lot of the time I lost. Another boy, sometimes with blood falling from his nose, would be standing over me” (226).
Overcoming adversity has been one of my major themes throughout both essays. Building upon positive strengths and positive assess creates a path to optimism and resilience. One poem that comes to mind, entitled The Rose by Tupac Shakur symbolizes this journey.
The stories Defending Jacob, “The Art of Resilience”, and “The Third and Final Continent” all contain the theme hardships constantly occur; however, regardless of misfortune it is essential to persevere. Within in the text of each literature piece reveals the importance of finding the light that will give meaning to continue forward. Each writing develops its own perspective on whether what happens to those who continue to fight through calamity, as well as those who become enveloped in the grief of their past and what's to come. Everyone has seen adversity, no matter how big or small. People cope with various forms of conflict in a numerous amount of ways; however, it is shared through these particularly insightful passages that having others
The theme of this novel is that even though you have experienced awful things in your life and has been screwed inside and out, you can still overcome the obstacles that stand in your way of success.
Throughout the literary works of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Maus by Art Spiegelman, and “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, different characters deal with adversity differently. In The Glass Castle the characters must overcome family hardships. Likewise, Spiegelman writes about his father’s struggle during the Holocaust. Lastly, in “Mother to Son” the speaker informs her son about her own hardships she had to face. Challenges that characters face can impact them both negatively and positively. Characters from all three literary works deal with adversity by having courage, being resilient, and making poor choices.
Having escaped rule from a tyrannical British government, the United States was founded on ideals of freedom and equality for all people. These fantasies of universal egalitarianism turned out to be merely that: fantasies. American history is full of stories of the oppressed struggling to get the rights they deserve and of the controversy over these issues that consequently ensues. “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery” by Frederick Douglass and “We Shall Overcome” by Lyndon B. Johnson are two speeches made confronting two of these issues. Douglass’s speech, delivered in 1852, condemns the institution of slavery and maintains that slaves are men and are therefore entitled to freedom. Johnson’s speech, on the other hand, was written in 1965 and discussed the civil rights movement. In it, he implored local governments to allow all American citizens, regardless of race, to vote. Despite the significant gap in time between these two addresses, both speakers use similar persuasive techniques, including ethos, pathos, and parallelism, to convince their audience that change needs to be implemented in America.
Have you heard about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? This interesting line from Tupac Shakur's poem "The Rose That Grew from Concrete" immediately grabs the reader's attention. This poem was published in 1999 and expresses the idea of overcoming challenges. Through strong and clear imagery and powerful language, Shakur explores how people can succeed, even when facing tough challenges. This essay will explore how the theme of resilience in the poem relates to bigger societal issues, discussing what it expresses, how it's expressed, why it's expressed that way, and its impact on both individuals and society.
When we fall down, it takes resilience to get back up, because without resilience, what reason do we have to rise again? It was on March 14th, my 19th birthday, that I began making my way through Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté’s The Resilience Factor. As a college freshman living away from home for the first time, I can use some advice on how to respond to adversity. This is why I picked up The Resilience Factor, despite being dubious of the “self-help” genre. A beautiful day at Griffith observatory, overlooking Hollywood, made for the perfect opportunity to learn how to keep going in the face of struggle. What more apt setting, where so many dreams are chased after for lifetimes, could there be to find the elusive key to resilience? After
Has anyone lived a life without misfortune? Doubtable; even the person with what could be described as the ideal life deals with some form of adversity. The novel, Speak, and the short story, The Third and Final Continent, both use plot as a way to convey themes of hardship. Moreover, these texts both use symbolism in order to develop their themes as well. The Art of Resilience and Speak utilize characterization as a method of developing their respective themes. Speak, The Third and Final Continent, and The Art of Resilience each deal with the theme that all people must learn to cope with adverse situations.
How does one survive a terrible trauma? These experiences are the ones that make you stronger. Literary devices are commonly used by authors to promote the theme. The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a high schooler who falls into depression after being raped at a summer party. “If” by Rudyard Kipling is a poem that a father wrote to his son about the importance of perseverance and self-confidence. “The Art of Resilience” by Hara Estroff Marano is an article that explains the characteristics of a resilient person. In the book Speak, the poem “If,” and the article “The Art of Resilience,” the theme that to be successful one must overcome hardships is developed through the use of symbolism, mood, and figurative language.