Adversity
Through the class discussions, in my group discussions, and the novel “Warriors Don’t Cry” by Melba Pattillo Beals, I have come to accept an overall idea about how to define adversity. Adversity is the difficulties you have in your life. It has both good and bad sides; the good side is it makes the person who passes the adversity and challenge become stronger in life, and the bad side of adversity is if a person who meets adversity cannot pass it, then it will make that person become stressed and eventually give up.
In the novel I read, the main character, which is Melba, faces a lot of adversity through her life. The adversity of Melba started when she and nine other students went to Central High school to study. On her first day at school, when she and her mother came to school, there were a crown standing in front of the school. They came to stop Melba and the nine students from coming into the school. Melba and her mother were too afraid, so they went back home and were chased by a bunch of angry white people who threatened to kill Melba and her mother. The second adversity was when she was being bullied by other students. The students hated her because she was black. She was being called bad words, and being hit nearly every day. With her, almost every day at school was like being in hell and she just wanted to finish school as fast as she could. The third adversity overwhelmed Melba on her sixteen birthday. When she invited her friends to her sixteen birthday, her friends was afraid to go to her birthday party because they feared what was happening to Melba, they feared the danger of Melba being the center of the integration. Melba wished she could be only a normal girl. Once, because of the stress and the fight for integration, she wrote in the diary that she wished she could die. But finally, she overcame the adversity and became stronger in life.
Through the group discussions with other people who read different novels about adversity, I have more ideas about people who have experienced different adversity in their lives. The novel “Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell is a very romantic and a sad story about Eleanor and Park. Both of the characters Eleanor and Park have to face a lot of adversity. Eleanor had to face a lot of adversity, such as being bullied for race, poverty, hatred, and abandonment. Park has his own adversity with his sports-loving father and his younger brother, and he doesn’t know if his dad really accepts him. The novel “Touch the Top of the World” by Erik Weihenmayer, tells the story about Erik and the adversity that he faced. Erik was blind when he was 13. Because he was blind, he wasn’t able to get a job and felt excluded from “normal” people. He had to use the stick for the blind and use a trained dog to guide his way. But in the end, he overcome his adversity and became the first blind person to climb the highest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest. Finally, in the novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” by Mark Haddon, we learn about Christopher who has an extraordinary brain, who can remember every detailed thing. Christopher likes to investigate things. His adversity was related to his feelings, and his father lied to him that his mother died but the truth is she was still alive and living in London.
As you can see, adversity is the difficulties you have in your life. The authors through the novels prove that overcoming adversity is not impossible, but you need to be strong and never give up on yourself.
Khai Dinh 