Adversity Horace Quote Analysis

The situation Ehrenreich is describing is the reality of millions of Americans; they work multiple minimum wage jobs, and are paid “so meagerly that workers can’t save enough to move on.” In addition, Ehrenreich recalls the actions of the U.S. government in regards to assisting these Americans. The article opens with the contribution of President Lyndon B. Johnson on the “War on Poverty”, then the “attack on welfare” in the 90s, concluding with The Great Recession. While writing Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, Ehrenreich abandoned her comfortable life to live the life of a low-income American; she worked multiple entry level jobs including Wal-Mart, a maid service, and as a nursing home aide. Through these actions, Ehrenreich establishes her ethos. Because she’s lived the lifestyle she’s describing, she has the authority to speak on the topic. Ehrenreich concludes with her proposal to help the

In Barbara Ehrenreich's bold and honest book she tackles the issue of poverty in America head on, by becoming a low wage worker herself. Ehrenreich delves into the often unheard of issues relating to poverty and low wage work, providing her readers with a new perspective on America's working poor and manages to give her audience a stark emotional, yet logical and factual, look into the working class' poverty epidemic. She uses her own anecdotal evidence and supports it with statistics and facts, appeals to ethos by challenging the ethics of corporate America and it costs, finally she hits an emotional chord with readers by reminding them of what low wage workers must endure so that we can live in our America.

“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” What the Roman poet Horace was saying was that when there is an obstacle in our way, our true colors will radiate. I could not agree more. When we as human beings feel passionate about achieving a goal, we may learn something new of ourselves, maybe a new trait that we did not know we possessed, when we reach new heights we did not know we could push ourselves towards. Challenges are similar to tests. Challenges are faced every day, but how we respond to them determines how strong we really are. Prime examples are superheroes and students that move dramatically.

During the Civil rights movement many leaders faced many adversities, but one leader named Malcolm X wrote,“Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time” hence he tries to say that there is no better way to develop skills than an adversity. At the present time, when people are faced with a challenge they either give up or take the easy way, thus leading to potential going to waste. Although adversity can bring harm, it helps introduce us to ourselves and our unknown skills with the potential to improve them.

While out dining with a friend Barbara Ehrenreich, a bestselling author of many books had came up with a question which would mark the start of a whole new life experience. Her question was, “how does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” The topic of poverty had greatly fascinated Ehrenreich but not to the point that she would actually want to experience poverty herself. However, this changed when the friend she was dining with suggested she should be the one to go out and experience the unpleasant lifestyle that is poverty. Upon starting this experiment she knew she had to construct a plan so she sat and began to plan out how she would be living throughout the experiment When concluding her experiment Ehrenreich argues

Ehrenreich developed the objectives of this book in a very interesting way. Ironically she developed the idea for this project over a very elegant expensive lunch at a French country-style restaurant. Ehrenreich and her editor Lewis Laphan from Harpers had gone out to lunch to discuss future articles. Throughout lunch the topic of poverty came up. Questions like, “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” (Ehrenreich, 2001 pg. 1) and how do unskilled workers survive on such low incomes, started to surface. She then thought “Someone ought to do the old-fashioned kind of journalism – you know, go out there and try

The Roman poet Horace states that “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” By this, he explains the role these hardships play in shaping and developing a person’s character. I agree that adversity not only elicits talents, but also brings out the hidden aptitudes within a person that which they were unaware of before. Through learning experiences and observations, I have witnessed the significant outcomes that come from the result of adversities.

Hardships have the power to make a break a person, as Roman poet, Horace, once said, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant”. Everyone has or will have to face adversity at some point in their lives, it is a universal truth. Although misfortunes usually have a negative connotation, depending on the struggle and how one deals with it, it is likely the person will come out of misfortune better prepared for the world. Contrastly, if a person never experienced any hardships, they would lack a sophisticated understanding of the world and lack the ability to handle difficult situations. Adversity gives people strength they can not obtain with success.

The most confident people are those to have known failure and misfortune. It is evident that adversity elicits our talents that successful situations could not elicit. However, overcoming obstacles can also elicit our character flaws. Through my study of the memoirs Night and The Glass Castle as well as personal observation, I agree with Horace in that adversity elicits character talents but adversity can also extract our character faults.

Horace states, "Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant," meaning that differences in a person's life, meaning misfortunes as a whole, has the ability to change a person's personality and character. This can go two separate ways though, it can make them into a better person, or a worse person. But the overall idea that Horace stated is easy to agree with.

It is human nature that every day we are forced to overcome an obstacle, an obstacle that we may see as a failure. It is the lesson that we take away from that failure that contributes to our success as individuals. Our success stems from our willingness to overcome failure. One quote that helps to reinforce this idea comes from Vince Lombardi who said, “The difference between a successful person and others is not the lack of strength, lack of knowledge, but the lack of will.” After facing a tough loss early in the season, the Middletown Lions football team had to rally and overcome our failures to get back on track for a successful season.

She notes that the open housing market is at fault for the poor not having affordable places to live; this due to the inability for them to compete with the wealthy. She goes further to discuss the government’s position with poverty and the minimum waged worker. Ehrenreich then explores the possible reasons for which people are stationary in their placement as low-waged employees. Moreover, she speaks about the underprivileged being practically invisible to the upper-middle-class and how politicians do very little to improve the conditions of the working poor. In the end, Ehrenreich hopes that those who are working tirelessly to earn a meager salary will eventually emerge from their inefficient lifestyles and demand to be paid what they are

What does one learn from failure? Will the disappointments from failure trouble the individual, or will the disappointments encourage them to try harder? I believe it is imperative to attempt new things and take risks. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Continually facing a fear and achieving goals that one thought they could never accomplish, will improve their self confidence, motivate them to never give up, and will help them realize their own potential.

I think that adversity leads to growth. People can grow from their mistakes. In this essay I am going to show you how people learn from their mistakes.

Failure is something that we cannot go through life without experiencing. The best thing about failure is that failure can be used as a great learning experience to improve upon things in our lives and career. Using failure as a learning tool is dependent upon the person and how they view it as well as how they use it. Failure is a matter of perspective and the lessons in failure are important aspects towards growth and development. If we did not experience failure there wouldn’t be opportunities for learning. Failure can teach us about ourselves as well as provide an understanding for our