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Alden Nowlan The Glass Roses

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Discuss the idea(s) developed by the text creator in your chosen text about the role adversity plays in shaping an individual’s identity.
In the short story “The Glass Roses” by Alden Nowlan. Nowlan portrays the idea that adversity is part of our lives, and this adversity shapes us as individuals. But in the face of adversity an individual must either strive to fulfill their individual self-interests and ideas or abandon them to conform to authority. Nowlan suggests this idea through the character, Stephen and his struggle to conform to authority or pursue his ideas which suggests that humans often bring about changes to themselves in order to adapt to the environment they live in.
Initially, the reader is provided with a brief description …show more content…

The fathers demanding nature has made Stephen feel futility and desperate. Stephan is struggling to find trust and nurturing in his environment “They spoke only when it was necessary to give commands or criticism” (Nowlan Pg__). But because of his age, he is constantly frowned upon in his environment and peers, the “Too-familiar squint of doubt, the hard knots of disappointment…” (Nowlan Pg__). he faces. Trying to not be a disappointment in life, Stephen would often work himself into aching exhaustion hoping for a sign of acknowledgement from his father. But this forces Stephen to believe that he is not worthy and will never be. Stephen often looked others with envy; he is desperate to be a man. Many times he would lose hope of becoming a man as he looked at his scrawny body “The oftener he worked himself to exhaustion, the more certain he was that he could never be a man.” (Nowlan Pg__). Against his father’s disappointing nature, the ‘cold hard knot of disappointment’, Stephen tries to be a man by striking the wood fiercely, but the axe made him feel stupid and ridicules, in a way like his father. This can be juxtaposed to the father, as the axe for him was basically an extension of him. “When his father worked an axe, it was as though the blade grew out of his arm.” (Nowlan Pg__). This intimidates Stephen, …show more content…

These shows an extreme emphasize on the weathers importance, he could never escape his father’s clutch, and he can never idealize his own independence. The weather also helps the reader understand the pressure that Stephen is faced with; both literally and physically “The world was a maelstrom of darkness and wind” (Nowlan Pg__). This further reinforces Stephens’s unclear confused mind, and the harshness of his father’s expectations. “The wind struck his back like an alder switch” (Nowlan Pg__). The shadowing of how Stephen feels the confusion and coldness he faces. “The wind howled until Stephen expected it to wrench the roof from the camp” (Nowlan Pg__). Basically Stephens world was collapsing on him and his father’s disappointment was overpowering. “The wind hurled pellets of frozen snow against his face” (Nowlan Pg__). The adversity he faces, weather to be submissive to his father or to pursue his dreams. Through repetition and imagery, Nowlan emphasizes the effect that the weather and his father has on Stephen. After the friendly talks that Leka has had with him, Stephen was mislead by the Polack into think he was finally man. “He was no little boy to be cowed into obedience” (Nowlan Pg__). He believes he is now a man, and won’t be cowed into obedience. He believes that he has finally satisfied his father. This is later juxtaposed again, as later Stephen only

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