And Still We Rise - Essay

Willie has offered to pay for Josie’s college in New Orleans. Willie wants to go to school in the East, she wants away from her life and she thinks if she moves nobody will know her. At the end of the story the madam Willie dies and leaves everything to Josie, making her a wealthy

Willie’s continued terror had kept people aware of what could happen when a child is left to create his own world, without guidance from an influential adult to direct them down the right path, before it was too late. Willie, in my opinion, has been waiting for the system to kill him, and put him out of his misery, as he is not able to do it himself.

Ashley is a young woman like many in today’s society born in 1985 to a single, teenage mother. However, her story is a success story. Therefore, she survived, although all odds were stacked against her. Due to her mother’s inability to provide for her, the Florida Foster Care System was her home from the tender age of 3 until her adoption at the age of twelve. During that decade, she resided in 14 different foster homes along with her brother. During this period, her brother and other children endured an abusive life which included beatings with a wooden paddle, starvation, made to drink homemade hot sauce, molestation and verbal abuse which led Ashley and her brother to attend a different school each time their foster home changed. She witnessed the tragedy of her uncle being shot and she experienced her own tragedy when thrown from a moving vehicle.

When people go through something difficult it can change them. Making them who they are, it can change them for the bad or good. Therefore, hardships can greatly influence a person’s life by making them appreciate all the things that make life enjoyable.

In the book And Still We Rise By MIles Corwin, we hear the stories of students childhood and upbringing. We also hear about their aspirations for the future but each of them seem to have extensive barriers that try to stunt their growth. Throughout the book we see how it’s not how someone is brought up that dictates who they are, but it’s that person’s perseverance that makes them who they are.

In the novel The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls suggest that how we react to difficult circumstances shape the people who we become in the future because they force us to either rise against our circumstances or succumb to them. The narrator in this novel have experienced changes that fit the criteria to this question. In the novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wall, Jeannette grows up in severe poverty where she has to depend on herself. She faces unfortunate circumstances, including first degree burns and hunger but somehow maintains a positive outlook on life.

This book is a memoir so it is all about Ashley’s life in the foster care program. Each chapter talks about the hardships she went through at all the different foster homes. Ashley was taken into foster care when she was only three years old. She was in 14 different homes in a total of nine years. She had a brother, Luke that was also in the foster care program with her. They were separated multiple times, but always ended up at the same foster home together. It was not until Ashley was adopted that they were separated for good. Ashley’s mom was in prison multiple times, she was also a drug addict. She had visitation rights, but her visitations were always supervised. At these visitations she always promised Ashley that she was going to turn her life around, and get both her and Luke back. It never happened; as a result, Ashley had a lot of trust issues and a hard time believing people actually cared for her. Ashley was adopted and had a tough first couple of years adjusting to having a family. It wasn’t until about the end of the book where she finally got used to having a real family.

Dwight Lyman Moody once said, " Character is what you are in the dark." This means that a person's true character is brought forward when they go through challenges. I agree with this quote, when people go through hard times the unimportant things are stripped away, and they have to learn to grow and adapt despite the obstacles they face. In the book "The Hunger Games," Suzanne Collins shows how some people's challenges change them for the better, other characters don't know how to cope and take longer to adapt, and how people's reactions differed from each others.

In the end his son still thought that Willy was on the wrong path with wrong dreams. However, Happy, thought that his father’s dreams were achievable and chose that path for himself. Both Troy and Willy wanted to achieve the American dreams in their era, for Troy it was in the shape of baseball, fame and equality while for Wily it was money, respect and to belong in the high society, however, not only

While in foster care she adapts to new dysfunctional homes and with new rules. She had an unhealthy relationship with her first foster’s mom boyfriend and that foster mom shot her in the shoulder. She was starved in another foster home and began using

Adversity can be seen in many different ways. Some people look at adversity as a learning experience, while others view adversity as a situation marked with misfortune. When a person is faced with adversity, rather than viewing it as something to hate, they should see it as a opportunity to grow. In the stories by Doris Lessing, W.D Wetherell and Alice Walker, they all show different types of challenges each character had to over come and their journey to do so. These stories all shared similar outcomes, they demonstrate how each character used an obstacle they were faced with, and turned it into a beneficial experience and how it shaped them into the person they are today.

“Still I Rise” In the video Still I Rise! The Enduring Legacy of Black Deaf Arkansans Before & After Integration, by Dr. Glen B. Anderson I learned about the history of Black Deaf and some blind students at the Arkansas School for the Deaf. The history and stories told by these former students ranged from 1919 through 1981. I personally found these stories told by former students to be interesting and informative.

Many people face challenges and obstacles at a very young age and that can change who they are as they grow up. My grandma faced a very harsh and unfortunate childhood. Her father died when she was 17 and that changed her life and her future. It meant she was given many responsibilities since she was the eldest out of her siblings. She had to do many house chores such as cooking, washing the clothes and dishes and waking up early in the morning to get water from a nearby well every day! This placed a very large obstacle in her life at a very young age. She had to leave school at a very young age because of all the responsibilities she was given and had to overcome these obstacles and face them with great integrity. But due to these obstacles that she has overcome, it has changed who she is now. She struggled in life right from when she was just a little kid. But if she hadn’t overcome these obstacles she wouldn’t have been a very independent woman like she is today. If her father hadn’t died when she was young, she probably would have had a completely different

"One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever… The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose… The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits…All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again."

Sometimes we go through difficult situations where we do not understand why the situation occurs. Sometimes we go through difficult situations and we do understand why the situation occurs. I believe these situations do make us better as individuals. I have faced three separate challenging circumstances, in the past six months, which has made me more independent and cultivated. I have been academically dismissed from school, my mom received open-heart surgery and I was threatened to be fired from my job. Difficult situations are challenging, but challenges build character.