Essay on Glimmer of Hope

“But, I 'm already resigned to this fate / Looking over my life, I recall / If it hadn 't been / for the loneliness / I 'd have no companion at all. ” This stanza from “Loneliness”, by Lora Colon evokes the negative impact a lonely fate has on a person. Words like “resigned” and “loneliness” establish a sense of depression and resignation. During the times of the Great Depression, many people felt similar feelings of melancholy and stoicism. Jobs were hard to come by, and realistic dreams of success were scarce. John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, allows readers to see the life of the Great Depression. The two main characters, George and Lennie, search for jobs, like many other migrant workers. They dream of owning their own land, however, Lennie’s habit of getting in trouble prevents their dream from being reality. After he accidentally causes more trouble at their new job, George is forced to kill him out of mercy. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck shows that even if one meticulously plans out the road to their American Dream, fate will inevitably intervene and lead one to desolation and loneliness.

Hope is surprisingly difficult to define and may be expressed in many ways. Overall, I feel that a good definition for hope would be that it is an optimistic and expectant desire that emerges from a stressor. It is a coping mechanism deeply rooted in motivation. It is the opposite of despair and fear as well as the influence that keeps us from succumbing to them. Hope can be identified as a means of perseverance as well as perseverance itself. Hope is the ability to detect even the smallest amount of light in the darkest of places.

John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, takes place during the Great Depression, a time when troubled and distressed American men and women lived; a time of poverty and an economic crisis. When change is thought upon, it is to be thought of new life and new experiences. The Great Depression is the kind of change that replaces a part of American living with “ Somepin’s happening. I went up an’ I looked, an’ the houses is all empty, an’ the lan’ is empty, an’ this whole country is empty” ( Steinbeck 94). In his work, Steinbeck presents the hardships that Americans had to go through by being mindful of particular aspects which makes the reader understand the characters’ distress. For example, the landscape of the farm lands. Even though the land has its brutality, it grows to be the scenery for humans to be able to recognize and consider their troubles about work and life in general. With these concerns, there are differences between the people who are accustomed to the landscape and admire it, and those who do not agree with it. In the novel, Steinbeck uses attributes of class conflict and injustice as a way of presenting and socially commenting that the Great Depression brought attention to more problems beyond the idea of poverty.

The fascination with consciousness dates back to the time of Plato and Descartes. Since those times the term “consciousness” has spurned controversy in many scientific fields, including the fields of biology, psychology, and neuroscience. However, with the recent advancements in brain imaging technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), human consciousness has shifted from being a subjective, abstract idea into being a observable scientific phenomenon. As neuroimaging capabilities progress, the public interest in consciousness also grows.

One might say that the Great Depression was a time of despair and feeling vulnerable from those who lived through it. However, writings have shown that some Americans during this era did not give up and had an optimistic view as opposed to a pessimistic view. In “Anacostia Flats” by John Dos Passos, it shows that the ex- service men during the Great Depression had a sense of determination for getting their bonus. The film 42nd Street demonstrated the tenacious spirit of Americans who worked on a play during The Great Depression. Meridel Le Seur’s “Women in the Breadlines” depicted the reality of struggling without employment but having the will to keep trying. During these times, society had not surrendered as several of them stood up for

(O-S1)The changes we see in people do not always come from the most suspecting person. The people we think never change can be influenced by just one thing and be changed forever.(O-S2) In A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, the events that occur to the people in the book prove that hope it a factor in the changes of people.(O-S3) In the book the hope that Jefferson ,an unsuspecting character, will be changed by a teacher to see himself as a human and be seen as a true man.

In our lifetime we will be conflicted on whether we should believe in our faith or not, especially when you go through difficult times. In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he introduces himself and his father’s struggle to survive through the Holocaust. However as this happens, Shlomo and him begin to lose faith because of all the atrocious things they see and the way that they are treated.

The book, Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer, tells the story of Hope Yancy as she realizes what life is about; letting go of pain and hurt, and cherishing the love. The main character is a sixteen year old waitress named Hope Yancy. She feels she is the person to enlist hope in others and in herself since changing her name from Tulip to Hope. She is a terrific waitress, like her mother. Her mom, Deena, left her older sister to care for Hope after she was born early and could barely eat because she felt she wasn’t ready for motherhood. Addie, Hope’s aunt, is the head or chief cook and manager of diners and eateries she has worked at. She is always thinking about Hope and their lives together. Hope was her only chance at motherhood after three miscarriages

The first time I heard “Ar'nt I a Woman?” was freshman year of high school, during our annual African-American Heritage assembly. The crowd, always restless and inattentive, chattered and snapchatted away as the speech and presenter were announced. A lanky girl shuffled on stage, folding in on herself as she walked, arrived center stage, and began to speak. As she went on, her spine straightened, her murmurs turned to phrases enunciated so clearly her tongue seemed to be working three times as hard as a normal person’s. By the end of the speech, she had the undivided attention of the audience, all holding their breath because of how passionately and honestly she presented this glimpse into life as a black woman. Both Chapter 4 of A Shining Thread of Hope by Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson, and Sojourner Truth’s “Ar'nt I a Woman?” speech serve the same general goal: showcasing the mistreatment of African American Women by society . While Truth’s speech is from her perspective, full of rage and frustration, A Shining thread gives her experiences important context. .

It is hope, he writes, that brought settlers to North America, that helped the first people avoid freezing in the Ice Age, and helped some survive the Holocaust. In history, Watkins emphasizes, one finds stories of people continuously succeeding in the face of hardship, stories that can help one maintain an optimistic mindset. Hope and optimism, once learned, can be as the essay suggests, “a shield against fate and it’s consequences” and the fuel one needs to keep going into the future, with the belief that everything will turn out

This book is proven to be one that will always amaze and shock audiences reading. In Steinbeck's novella he uses foreshadowing in several ways to express the unhappiness and hardships a man living through The Great Depression. He discusses his conflicts, his deepest demons and his greatest dreams.

The novella “Of Mice and Men” written by John Steinbeck in 1937 is a novel that juxtaposes hope and dreams against hardships and perseverance. Readers are positioned to accept the unattainability of the American dream during the great depression. The statement “...every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. And never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it” (Pg.73) is plausible to a great extent, exemplified through the failure of several characters hoping in achieving their own dreams. This is mainly emphasised with George and Lennie’s goal to own land, Crookes dream of racial equality and Curley’s wife’s wish of being noticed in society.

“ ‘Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place.’ ” In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is about two men in the 1930’s looking for a job to fulfill their dream which is to get ranch of their own. A major theme the author tries to tell in the novel is that hope is precious because it helps people keep pushing forward in life, no matter how hard life gets. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to show hope in many parts of the novel.

Hope, by definition means to look forward to something with reasonable desire and confidence. Hope also means a person or thing in which expectations are centered. When discussing the word hope, one must consider the core values by which the word works around. You could hope for financial success, world peace, or simply hope for some good out of your day. In 2006, Barack Obama wrote the political biography The Audacity of Hope to outline his core political and spiritual beliefs, as well as his opinions on different aspects of American culture. The Illinois senator divided the book into nine chapters, each concentrating on both his own and the United States’ successes and failures in local and state politics. While revealing great

In the words of Anne Bradstreet, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” As writers of the modern era expressed their hardships through poetry, one can only hope that they kept such advice in mind. Through captivating works, poets such as Langston Hughes, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, and E.E. Cummings expressed the struggles of life during the modern era. By examining what these poets have to say about dissatisfaction with life, feelings of inadequacy, and loneliness, it becomes clear that life during the modern era was full of hardships.