Optimistic Hero

The first forms of adversity an individual may face are those of the burdens that are placed by family members and their expectations. This can be seen through Mariam’s progression of her ability to endure and suffer through

Her son showed up shortly after and they were able to be together again and comfort each other (76). On page 78 God gives Mary comfort through a passage she finds in the book of Jeremiah in the bible. Later, she described herself as blessed because she was the only Christian captive left in the tribe (80). She continued to rejoice at every opportunity she was given and on page 84, while going to visit her son, she gets lost in the woods. Even though she could not find him, she still praised God for keeping her

' Mary's heart was already with god and conventional values were not going to keep her a way from the life he had chosen for her.' (Mary MacKillop A tribute, 1995)

The community she once loved turned to her with hatred, but she still consoled them. The sufferings she experienced as a loving wife and a mother, did not discourage her. The uncertainty about her morality vanished because she stood her moral grounds due to her solid faith in God. It is true that Mary was not a member of the Revolutionary army. However, armed with community concern, love for her husband, and strong moral values, Mary Silliman fought and won her own war.

long hard hours, Mary’s focus never waivered. She loved what she was doing and was

Soon after being held in captivity, Mary Rowlandson’s attitude started changing from hopeless to hopeful; “Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God, that my Spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction: still the Lord upheld me with His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning” (Rowlandson 131). Here Rowlandson is talking about how she is able to keep her spirit up even though her daughter is extremely sick and she has no friends to comfort her. She claims she is able to do this because of the great power of God. It seems like her mind is being uplifted by the thought of God, and she is able to focus on the good things she still has in life. I believe without her religious beliefs keeping her mentally healthy throughout all of her hardships, she would have never been able to handle her captivity as well as she did. Even after her daughter died, she is still able to keep herself together; “I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God to me in preserving me in the use of my reason and senses in that distressed time, that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life” (Rowlandson 132). She recognizes looking back that she could have easily decided to take her own life after losing her daughter at such a young and helpless age. It is God who protected her and kept her from doing anything bad to herself at such a low point

Mary begins the story as a doting housewife going through her daily routine with her husband. She is content to sit in his company silently until he begins a conversation. Everything is going as usual until he goes “ slowly to get himself another drink” while telling Mary to “sit down” (Dahl 1). This shocks Mary as she is used to getting things for him. After downing his second drink, her husband coldly informs her that he is leaving her and the child. This brutal news prompts the first change in Mary, from loving wife to emotionless and detached from everything.

* Why did Mary defy Mr Neal? What did she achieve? What role does the character of Mary play in the text?

As Mary’s story unravels, she continues to suffer long hours of work, starvation, and separation from her family. She reads her holy bible and is constantly reminding herself that God is with her and will see her through these trials. Her spirits are lifted her master agrees to sell Mary to her husband, and her mistress begins the journey with her, but before long the mistress decides not to go any further and they turn back. Not long after, she starts to loose hope that she will ever be reunited with her family. She becomes discouraged, and her spirit

If I was to describe Mary with one word it would be misfortunate. Ever since birth she has been facing problems after problems. Two weeks after birth, Mary’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft past away due to a severe fever.

In the play, Mary is a beautiful woman and lives the life like any other girls of her time; but she is emotionally attached to her sons and her family when she marries into the Tyrone family. She is also getting old, so she keeps going on her days worrying about her change of appearance. She suffers from a morphine addiction and she is psychologically wounded because of her past. She tries many times to break free but she could not stop as she spends time with her family. She has gone through many struggles but she cannot move on with her life. She keeps looking back into the past; and she regrets marrying into the family because of the dreams she had to sacrifice such as becoming a nun or a concert pianist.

In conclusion, Mary never moved beyond the conflict, made progress, or handled the conflict well. She remained the languishing person she was from beginning to the end. Bill did not even recognize her and he never felt the same way. Mary ended up marrying a man she never loved and she named her son Bill. She is still that cheerless person now. Do not be afraid to tell someone something because you may never get the chance to tell them

Looking at Mary’s life history can help us better understand her experience of aging and late adulthood. Mary was born in 1941 in a relatively poor family. Our informal interaction and interview had given a chance for she to provide her life review. Life review is a healing process according to Robert Butler (Butler, 1974). She said that she lived in a government subsidies unit where bathroom and kitchen were shared with other families when she was young. Growing up in harsh life

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

Everyone who lives also dies, but between these two parallels there is a journey filled with happiness, depression, illness and much more. Sometimes occurrences happen that can’t be controlled and other times your decisions will alter your own life. This is some of the themes that Mary is dealing with in the short story “A Journey” from 2006 by Colm Tóibin.