Throughout life people encounter a numerous amount of obstacles, some of these obstacles can be tougher than others. These obstacles don’t define who you are, how the situation is handled does. In the book The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, Jessica encounters a tremendous obstacle that life could throw at her. Jessica has had to learn to adjust her life from the way that she used to live. Her life is changing and she has to decide if this accident defines who she is going to be while being surrounded by the love and comfort of her family. Throughout Jessica’s journey of losing her leg, she acquires an enormous level of support and comfort from her family while she is finding her way. Losing a leg is something that nobody ever wants to happen, but Jessica doesn’t get this choice. Along the way of the process …show more content…
Depression affects teens everywhere; some teens are upset about home life, school life, or just personal issues in general. Jessica states, “Running aired out my soul. It made me feel alive. And now? I’m stuck in this bed, knowing I’ll never run again” (Van Draanen 6). Jessica is one of the most determined athletes on her track team, the one thing she wants to do most in the world is run, and she can’t do it anymore because of her leg. Jessica says, “So I am getting used to it, and I am gaining confidence but I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever race again. It almost doesn’t matter, though. I can run” (Van Draanen 279). The author makes the reader aware that Jessica is depressed, but eventually she becomes the happy girl who can run again. The author wants people to know that sometimes life can be bitter and leave people feeling upset, but everything will get better it just takes time. I know that depression is a very serious issue to deal with, and I think time really does fix all
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Show More“If you can dream it, you can do it,” is a quote that Walt Disney was known for saying. I simple means you can accomplish and reach every one of our dreams if you have the determination to pursue them. This is the main concept behind the essay of “The Dreamer.” By Junot Diaz. The essay/article. Was first written and appeared in More Magazine for women in 2011 (Diaz 128). It is the short story of Junot Diaz’s mother was determination to go to school and get an education despite the punishment she endured and the sacrifice required.
One example of overcoming obstacles is in the story called “Walk Two Moons,” by Sharon Creech. The story is about a girl named Sal, Sal gets mad at Phoebe because she is becoming obnoxious,, then feels sympathy because she could understand Phoebe’s pain as she went through the same thing when her mother left.. Sal realizes she was alone with her struggles, and it helped her with the grief from her mother. She drove a car desperately to see her mother's grave, which is important because it reveals the most important plot point in the story, her mother's death.t showed that Sal was willing to do anything for her mother, but a crucial part is revealed with her mother being dead, which is that Sal did not actually want to “bring her mother back,” as the phrase is stated in the story many times, but instead wanted to see her one last time. She also ends up driving the last stretch of road, which is the most dangerous, by herself. Up until that point, it was stated
In her award winning novel The Running Dream, Wendelin Van Draanen’s extensive research paid off tremendously. Draanen accurately depicts the life of a teenage girl who is learning how to function accordingly with the new disabilities that took her by storm. She captures the main character, Jessica, struggling to overcome both her physical and mental obstacles. Jessica’s running career comes to an abrupt halt as the bus she and the school track team are riding in, is struck by a large truck at high speed. Throughout her recovery journey, Jessica exhibits many psychological characteristics. Battling with isolation, reaction formation and projection, Jessica nevertheless powers through all of her struggles and ultimately becomes the person she
The long journey on planet earth known as life has it ups and downs, growing up as a young individual in today’s world is an obvious rollercoaster. The characters of Phoebe and Theo, are two young girls who endured completely different lives in the books The Hollow Tree, and Awake and Dreaming although they did encounter some similarities throughout their stories. The two children encountered similar family complications, utilised similar coping mechanisms to escape reality, and both became more assertive over their lifespans in the novels. These two novels offer young females readers a logical view on how tough life can get, and how the readers can overcome similar complications they have in their personal lives, while doing all this generating
As it turns out life is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be, and for the most part human beings are particularly pessimistic people living in a constant state of fear. In the novels, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, and “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, the main characters,Huckleberry Finn and Edna Pontellier, of either novel are absorbed in their own respective fears, which coincidentally are manifested into feelings of isolation, confusion, and rebellion to the point that they go through a series of dramatically, life-altering psychological change. They have experienced unfortunate tragedies at crucial moments in their lives rendering in them an insatiable devotion to searching for identity, or meaning in life. They
Mac and Dennis are driving home. As they are driving they hear the radio from the car that a disease was spreading the city. And immediately had to get a flu shot they were so worried they had to park their car to call their parents, if they were okay. As soon, as they both call they have been reached to voice mail. They called one more time and Mac’s parent were vomiting. Dennie’s parents had really bad headaches.
Internal conflict is something that happens in all of our lives almost every day, and we don’t even think about it. The definition of internal conflict is when the problem is happening to the main character and his or her self. The book The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanen, has a lot of internal conflict as well as a lot of external conflict which is when the problem is happening to the main character, and some type of outside force. In this book, the main character, Jess, loves running, and on her way to one of her track meets she got into a car accident. She was taken to the hospital, and the doctors had to amputate her leg below her right knee because it was mangled beyond any chance of possible repair. In this book there are many different conflicts, an example of an internal conflict is when Jess
The author, Gloria Ladson-Billings, discusses in her book, "The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children," how African American students perform at lower academic levels in part due to teacher approaches and attitudes. She performed a study on eight teachers of different races and backgrounds and their approaches to teaching African American students. The purpose of the study was to identify what approaches or techniques have been most successful in helping African American students to achieve academic success. She also focuses on the idea of "culturally relevant teaching" and how it can positively impact students when teachers are aware and incorporate a student's culture and backgrounds into the classroom. Throughout the book, the
When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses
Generations past guide our futures. The sacrifices and triumphs of our elders shape the environment in which we are born into, how we grow, and where we are today. My great-great-grandmother was able to leave Budapest, Hungary and come to America. My great-grandmother was able to obtain an education that would not have been readily available to her in her homeland. This has allowed me to be born into a free world, where education is the norm. Likewise, in the essay "The Dreamer", Junot Diaz describes the childhood dreams of his mother to obtain an education while living in the third world, rural area of the Dominican Republic. Diaz uses the struggles of his mother
Throughout the story there are several aspects of the Protagonist’s character that play a major role in the shaping of her future. During her childhood she often demonstrates a sense of fear when she is sent to her bedroom. “We were afraid of the inside, the room were we slept (pg. 549).” She is intimidated by her personal space because she does not have control over it. Later, she gains control by adding lace to her side of the room; symbolically adding personality to herself and slipping into womanhood. When she felt uncomfortable she exercised her imagination, to psychologically regain control over the confusion in her life. Her subconscious effort to control confusing times were carried on to her later years as she was constantly put in difficult situations, which helped her to adjust quickly to change during adulthood. The dreams she created changed when she began to place emphasis on her appearance-that which she could control, other than past dreams of heroism that seemed so distant from reality. The Protagonist filled her childhood with much pride and maintained a consistent focused upon the activities that filled her childhood. She relished working at the side of her father, taking immense pride in every aspect of her assigned duties. She proclaimed, “I worked willingly under his eyes, and with a feeling of pride (pg. 551)” Once after her father introduced her to a feed sales man as “my new hired man (pg. 551),” the Protagonist was flooded with pride as she “turned away and raked furiously, red in the face with pleasure (pg. 551).” In her later years her pride helped her to assemble strong self-confidence she used in her years of growing. Passion and depth were characteristics that impacted her future as a woman. Her passion and depth was revealed early on in the story ...
Obstacles are common and they normally occur within our life journeys. Although their occurrence is not expected, obstacles that we face in life makes our lives become not only challenging and more interesting but also more meaningful. They challenge us to keep trying to do our best to achieve what we have been dreaming of and looking for.
Depression plagues over about 121 million people worldwide suffer from some form of depression. On average 1 out of every 10 people in the U.S. suffer from Depression. Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being (www). Depression is unbiased in whom it chooses to plague. Anyone and everyone can become a victim of depression, including children. And twice as many women have been reported to be affected than men. In order to defeat depression, we must first begin to understand it. Depression is more than a feeling, it is a disease.
Depression affects people all around the world and takes over many lives. It is a detectable disease. Most every case of depression is very personal, and usually has it’s own specifications and circumstance. By speaking with people who have depression in their families and being a sufferer of the disease myself, I’ve realized that it’s not the end of the world and there are ways to get help. Treatment for depression is relativity inexpensive but whatever the cost; it is more than made up for an increased productivity, efficiency, physical health, improved relationships, and enjoyment of life.
Over the two weeks in which we logged our dreams and sleep schedules, I made some very interesting discoveries and self-revelations. Many of these ideas come from related symbols each dream share. Before we can start to dismantle these dreams, their relations to one another and myself, allow me to tell you about each one.