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Sometimes life throws at us unfair or difficult situations when we least expect them. As these complications continue to rise, we must face the realities (of the severities and seriousness) of these issues. During these vulnerable moments in our lives, humans either immerse themselves to failure or grow stronger as people. The most successful utilize these problems as a learning opportunity to extend their personal development as they find the good in every bad situation. In R. Dwayne Betts’ book A Question Of Freedom, Betts expands his knowledge, takes responsibility, and ultimately gains a new perspective on life during his struggles in life. Therefore, Betts’ motivation to turn his life around for the better and drive for success
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Not only does he not make excuses for his illegal actions, but as his friends and family try to unfairly prove him innocent, Betts respectfully denies their arguments. In court, Betts says to the judge, “Your Honor, I have to apologize to the victim. What I did was wrong. I apologize to my family, to my mother. But I have to say, your Honor, that I didn’t do it because I didn’t have a father in the house” (78). He shows great maturity as he denies proof that can shorten his jail time! He accepts the consequences of his actions and serves full justice to his victim. Besides the temptation of freedom, he willingly gives it up because he knows it is the right thing to do. These actions shine a great and positive light in his character and personality that he can use to benefit him in the future. Furthermore, Betts takes the initiative to reach out to different people for support and emotional care as he makes the most of his situation. He tells readers, “I talked to black because he could understand whatever time I had, and if I could understand how he dealt with the time he had without snapping, I knew I could deal with mine” (85). In these moments of desperation, Betts has the courage to ask for help and support; thus showing a sign of weakness to the other cellmates. He accepts the struggles he is dealing with right now and is responsible enough to know how to overcome these challenges. This helps Betts …show more content…
With the different environment Betts must live in, he learns about many different religions along with the different people he meets in prison. This is evident when he says, “Never mind that I didn’t know any person who was Muslim . . . He said that the people who followed the Quran were Muslims. So we read the Quran” (120). With Betts exposed to various religions, he opens his mind to different opportunities and tries new things. Before jail however, Betts did not have the opportunity to know about the diverse and rich cultures of the world. With his new knowledge, it motivates him to do something different and spontaneous; something every successful person must experience. In addition to this, Betts lives with a multicultural group of people for the first time. He states: “Prison was the first place where I was around blacks and whites, Asians and Hispanics on a regular basis. It was also the first place where I actually talked to people from different cultures and ethnicities on a regular basis” (221). Betts encounters many different groups of people in jail. This extends cultural horizons for him, which helps him understand different point of views of different people. Ultimately, this gives Betts a different and positive attitude to life that helps him take on the real world after jail easier to grasp opportunities to help him become successful. To wrap up, Betts experiences
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
ventures in his life, whether he succeeds or fails during his obstacles, the reader will gain
A human being is a complicated entity of a contradictory nature where creative and destructive, virtuous and vicious are interwoven. Each of us has gone through various kinds of struggle at least once in a lifetime ranging from everyday discrepancies to worldwide catastrophes. There are always different causes and reasons that trigger these struggles, however, there is common ground for them as well: people are different, even though it is a truism no one seems to able to realize this statement from beyond the bounds of one’s self and reach out to approach the Other.
Freedom is a notion that varies for an individual; it is vast and attainable in many ways, even though not everyone gets to achieve it. It can be created and found in many places within the person or from others. It is indeed related to a variety of abstract ideas or derived from them. In Linda Brent's slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street," freedom is defined by personal space, shown through the complex relationship with compassion from others. Brent received lending hands in her journey to become free, but it was not achieved through others' help. The people were there for her to lean on, especially her grandmother. She had friendship and assistance when needed, but ultimately she was on her own because others could not grant her freedom. On the other hand, the kind of compassion the lawyer showed Bartleby was the benefit of the doubt. With the slack that the lawyer gave to Bartleby, it allowed Bartleby to do as he wished in the office. Even though he did not fully reach freedom outside in the real world, it was the freedom inside the office that mattered most for Bartleby. Compassion in these two stories did not directly guide the characters to freedom, but supported them.
One does not simply pass through life without the presence of suffering and tribulation. This theme is delineated in the excerpt “The Street” from the novel Black Boy, written by Richard Wright. The memoir focuses on the life of a young Richard Wright and the hardships he has come to face within his childhood. During his adolescence, his family was struck by poverty due to the absence of his father, he was left alone to face many responsibilities, and was even forced to fight for himself against violent antagonists. The theme, life is an assessment of one’s true strength is portrayed through the literary elements of conflict and plot.
“There is no freedom, but the pursuit of freedom, and the search is what make us free” ( Fuentes)
Prison is a place of confinement or involuntary restraint where choices are made for you. However, in the articles “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X and “Yes, One book can Change Your Life, Even in Prison”, by Dwayne Betts shows how a bad situation can turn into a better outcome. Malcolm X and Dwayne were put into situations where everything was taken away from them except their state of mind. Within this situation Malcolm and Dwayne through different approaches were determined to leave prison with more sovereignty over their education.
Freedom can be defined very differently by society. The concept of freedom is abstract in its self like “Love” or “God.” It is something questioned, fought, and searched by people from the being of civilization. Among the centuries of struggles, the liberation of blacks and cultural difference are focuses we continue to examine and learn from. The works of two great writers, James Baldwin and Jamaica Kincaid are dissected by readers every day to obtain insights and understands in regards to personal liberation.
First let me give a short summary of the book “A question of Freedom a Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison” by R. Dwayne Betts is about the life changing experience of an inmate. R. Dwayne Betts was a high school honor student from a lower-middle-class family. He made a bad decision that sent him to prison. Betts was only six-teen years old and when he was h...
Having rules and setbacks are like guidelines guiding a person through a reality journey called life. Life has and is all about the challenges, overcoming one’s fear, and finding the determination, strength and courage to ____ what’s ahead (of us). Through the hardships that one endures, in th...
Nothing in life is guaranteed, but the one thing that humans demand is freedom. Throughout history, there are countless cases where groups of people fought for their freedom. They fought their battles in strongly heated debates, protests, and at its worst, war. Under the assumption that the oppressors live in complete power, the oppressed continuously try to escape from their oppressors in order to claim what is rightfully theirs: the freedom of choice. In Emily Dickinson’s poems #280, #435, and #732 and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, freedom is represented by an individual’s ability to make their own decisions without the guidance, consultation, or outside opinion of others in order to find their true sense of self. Once an individual is physically and spiritually free, they can find their true sense of self.
The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King is both a wonderful film and a brilliantly written short story. There are many themes represented in each form of The Shawshank Redemption. The one major theme that interests me in both the film and the story is freedom. Freedom serves a large purpose for both the story's writer and the filmmaker. Both use similar examples to signify freedom, not only in the jail, but also in a larger context about life. There are many events and examples in both the film and the short story that signifies the theme of freedom. The one main difference is when the film uses the director’s technique to portray a feel of freedom for the inmates. The overall three issues used in this essay are all linked to the feeling of the inmates feeling the sense of freedom with the prison walls.
...which they keep close to them. While others continue to strive for bigger and better things, they may take the initiative and show effort to acquire these things. This desired happiness can only be acquired through our freedom. Through one’s freedom a person can make his individual choice to obtain his desired happiness. This idea was continuously shown in Brave New World. John, for example, did not want to live as the World State’s public did. Instead, he grew up accustomed to the concept of family, and he had values which he learned from Shakespeare. His happiness could be achieved in solitude away from everyone in the World State. John was able to come to this conclusion by using his unalienable right to pursue his happiness through his freedom.
...n people have nothing. If people had more compassion for others the United States would not have all the problems that it does today. Mrs. Erin Gruwell had compassion for the students; when they saw how much she cared they changed their perspectives on life. Against all odds toward against Mrs. Erin Gruwell, she had the power of human will to teach the student. The writer introduced several scenarios on how young innocent children were influenced by family and friends of the same racial background to create hatred and gang’s violence against other races. Five messages in Freedom Writer are: Non judgmental, Racism, having compassion, the power of the human will, and education. Being non judgmental, having compassion and having human will helped Mrs. Erin Gruwell educate the children at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School. Segregated by race, united with education.
Nelson Mandela once said, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one 's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” (“Biography of Nelson Mandela” 3) In life, people can either have a physical definition of freedom or a psychological and emotional definition of freedom. There are two types of physical freedoms, pleasurable freedom, such as having a car or lots of money and a serious freedom, such as when a person gets released from jail. However, psychological freedom is having positive emotions, a clear conscience, and self-confidence. There are many different types of psychological freedom, but these three seem very important.