Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans not to harm you but for you to prosper, plans to give you hope and future.” This is my favorite quote from the Bible. It reminds me that no matter what happens, God always has a plan for you, and it is not one that is meant to hurt you. A perfect example of this is in the book, Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder. Deogratias Nihizonkiza has to work through many hardships in life, hardships that would sometimes question someone’s belief in God, but I believe it strengthens God’s relationship with Deo. Deo really kept his belief in God strong throughout his life even though he went through many life-changing experiences. When you are a kid in the United States, …show more content…
The young man took him to another camp because it was the best he could do. He had forgotten how long he had been at the camp when one night “flames rose on the horizon. Lights of trucks went racing past” (Kidder, 135) everyone started to scatter but Deo stayed in a group of Hutus hiding. By staying in that group he had avoided the militiamen because they were too worried on finding the people that were running around trying to escape. It did not stop there. Violence broke out later and everyone said to go to the schoolhouse for safety but Deo did not, instead, he sat down a little distance off the trail. I think Deo decided to do this because he wanted to be done he just wanted to sit and not have to run anymore. He did not realize at the time that not going to the schoolhouse would save his life. God was looking out for Deo, even when he thought he was done for. God protected him without him even knowing. He had just survived all of the things that had just happened; Deo now had the chance to talk to Jean who gave him the idea/option to go to America. If that does not show God is protecting over Deo I do not know what would! I think God protects us at all times. We might not think it at the time but then later down the road, you realize you would not be where you were today if you had gone to that one party, or started dating that one person. By protecting Deo on his whole journey through Burundi and the Genocide God protected him just as he protects us in our everyday
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
Laura Hillenbrand’s novel Unbroken incorporates the improbable life of the main character, Louie Zamperini. She introduces both the inspiring and powerful journey that Louie encounters in his life as he grows up. Hillenbrand looks to and successfully does catch the versatility of the human soul. Zamperini’s story including his involvement in World War II gives a persuasive stage in which the author demonstrates numerous qualities of Louie. Leaving readers to appreciate his courage, quality, grit and above all else, his bravery. “Confident that he was clever resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, [Louie] was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this resilient optimism would define him.” Louie
In Frank Beddors, “The Looking Glass Wars” a lot of things happen that are bad. There are lots of good things too. The story is about the “Myth” of Alice Liddell stepping through a looking glass into Wonderland. The topic of this essay is the Truth of the story. The purpose of this paper is how Loyal or devoted some people are to white imagination
Hope and joy can be hard to find especially when times are tough. This is a situation in Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse , the character Billy Jo and her family are living in the time of the Dust Bowl and are struggling financially . Her father is a farmer in a time where nothing grows and after an accident Billy Jo’s mother passes away. This is a big part of Billy Jo is effected emotionally and shows seems very sad. Billy Jo has to move and has to move on and find joy and hope even in tough times.
Louie Zamperini survived almost two months at sea facing starvation, extreme thirst, and shark attacks. During WWII, Louie was captured and taken to many Japanese prison camps where he was drained emotionally and physically. Though his conditions were obviously not ideal, Louie kept up his lively personality and found ways to take care of himself to survive. In the novel Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses both internal and external conflict to show the theme people can stand up against enemies even when the odds seemed stacked up against them.
People have goals everyday, believe it or not some people think that dreams aren't worth it. I believe that it is worth it to dream because it gives a person a goal, it makes them feel good, and it makes them stronger. I know this from The Pearl, A Cubs video, the Susan Boyle video, and We Beat the streets.
As I continued to chat with my pastor that day, I really sensed the hurt in his eyes – the anger that comes from an unsolvable injustice, the tiredness of a problem. “What’s wrong?” I finally asked, “Having a bad day?” Sensing that I was truly concerned, he let the truth be told. “I talked with a woman today whose baby died suddenly of unknown causes. As we worked through her grief, she talked about how numerous friends and family, even a religious leader had patted her on the back, shook their heads and said, ‘It was God’s will.’ I find few things worse to say to a grieving parent. Saying nothing at all would be of more help.” It was obvious from our conversation that he had an understanding greater than I about God’s will, and his insight created in me a curiosity and desire to learn more.
The polish activist, Irena Sendler. once observed, ¨People can be only divided into good and bad; their race, religion, nationality don´t matter¨ (Sendler). Is it really possible to draw a demarcation line between people and divide them into good or bad? This kind of either-or thinking begs the question whether there might be other categories of individuals that overlap each other in term of personality and defy such simplistic definition as good or bad. The novel All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a fitting example of fiction to discuss the difference between polarized characters.
In The Big Field, author Mike Lupica explores the theme, "Success uses motivation as fuel." Lupica portrays this theme through the main character, Hutch. Throughout the entire book, Hutch, a young boy that has just recently joined a highly talented baseball team, displays moments that exemplify this main theme. Hutch and his team have a chance to play in the stadium of the Miami Marlins, a Major League Baseball team, as long as they can keep winning games and advancing through a challenging tournament; however, Hutch's favorite position on the field, shortstop, the position located between 2nd and 3rd base, has already been filled on the team. Unfortunately, Hutch gets a demotion from shortstop, to second base, the position located between 1st base and 2nd base. Although Hutch was disappointed and melancholy about the switch in position, he was even more upset about the downgrading of leadership, since the
The Chosen by Chaim Potok is a phenomenal novel about two Jewish boys who live in two very discrepant worlds because of the impressions of their fathers.The Hasidic Rabbi, Reb Saunders wants his son, Danny Saunders, to perdure the family legacy and become a Rabbi. Mr. Malter, Reuven’s father, is an Orthodox Jew who is easy going about what he wants his son to do. Throughout the book, both Reuven and Danny face problems and sufferings that helped them both to become stronger and get through the hard times they faced.
It is culturally expected that as a human being’s age increases, so does the amount of control they have over their own lives. However, when adolescents are allowed to have too little or too little great amount during their formative years, it can adversely affect their decision making process. In The Walls Around Us, Nova Ren Suma crafted young adult characters who, due to either having not enough or too much control over their own lives, react violently when placed in stressful situations.
Anthony Doerr’s novel All the Light We Cannot See shows the reader how children would deal with war and how it shaped who they are today. Doerr’s purpose for writing this novel is to highlight how mentally taxing the war was and that there was no permanent escape from the war. Both Marie-Laure and Werner believed they could escape the war both physically and mentally, yet their involvement in it makes it more difficult. Marie-Laure’s fear of her father going to jail shows how she becomes involved in the war. Werner struggled with trying to escape the war through his fascination with radios when it just brought him further into the war. After understanding the effect on certain individuals; the story zooms out showing how the majority
Frankly speaking, the TV show This Is Us is not only a well-made and thoughtful piece, but also provide unique angles for me to take a glance into different kinds of relationships and understand how communication takes place and makes changes in these interactions. This Is Us tells the life of four groups of people: an actor called Kevin, an over-weight girl named Kate, a guy named Randall who just found his biological father, a young couple called Jack and Rebecca and they have three children. What interesting about this show is that these four groups of people are actually related with each other- Kevin, Kate, and Randall are the three children of Jack and Rebecca. The show chooses to use montage to present their life, and bring together the similar kind of problem they are having in their relationships in different time period.
In the story My Favorite Chaperone, by Jean Davies Okimoto, I believe the theme is how working together makes life's struggles easier. The characters show this theme throughout the story. As children immigrants, the main characters struggle with combining a new culture with their family culture to find a new identity without bringing shame to their family. In the story, Maya, the main character, faces issues in how to fit in with a new world in America. In this new world there are different rules and expectations while she still has to respect and follow her family's traditions and rules. This conflict is shown when Maya wants to go to a school dance, but knows her parents would never let her go especially after she gets in trouble for
After all that happens to him, Deo still follows and achieves his dream, and stays who he is through out his journey, and keeps the culture that raised him. One of the main things you realizing after following all that Deo went trough trough his journey, that he still followed his dream to become a doctor, and more importantly eventually gets to open up his own clinic. But even when he returned to Burundi to start his project “many friends and family wondered why Deo kept coming back to Burundi. Many, including his mother, said they which he wouldn't attempt fate in this way. To me, he said, 'But it's my country no matter what. You know?” (Kidder 226). This shows the connection and the community he felt with his country. He loved it, no matter what, and nothing is gonna stop him. With all that his been trough, he still feels like it's a part of him, and you can tell that from his experience trough out his journey back. Or when he sees his old medical school he studied at and screams “It was so beautiful!” (Kidder 223). Just being able to go back and seeing all of it shows how grateful he is, and how he knows that it's reason why he got where he is now. It's a part of his culture, to just be happy, over something so little, and just being grateful. Someone from another culture wouldn't necessary scream out that while visit their old school they went trough. And I think that's another part of his old culture that Deo keeps, and what is a part of who he is as a person.