In the movie Pan's Labyrinth, Ofelia escaped the frightening and commanding presence of her stepfather though her fantasy books and her immense imagination. This theme of escape from oppression is also evidenced in the novel The Book Thief, where Max escapes his oppressive reality through writing and his friendship with Liesel. Liesel herself was able to escape the reality of the war that was around her, and the death of her brother through her love of books and reading. This may lead one to wonder whether there is some truth in these fictional tales, is it possible that books and the act of writing can help one to survive an oppressive situation psychologically, and what factors contribute to an individual overcoming oppression?
According to psychology, the ability of humans to adapt to negative life situations and withstand stress and adversity is centered in a concept called resilience. An individual with resilience may experience the stress and pain that oppression and adversity brings; however, they are better able to control their negative emotions, rather than allowing these emotions to control their thoughts and actions. Resilience is not something people are born with or without, it is a trait that is developed. However, there are causational factors that contribute to the development of resilience. A few of these factors are: Having at least one close friendship and or having a
close relationship with one's family. having high self efficacy, and feeling some perception of control over one's life. Being compassionate and actively helping others , having a special talent, holding religious beliefs, and having good social skills just to name a few factors (APA Resilience) (Belsky 208). Many of these are also factor...
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Killingsworth Roberts, Sherron, EdD, and Patricia A. Crawford, PhD. "Literature to Help Children Cope with Family Stressors." Https://www.naeyc.org. N.p., Sept. 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Murray, Bridget. "Writing to heal." http://www.apa.org. American Psychological Association, June 2002. Web. 20 Apr. 2014
Pan's Labyrinth. Dir. Guillermo Del Toro. Perf. Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, and Sergi López. Warner Bros., 2006. DVD.
"The Road To Resilience." Http://www.apa.org. American Psychological Association, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014
Tolkien, J.R.R. "On Fairy Stories." Theology Network - Theology of Everything - On Fairy Stories. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
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Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.
Resilience is having the motive to go through hard times and ‘bounce back’ from them and learnt how to deal with certain situations. To be resilient you must have a positive point of view on life. Anh’s book ‘The happiest refugee’ He was born into a 1970’s Vietnam, He and his family were forced to leave their country due to seeking safety and freedom from war. Anh uses resilience through his comedic, selfless actions. Resilience has allowed Anh to improve the quality of his life, and the lives of those around him.
For example, say a person was just laid off from a job. Sure it will be tough to not have a steady income stream and tough to not be working alongside the friends you have made, but that person has to be resilient and persevere through the tough time and head back out on the job hunt. Almost anywhere would be looking to hire someone if you search deep enough. For another example, let’s say someone very close to you in your family has passed away. It will be a very tough mourning period, but everyone in the family has to be there for each other and be resilient, not letting the sadness take over. Humans can be resilient if they want to be, it’s only a matter of when they want to
During the gruesome and bloody Spanish Civil War, tens of thousands of innocent civilians and refugees died, but even more shocking, close to 200,000 people were deliberately executed (Hochschild). In the 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth, Ofelia is a young girl living in Spain after the war who, along with her pregnant mother, joins the family of Captain Vidal. He is the sadistic leader of a Fascist regime and Ofelia’s new abusive step-father. A lover of fairy tales, Ofelia fantasizes that she is secretly a princess who must complete three tasks in order to escape her current reality and return to her true home in the underworld. During the movie, she is faced with the harsh realities of war and death, which are mirrored in the creatures she faces during her mystical endeavors. Director Guillermo del Toro along with cinematographer Guillermo Navaro and editor Bernet Vilaplana perfectly personify the cruelness she experiences almost an hour into the film with Ofelia’s encounter of the horrifying Pale Man, an eyeless creature with an
Imagine a man who was recently laid off from his job at an oil and gas company and can no longer financially support his family. The decision this man makes to either push through this adversity to find a new job or let his life go in a downwards spiral will be determined by if the man is resilient or not. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word resiliency means, “capacity to recover from misfortune, shock or illness.” However I believe the definition for the word resiliency goes much deeper than what the dictionary says. Resiliency is the ability to push through physical, mental, and emotional challenges. People should always strive to be resilient and never give up in any situation and to always stay positive
Often, most people have never enjoyed the feeling of being abandoned by your close ones, relatives, etc. because it causes their lives to become more challenging and difficult. Many aspects of someone being abandoned by someone, can often have a long term-effect on the person’s overall well-being. In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel, the main protagonist of the story, is a character that is constantly throughout the novel being abandoned by both certain circumstances, as well as the
Around the world, many people are faced with adversities and constant obstacles in their life that they will have to overcome. People often have to face adversities such as death, poverty, illness, disabilities, and environmental issues on a daily. Many people can overcome the adversities they are faced with, while others may struggle and need help overcoming their situation. Never the less if a person fails or succeeds in their attempt of overcoming their situation, this is still a part of their resilience.
Resilience is a personal journey, one approach to build resilience may work for one person but it may not work for another, as people do not react the same way to different life events. All people have resilience but being able to build resilience is debatably at odds with the concept of resilience since resilience is a characteristic of oneself, although there are ways to enhance your resilience. There are certain lifestyle factors and support networks that help develop ones resilience such as, doing things that you, as the consumer, enjoy and “being physically active helps to improve resilience and decrease ones stress” (Lowinger, 2015). For any consumer it is important to show and strengthen their resilient characteristic, it helps to overcome stress and difficult
Resilience and hardiness has long been a topic of research and discussion within different paradigms and fields of study, for example, in military psychology, psychiatry, health statistics and measurement, medical anthropology, education, medicine and organizational settings. Resilience means the skills, abilities, acquaintance, and insight that accumulate over time as people struggle to conquer adversity and meet challenges. It is an ongoing and developing fund of energy and skill that can be used in current struggles (Saleebey, 1996; Liebenberg, 2005).Most commonly, the term resilience has come to mean an individual's ability to overcome adversity and continue his or her normal development.
Resilience is not an attribute or personality characteristic of an individual but a dynamic process wherein people show positive adaptation despite experiences of major adversity or trauma. (LUTHAR & CICCHETTI, 2000) Resilience is a two-dimensional construct regarding adversity exposure and the proper adjustment outcomes of that adversity. (LUTHAR & CICCHETTI, 2000) The two-dimensional construct means implies two judgments about the significance of adversity and a positive adaptation to adversity. (Masten & Obradovic, 2006).
The film Pan’s Labyrinth, by the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, has transcended and surpassed many records in the film industry. Pan’s Labyrinth contains many peculiar aspects that pertain to realism and to fantasy that make it distinct from other films. Del Toro displays the realistic and fantasy aspects of the film in such an unorthodox manner that many films have not even gone to the level of genius that is Guillermo del Toro. The protagonist, Ofelia, displays certain characteristics and other aspects that in turn gives Pan’s Labyrinth that sort of special charm that differentiates it from other similar films. The main character Ofelia and the structure or form of the story are what make the film, Pan’s Labyrinth, truly unique and special.
In class, we learned that family resilience is a family’s ability to bounce back after dealing with a harsh situation. Elasticity and buoyancy are two essential pieces in family resilience. Elasticity means the family is able to conserve their established patterns after dealing with a harsh situation. On the other hand, buoyancy is the family’s ability to rapidly recover from a tough situation. Reading this article, helped me realize that both, families and children, need social support in order to build resilience. In fact, this article states that children need school and community support when trying to overcome a hardship. In addition, the textbook and the article provide similar ways which adults, especially teachers, can help children be more resilient. For example, both state that teachers should focus more on their students’ strengths and less on their
Suffering can be found on three different levels, mental, physical and emotional. In an everyday life the three levels can be found at school, at work or even on the streets, for example people who are living on the street generally suffer mentally. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak the topic that suffering exists on three different levels is shown throughout the book. In The Book Thief the author shows that the three levels of suffering exist and impacts multiple characters throughout the book . The three levels of suffering impacts many characters such as, the Jews, Liesel and Max.
Resilience is defined as an important quality that enables people to cope with unfavorable situations and find ways to overcome the negative results. According to Allender, Rector, and Warner (2014I), people with resilience would have the required qualities to bounce back against threats and stressful situations, and recoil with an attitude of dominance, capability, and aspiration (p. 556). Thus, because of all its susceptibilities, the homeless population should be regarded and treated in a way that could encourage survival through personal’s ability to react positively to conflicting situations. Many studies have mentioned the relationship between an individual’s prior experiences with its form of resiliency, however they also emphasized on the individual’s education level, work training and qualifications, and other life’s experiences to help cope with difficult moment.
Resilience can be defined broadly as “the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to disturbances that threaten its function, viability, or development” (Masten, 2014a p. 10). As we can see this definition can be applied broadly to any individual, community, computer, economy or other system which has to recover from some kind of disturbance in its system. At a first glance resilience might seem as something not so important in children development however it has a greater impact in their life. And the authors point out that it is not an inborn trait; rather it is something which can be developed overtime by a few factors. Therefore in order to understand resilience we have to find out what are the factors that lead to it? And how we can use them to build a strong resilience? Masten and Monn claim that for healthy development and overall success in life, children need “care, nutrition, skills, health services, learning opportunities”, and many other economic and social resources. They also need an array of “learning, communication, and behavioral skills” that depend on brain development and socialization. Therefore promotive factors for positive
From my understanding, I have come to view resilience as the art of not dwelling. This personal definition, I recognize, only summarizes half of the word’s meaning, not even touching on the action of recovery. I chose to view it in this way because, I find it helps me to find it manageable. I often struggle with experiencing difficulties or changes, I often find myself internalizing my problems which leads me to introspection and self doubt. By concentrating on a single facet I am able to better manage resilience. Despite my choice to ignore the second half on the word’s meaning, by choosing not to dwell, I have found recovery becomes easier to achieve. As a person who prefers math and science, problem solving from an analytical perspective is an enjoyable task, but when emotions are involved the process gets derailed or takes longer. I have found that using my strategy of not dwelling I am able to analytically look at my situation and consider my next steps to