Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below.
Tough challenges reveal our strengths and weaknesses. This statement is certainly true; adversity helps us discover who we are. Hardships can often lead us to examine who we are and to question what is important in life, In fact, people who have experienced seriously adverse events frequently report that they were positively changed by their negative experiences.
Assignment: Do you think that ease does not challenge us and that we need adversity to help us discover who we are?
Everyone goes through their lives seeing and experiencing different things. At times, these different situations may cause one to act differently than another would in the same situation. It can be readily stated that Ease does not challenge us; adversity helps us discover who we are. Through literature, one can see how this statement proves to be true.
In the play, The Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen, the protagonist, Dr. Stockholm, faced adversity, and through that, was able to discover his true beliefs and who he was. Before Dr. Stockholm was put in a situation where he had to face adversity, he had lived his life with mild ease and regularity. He acted just like everyone else in the town he lived in. Years later, he discovered that the popular bath houses was infected with bacteria. Determined to spread his findings, Dr. Stockholm went to the newspaper and the local governing office to try and make his discovery known. However, both the paper and the government werent as inspired to really let the public know about this serious problem due to the popularity of the bath houses. As a result, Dr. Stockholm was forced to face adversity and find a way to achieve his previously set goal. Through adversity, Stockholm was able to truely see how his personality was . He was able to understand his severe discontent with the government and society as a whole. In essence, Stockholm was able to discover his actual self . This, however, only happened when he was faced with a challenge.
The book, Where the Heart is by Billie Letts also used adversity to portray its characters true being. The protagonist, Novalee Nation, was placed in a situation where she had to realize and conquer adversity. Novalee was a young girl of 17, who was pregnant. She had experienced extreme hardship her whole life in the trailer park environment that she had previously resided in. She also received lots of abuse from her boyfriend who impregnated her. In the story, he had left her stranded in a K-Mart all by herself, while she was pregnant. All alone, Novalle had to find a way to keep herself and her baby alive. Along the way, through adversity, Novalle found her true, kind self. She also made countless discoveries through meeting different people. Among those things was her true love for photography and literature, and most of all her yearning for love in her life.
In the face of adversity, we all act differently. We each have different ideas and methods that we are accustomed to use for different situations. By acting and making decisions on our own, as we are often times forced to do when given a challenge, we are able to find out who we truly are and what we truly believe in. The characters Dr. Stockholm and Novalee Nation are examples of that kind of people in literature. However, in literature and life, it is all the same. Ease does not challenge us; adversity helps us discover who we are.
高考英语单选题备考重点考点分析
人教新课标必修5各单元短语测试.附答案
2009届高考第二轮复习单项选择题专项练习精选200题
人教新课标选修7各单元短语测试.附答案
高考英语单选陷阱:知识死角型
2009年高考英语易错易混题练习07
最新高考英语易错单选题及答案详解(三)
最新高考英语易错单选题及答案详解(一)
2010届高考英语单项选择题题库
备战2010:09年高考全国各地英语试题三模考试题选编(单项选择)
2009年高考英语易错易混题练习06
2009年高考英语单项选择解题技巧十三招
2009年高考英语考前单项选择题180练之三
人教新课标必修2各单元短语测试.附答案
备战2010:09年高考全国各地英语试题二模试题选编(单项选择)
2009年高考英语第一轮复习词汇练习(选修7 Unit 3-5)
最新高考英语易错单选题及答案详解(二)
2009年高考英语第一轮复习词汇练习(选修8 Unit 3-5)
2009年高考英语易错易混题练习04
高考英语单项选择易错题对比练习
最新高考英语易错单选题及答案详解(四)
2010江苏高考英语模拟——单选精练
人教新课标选修6各单元短语测试.附答案
人教新课标必修1各单元短语测试.附答案
最新高考英语易错单选题及答案详解(五)
09年高考英语单项选择题分类专项练习(17类,59页)
最后冲刺:高考英语选择题之实战技巧
2009年高考英语考前单项选择题180练之四
2009年高考英语易错易混题练习03
2009届高考第二轮复习单项选择题专项练习200题
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |