The Literature Characters Who Faced Adversity

Jamais Cascio once said, “Resilience is all about able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.” As an individual, you have the choice on how you react to unexpected problems, and how you react and plan your next move will determine your outcome and your future. Some individuals crumble for making a wrong move and fail in the process, but some make a wise move and thrive and usually keep making wiser decisions as the progress. There are exceptionally great characters that faced adversity and took control of their future. These characters would be Minerva, in Julia Alvarez's novel, “In Time Of The Butterflies, Katniss, in Suzanne Collins's novel, “The Hunger Games”, and Montag, in Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451”.

Minerva is a strong individual who faced adversity and then took control of her life. Minerva shows how resilient she is in many parts of her novel. She once said, “We cannot give up” (Alvarez 269). Following with her previous statement, she then said, “Adversity was like a key in the lock for me” (Alvarez 269). Minerva is explaining how obstacles in her path helps her open up her inner-strength, which makes her determined, fearless, and a difficult opponent to tackle on. Minerva is the type of person who likes to get the job done no matter how bad the road is. Minerva has run into trouble and she said, “I'm not gonna going to run scared” (Alvarez 193). This quote shows that she is determined and brave to complete her goal, She isn't scared to tackle intimidating obstacles that could stop her. Adversity will not stop this brave individual who is trying to achieve her goal. Adversity makes Minerva into a more stronger, resilient person, and thats why she can take on adversity and then takes control of her life.

Katniss is another individual who faced adversity and then took control of her life. When the only supplier in Katniss’s family dies, which would be her father, and a mother who is in a deep depression that she can't support her own children, who could step up? Katniss, the older sibling stands up to save her family. Katniss once said, “At eleven years old, with Prim just even, I took over as head of the family” (Collins 61, eBook)

As a result for Katniss who becomes the head of the family, with the survival and hunting skills that her father taught her before he passed away, she starts going to the forbidden outskirts of district 12, she hunts animals to keep her family alive, and becomes into a tough, unsentimental girl. Living in the districts under the control of the Capitol, you must be strong, ruthless to survive, and being nice and gentle is a disadvantage. Someone could potentially take advantage of you and do his/her bidding. In a part of Part I in the novel, she shows that she sacrifices attachments to others in order to protect herself, except Prim, shes an exception. In order for Katniss to survive, she has adapted to be unsentimental. When she goes hunting to gather food for her family, she cannot hesitate to kill an animal that is potentially useful food for the family, or else her family starves to death. Katniss adapted to her environment and overcame adversity to keep her and her family alive, and thats why Katniss is a strong individual who faced adversity and took control of her family.

And lastly, Montag is the last strong individual who faced adversity and then took over his life. After Montag meets Clarisse, an unusual teenage girl in this novel’s world, his eyes opened to a world he had forgotten. She asks Montag one intriguing question in one point of this novel. She says, “Are you happy”? Montag then responds, “Am I what? he cried… Of course, I’m happy. Then later in the novel, he says, “He was not happy, he was not happy. He said the words to himself” (Bradbury 28-34 eBook). Montag starts to consider other things she has pointed out and decides to embrace a new pathway to self-discovery rather than living a meaningless, repressed existence in a society that expects no asking questions, let alone important ones. Montag then starts to use books, a forbidden item in this country where it's illegal to keep and use. Instead of hiding books where it's safe from being discovered from another person, Montag reveals his books to Millies, her wife's friends. The narrator then said, “But Montag was gone and back in a moment with a book in his hands.” Millie then tells on Betty, the chief of the fire department, the ones responsible for burning houses with books in them, and Montag's boss. Then the firemen arrive in front of Montag’s house and starts burning it. Montag then kills Beatty with his flamethrower. Montag doesn't back down when someone destroys what he loves. He has the courage to face Beatty and kill him. Montag won’t get pushed around like a ragdoll when what he believes is right, is being destroyed. And that's why Montag is another character who tackles on adversity and thrives when confronting and overcoming it.

In conclusion, these three strong individuals faced many hardships, and they tackled them and overcome it. They thrive by defeating these obstacles that blocks them from their goal. Overall, these are three special characters are the best at facing adversity and then took control of their future.