The Effect of Hardship as Portrayed in The Book, Raymond’s Run

Does adversity always make people feel negative throughout their lives? In “Raymond’s Run” the main character Squeaky must face a great challenge. Her brother, Raymond has a mental disability. So she must take care of him which causes lots of hardship for her. In “Locked Up”, Zach, Craig, Ellen visit teens that are locked up. Ellen’s goal is to get teens out of misery and give them hope. Their crew helps teens in jail and persuade them to change and be more positive. Teens in Boysville and Squeaky have had their identity shaped by adversity.

The main character of “Raymond’s Run” is Squeaky. She lives in Harlem, which is a city of New York, and she is 14 years old. In her grade, she is an outstanding runner and has not lost a race she had joined. Raymond, Squeaky’s brother has hydrocephalus, which had caused him to be mentally disabled. For this reason she must protect her brother all throughout her life. She sometimes even calls him her younger brother, when he is actually older than Squeaky. Raymond’s gets bullied or teased in Harlem because of his disability and Squeaky also gets into trouble if Raymond gets hurt. For this reason Squeaky must stand up for the bullies in town she sometimes even get into fights. This causes lots of misfortune for her and Raymond. Since she is a runner she must also practice running. While practicing she must also watch over Raymond she worries that Raymond will disrupt her training, but Raymond is force to keep up with her and he surprisingly does. However, when Raymond runs he gets made fun of for running with his hand in his pockets. She thinks of herself as Miss Quicksilver herself. She is referring to quicksilver, which is the speed of how fast mercury liquid flows. However even though she is the best runner for age in town, she does not get celebrated instead the town want other people to win and Mr.Pearson, the man who organizes races in Harlem, thinks Squeaky should let other people win for once and should stop being selfish. So these had caused many trouble, harm, and misery for her and had affected her identity greatly of Raymond’s disability.

The article “Locked Up” tells the story of Zach, Craig, and Ellen helping teens that got in jail. All 3 of them go to Boysville which is a jail for the teens. Their goal is to talk to the teens and try to give them hope. Ellen listens to how the teens got sent to Boysville and she listens to the teens adversity. Many kids had problems with where they lived according to Ellen,many teens got sent to Boysville for where they grew up. However most of them got sent there for avenging violence. So their goal is to help encourage them that they have hope of changing their past. Ellen listens to teens and at first they don’t seem interested,but at the end they seem to have changed. Ellen said, “My goal when we go to Boysville is to get them out of their shells and to give them hope.” She has an awesome time at Boysville and she doesn't stop asking when she gets to go back to Boysville. For the teens in Boysville they were impacted deeply by Ellen, Craig, and Zach. They tell the teens that they can change their identities forget their past hardships and move on to having a more positive life.

In both stories the teens and Squeaky was improved positively at the end. In Raymond’s Run, Squeaky learned that she could help his brother achieved goals like Raymond. She also admitted that she could couch Raymond to become a runner just like herself.At first she thought it was a nuisance to have Raymond as a brother, but at the end she figured out that having Raymond go with Squeaky running had made a opportunity for Raymond to become a phenomenon runner like Squeaky herself. For the teens in Boysville they had changed by the end. Ellen mentions that by the end of their meeting that the teens couldn’t stop smiling at the end. Ellen at the end also writes a letter to some teens and sometimes they are half page long, or even up to 6 pages long. Some teens even write back for helping them and will always be friends with them. For the teens and for Squeaky the adversities they faced had helped them be a more positive person.

For both cases,”Raymond’s Run” and “Locked Up” showed through time adversity’s had caused many impacts of who they were known as, but both realize that they could have a different aspect on how they were impacted from adversity.