Self Reliance Through Hardship Essay, Research Paper

Exactly what does it mean to be self-reliant? To be reliant on one’s own capabilities, judgment, or resources maybe? Well, it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To some it means to struggle through one s circumstances. To some it means ensuing one s dreams. And yet to others it means following tradition. Although each connotation has a different motive for being self reliant, all of those motives sprout from character s hardships.

Self-Reliance was imposed upon Pecola in The Bluest Eye. She had no choice but to be self-reliant. Pecola was abandoned, a victim of racism, and raped by her father. She had nobody to turn to. Even total strangers treat her like garbage. “She be lucky if it don’t live. Bound to be the ugliest thing walking. Can’t help but be. Ought to be a law: two ugly people doubling up like that to make more ugly. Be better off in the ground.” (Morrison, Page 148) Since no one is willing to provide for her, she must somehow provide for herself. It is like she has been thrown into a pool of melancholic acid and every day she sinks deeper and deeper, the satirical substance eating away from the inside out, until she hits the bottom and is consumed by the phlogiston. She has so many hardships that her caustic circumstances drive her to schizophrenia:

(Page 151)

Ever since I got my blue eyes, [Mrs. Breedlove] look away from me all of the time. Do you suppose she’s jealous too?

Could be. They are pretty you know.

I know. [Soaphead] really did a good job. Everybody’s jealous. Every time I look at somebody, they look off.

Is that why nobody has told you how pretty they are?

Sure it is. Can you imagine? Something like that happening to a person, and nobody but nobody saying anything about it? They all try to pretend they don’t see them. Isn’t that funny? I said, isn’t that funny?

Yes.

You are the only person who tells me how pretty they are.

Yes.

Self-Reliance was chosen by Christine in A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. She decided to be independent to escape the oppression her surroundings were slapping on her. It was her own choice. She wanted a better way of living; she wanted to be unconstrained.

I knew what she was waiting for, what she required to hear. If I said I had been wrong to deft her, that I was sorry for the grief I had caused, if I shamed myself in front of Rayona, if I spent my last dime and ate shit, Aunt Ida would pay anything

(Dorris, 253)

It was her hardships that made her probe the idea of self-reliance. She could have just stayed where she was and be tormented by her acrimonious surroundings. It was her dignity and personal voice that compelled her to get away and escape the unforgiving nets of the stygian fishermen who wish to pull this hearty denizen of the deep into a stratagem. Christine s self reliance was motivated by her hardships and the austerities of her environment.

Gerald Haslam Coming to Age in California inherited Self-Reliance. For the man to be the leader in the family is customary. It is the man s job to feed, clothe and house his family. In order to do just that Gerald must first become independent and self-reliant himself. Hardships for the male head of the household are tradition. I hope you know who this guy was. I hope you know he was student body president. He was an All-American, for Christ s sake. (Haslam, 2) It is not a choice for him, rather an expectation. For Gerald, it is a natural part of life. Self-reliance is something so inevitable, it is almost foolish to try to delay or thwart the process.

In all three book it is clearly evident that the characters must be self-reliant. Be it their circumstances, choices, or traditions, it is their hardship that provokes their self-reliance. Their independence is forged by their curses, disasters, and burdens. No matter what, hardships are what make one self reliant and able to stand on one’s own two feet, no matter what the consequences are.