Hope for the Best, Expect for the Worse

All around the world, sometimes hope may be the only encouragement and comfort to a teen during stressful times. Teenagers often keep their worries and problems to themselves, concealing them from others. When feeling disconsolate and isolated, the only idea that lifts their spirits is the hope that in time, they will heal. In the book, ‘Blue Gold,’ by Elizabeth Stewart, three teenage girls live completely different lives, in three different continents, but all encounter an issue with hope, and strive towards their goal. In the poem, ‘To Hope,’ by John Keats, the speaker talks about in a time of bad fate, feeling lonely and with no one to comfort him, hope helps him cope through this time of loss. In both ‘Blue Gold,’ and ‘To Hope,’ we learn that in harsh times, hope shelters you from despondency and motivates you to endeavour forward.

A common theme in both texts is that hope can lift your confidence. In the book ‘Blue Gold’, when Sylvie’s family is at risk living in the unsafe refugee camp, the only hope that inspires her is that “Someday they will be gone from there. Someday they will be free in Canada.” Sylvie is sensitive and nervous to share her story with millions of people globally, since she thought “Now people everywhere could see the ugliness of [my] scar.” Even though Sylvie is scared and ashamed of sharing her story, Sylvie’s hope that someday she and her family will live in Canada motivates her to become confident, and tell the world about her life, in hope she will raise enough money to travel to Canada. Similarly, in the poem ‘To Hope,’ the speaker describes of his fears, “Let me not see the patriot’s high bequest.” The speaker is in deep despair and fears of the loss of freedom in his country. However, the speaker is given hope that the liberty of his country will not fade and the hope motivates him to believe that he can save liberty and, “stoop from heaven on wings.” Hope triggers the speaker to believe that he has the confidence to fight for his freedom giving the idea that he can ‘fly from heaven.’ In both the texts ‘Blue Gold’ and ‘To Hope,’ the characters both felt fretful, Sylvie was scared of sharing her story and the speaker was scared of losing his freedom. But hope brought the characters to have courage and determination, Sylvie had the courage to expose her scar and the speaker had the courage to fight for liberty. This makes me think that both texts shows that when you feel worried and concerned, hope boosts confidence and assurance.

In both texts the writers use symbolism to show hope. In ‘Blue Gold’, the “white blouse and blue skirt of [Sylvie’s] school uniform” symbolises the hope that education brings, the hope that one day Sylvie will become a doctor. In the book, Sylvie describes putting on her school uniform, “as she did every weekday,” and shares the reason why “She had always been a good student and eager to learn,” is because she believes that education is her only hope in making something of herself and achieving her “dream of becoming a doctor.” The first step for achieving Sylvie’s dream is to put on her white and blue school uniform every weekday and become ambitious to new learning. Stewart uses symbolism to show the characters motivation and supports the theme. Likewise, in the poem, Keats uses the symbolism of sonnets to show hope in love, the hope that the speaker will achieve love after heartbreak. The speaker describes after being brokenhearted “From cruel parents, or relentless fair” the only hope left in winning his admirer’s love would be “To sigh out sonnets to the midnight air!” Similarly to Stewart, Keats uses the symbolism of the speaker’s poems to show that the sonnet is the speaker’s only hope and the character’s motivation of love.

Another character in the book Blue Gold, Laiping, supports the theme that hope helps you to withstand arduous times. Even though “Laiping’s first month's wages had still not been paid,” she desperately needed her salary to pay for her father’s hospital fee, after having surgery from another heart attack. She continued to endure the harsh working conditions, “Her headache was worse and her shoulders were so stiff that she could no longer feel them,” in hope that the harder she works the company will pay her money back. Laiping’s hope that the company will give her money back motivates her to cope with the severe factory conditions. Furthermore, in the poem ‘To Hope’, the speaker talks about being in time of loss and mourning for “The fate of those I hold most dear.” Yet even though the speaker feels melancholy and dismal, hope lifts his spirits: “Let me awhile thy sweetest comforts borrow.” As described, hope comforts the speaker in times of sorrow. In both texts, ‘Blue Gold’ and ‘To Hope’, hope helped both character to endure tough times. This shows that in bitter circumstances hope allows you to undergo these times.

Even though both texts show the same message that hope motivates you to withstand arduous times, this theme occurs differently in the two texts. In Blue Gold, the character Laiping is motivated to endure the harsh factory working conditions. She feels in despair that she cannot work in the factory much longer due to the side effects of the factory work. The hope that she will make enough money to support her parents drives her to continue to work in the factory despite the conditions. However in ‘To Hope,’ the speaker is not going through a time of physical hardship with the lives of others motivating him, but is in a time of mental hardship. After losing a loved one, the speaker is in a state of deep sorrow and depression. The hope that in time he will heal lifts the speakers spirits and helps him in a time of discouragement. As opposed to motivating the character with the hope that others will benefit, in ‘To Hope’ the character is comforted by the hope that life will get better for himself. The difference in the two texts show that hope can help you withstand times of mental difficulty or physical difficulty.

Both writers weaved symbols in their writing to connect to a theme that empowers throughout both texts, hope. Connecting to real life situations in both of the texts, the writers prove throughout the texts the moral of the story. While some may argue that hope is just fake optimism, however Stewart and Keats both show that hope raises your confidence and motivates you through thick and thin. Providing with symbolism and characters motivation, Stewart and Keats help show us and guide us with to message that when we are feeling like the weight of the world is resting on our shoulders, we have to not give up and a little hope can go a long way. We need to keep on trying as we will never know what we can achieve.