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.

The Weight Of Regret

Everyone has something they are guilty about. Whether it’s taking some loose change from the coffee table without asking your parents, or not giving in your homework on time. Any of these circumstances can happen to anyone, if it is a toddler, teenager, or even a parent. All these emotions of guilt, wrongfulness, etc can make any small memory unforgettable. In both Khaled Hosseini’s book, ‘The Kite Runner’ and Hasmukh Amathalal’s poem, ‘I Regret It’ there is an individual feeling ashamed of their past and their wrongdoings. In Hosseini's ‘The Kite Runner,’ the individual, Amir, is represented as a much stronger figure compared to Hassan, his servant. Hassan constantly looked up to Amir because he was literate and could write amazing stories, whereas Hassan couldn’t. As Amir matures he tries to get past his mistakes and make up for his regrets. His regrets being how he treated Hassan, and how he normally took whereas Hassan often gave for him. In Amathalal’s ‘I Regret It,’ the individual is a commoner who tries to be forgiven by “HIM.” The “HIM” being God in this context. A precept we can take away is that everyone needs to be forgiven for something, no matter who they are and the aftermath can be varied.

Initially in ‘I Regret It’ Amathalal recounts how “[he] should have acted wise but did not follow” and describes how “inwardly [he] felt something had gone wrong,” as most people guilty of doing something they weren’t meant to can relate to. The sense of achievement soon fades away when you realise the negative impact you’ve created on others and “no one is able to see your guilt.” Furthermore in ‘The Kite Runner’ Hosseini describes how Amir doesn’t follow his morals and does the wrong thing by framing someone else for a theft he committed. “I lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it,” says Amir as he had completed the first step, “in what [he] hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies.” Furthermore even though Amir succeeded in his plan, when he saw Hassan and Ali’s “red, puffed-up eyes” he “flinched, like [he’d] been slapped.” Additionally he questioned how he’d “become capable of causing this kind of pain.” Whenever someone commits a crime or a theft, etc, they know would have a negative impact on another individual, they suddenly start regretting the decisions they made and may start accusing themselves as Amir did by calling himself a “liar, a cheat or a thief.” Both texts help display how after anyone executes something against their morals, they tend to feel unsatisfied and disappointed in themselves.

On the other hand Hosseini describes how “ [Amir] [has] been peeking into that deserted alley for twenty-six years,” the alley that “changed everything.” Showing us that although Amir had tried to move on from his past, he would constantly go back and relive every moment. Some may argue that time heals all and is the only way to progress without anything holding you back. While this may be true Hosseini argues that “the past claws it’s way out.” Amathalal also believes the same by saying “it will constantly hurt me and bite” displaying that the guilt you thought would never affect you again, will remotely haunt you for the rest of your life throughout whatever you do. Amathalal further explores this idea and concludes that the “past may influence.” This is evident in ‘The Kite Runner’ because the reason Amir went to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, was because he realised “[he] had to do it, for Hassan” showing that although it had been twenty-six years, to repent his regrets he had to do what was necessary to help him forgive himself. All in all, both texts symbolise how throughout your lifetime you will try to redeem yourself, whether it is five years later or thirty, the past will always comes back around and to get rid of it you have to right your wrongs.

Amathalal expresses an idea of how an “immediate redress may relieve the worry,” showing that instant remedies may help rectify your past mistakes. In ‘The Kite Runner,’ while Hassan was get assaulted by Assef and his gang members, Amir “ran” showing his cowardice behaviour. On top of that Amir acted oblivious towards what had just happened to Hassan by questioning him. He was asking things like “Where were you?”, although he knew the answer to that, and defending himself by exclaiming “I looked for you!” Moreover after they reached back home Amir “buried [his] face in the warmth of [Baba’s] chest” displaying his vulnerability and showing his need for sympathy after what had just happened. Amir also states “ I [he] forgot what I’d [he’d] done. And that was good” This further amplifies the fact that he couldn’t begin to believe what he just saw and felt penitent towards it. Because of this he felt that forgetting about it would be the easy way out. Additionally in Amathalal’s ‘I Regret It,’ Amathalal says “no more guilt to fear but cheers and joy” explaining how an easy fix can often lead to people being happy and feeling free as they are now not worried about the consequences that may have been present otherwise. With all things considered, often times people don’t know how to express their guilt so they will help cover it up with instant resolution which definitely isn’t long term. These instant resolutions often times help people feel reassured because they think that the issue has been fixed. These actions are taken by everyone, even if you are said to be the bigger person.

Whilst both texts deal with the aftermath of guilt, Hasmukh Amathalal’s ‘I Regret It’ and Khaled Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’ are also different because one deals with God and one deals with a companionship, respectively. In ‘The Kite Runner,’ Amir is often described as the person Hassan looks up to whereas in ‘I Regret It’ the commoner, being the narrator, is definitely at a lower status than who he wants to be forgiven by, which is God. Although there is a difference, the way the issue is dealt with is very similar. The aftermath completely depends on the situation too, whether you try coming up with a short term solution or just forgetting about what happened. While some may argue that guilt is relative and people handle it differently, both the texts show that the way most handle the feeling of wrongfulness is similar, concluding that everyone needs to be forgiven for something, no matter who they are and the aftermath can be varied.