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Adversity in Literature

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Every person has gone through an assortment of obstacles in their lives. Whether the challenges were good or bad, they have ultimately shaped the person afterwards. An individual becomes an individual because of the battles and hardships they have faced and persevered. Albert Camus once said “one way of making people hang together is to give ‘em a spell of plague” (Camus 196). Authors in early American literature use hardship to forge an understanding of the character. It is important to take the reader through the experiences of the character so they understand the ultimate goal of what adversity does to a person. From the hardships of slavery, kidnapping, illness and the experiences of a new life in a new country, each of these things has created a character stronger and better through their times of destitution. While some authors attempt to show character flaws through hardship, they use the theme of hardship to forge individuality and growth within a community with the thought it will create a stronger, and better individual that shows a sense of morality.

Character is formed through ones experience. The intent of most authors is to show the change of the character after they have gone through some form of adversity. In the case of Mary Rowlandson she was kidnapped by American Indians for six weeks, this experience shapes her and gives her a closer relationship to what is important to her in her life. Rowlandson in A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration gives her self a closer relationship to god. Rowlandson’s narrative is a first hand account. While she was always a Christian woman she now has forged a greater sense of community towards the Christian faith. Rowlandson shows a revelation from the beginning of her narrative to the end. In the beginning when she is first kidnapped she expresses regret of not honoring god in the way she feels she should have “The next day was the Sabbath. I then remember how careless I had been of God’s holy time […] how evilly I had walked in god’s sight […] that it was easy for me to see how righteous it was with god to cut off the thread of my life and cast me out of His presence forever. Yet the Lord still showed me mercy” (Rowlandson 139). This passage of Rowlandson’s narrative shows how the hardships of her life made her ultimately closer with her creator. Rowlandson attempts to show a growth towards god, which prospers her character, through her experience. She wants the reader to understand the growth hardship creates. While most have some attachment to their present community once they undergo adversity they create deeper ties with there home base. Mary Rowlandson experienced a character building growth which eventually leads her closer to her community with god.

Identity cannot only be formed with extreme hardship but also new experiences. The change in ones environment can also mold them as a person. “Letters from an American Farmer” by J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur display identity and community by several people undergoing the same types of difficulties. Colonial America creates an environment where everyone is starting out on there own. Each individual is faced with the same types of problems. This creates a different type of community, while it is still forged through hardship, Crevecoeur becomes closer to other men unlike Rowlandsons connection with god. Crevecoeur believes that the adversity that they all face makes them “the most perfect society now existing in the world , here man is free as he ought to be” (Crevecoeur 301). He senses that men become closer and forge an identity within a community after all facing similar challenges in life. These challenges have created a perfect society, Crevecoeur says. These men have created a similar identity making them stronger as people but also as citizens. Crevecoeur and other American farmers each have started anew unlike people in Europe, there are no large wealth disparities. Crevecoeur understands that people become united when they all undergo the same problems. Identity, individualism and community is formed though the challenges of man kind.

Another group who has forged its own identity and community through its challenges are African Americans. In the readings Phillis Wheatley explains how her experiences have created who she is today. Wheatley was an educated slave and use poetry to attempt to find a sense of identity. She understood that she was being subjected to slavery because of her race and attempted to reach out to others around her to attach to an identity that wasn’t just black. Wheatley uses Christianity to create ties with these other groups. “Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refined and join the angelic train” (Wheatley 367). Wheatley was not exposed to a large number of African slaves, so through her journey here and education by her master she realizes that she is being left out of a group she hopes to join. The experiences of Wheatley and her education make her want to be accepted as a Christian, her life makes her look for an identity with in a group which may not accept her.

Frederick Douglass also lead the slave life but his a story similar to Rowlandson, he achieves his identity when confronted with hardships. His story does what most authors attempt through narrative character building writing, he wants to convey the hardships that made him who he is and the horrible life of slavery. He uses his transformation to attach the reader to a moral obligation to feel compassion towards himself. He wants the reader to feel the pain he feels, his experiences will not only build him as a person but the reader. In the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass he displays all the hardships and beatings he has gone through. Douglass through his experiences sees that he is bound in a system that will not allow him to feel the same community and freedom that Crevecoeur experiences. Because his people are not free yet he wants to give the “plague” to reader; he wants them to attach to the community of the slaves. It is extremely apparent of Douglass’s intentions when he includes a monologue pleading to god. “O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any god? Why am I a slave?” (Douglass 39). By using elements of Christianity in his writing he easily appeals to the northern abolitionist community. He is pleading to grasp the morality of the reader. Douglass as a slave has gone through the oblivious hardships during his life, but it is what has made him who he is. Without the plight of slavery, he would not be the man he was. Douglass’s struggles add to his development of a strong moral character.

However, it is seen that struggles in some novels create a strong character but the character is flawed. Hugh Wolfe, of “Life in the Iron Mills” by Rebecca Harding Davis, has had similar hardships as the other early American authors. But Hugh proves to be a flawed character from the outside. In the beginning of the story Hugh is kind to his cousin even though he doesn’t have to be. “With a woman’s quick instinct she saw that he was not hungry—was eating to please her” (Davis 1196). The story is of a moral man, with plenty of potential, who is faced with the dilemma of stealing to better his life. Hugh Wolfe decides to take the money Deb has stolen for him and he finds himself in jail. One could argue that this obviously doesn’t fall into the genre of the struggle of men creating moral men, but it does. Hugh was a good man at the beginning of the story, he is a good man at the end. Just because he dies doesn’t mean he was still moral. While Hugh did take the money, he didn’t tell on Deb and blame her for it. He was continually defending her honor. His hardships created a stronger love for his family. Even though his morality is questioned by taking the money, at the end he gains respect back for facing a punishment he did not have to face. Davis attempts to paint a picture of the evils of society, however she develops a moral character which is able to connect to the reader through his pain. Even though he did something wrong, he still is a good man.

The struggle of characters in these stories gives an understanding of how the challenges in ones life create a better person. Each of these battles with exterior plight in there lives has ultimately changed who they are. Crevecoeur sees a better world because all men have faced the same challenges. Wheatley and Rowlandson forge a closer relationship with god after there hardships. Douglass is able to connect the morality of his plight to the reader, and allow them to grasp the transformation of character. And even though Hugh Wolfe was flawed, he is able to overcome the challenge by being loyal to his family. It is the strife of man which makes him what they are. A spell of the “plague” creates moral and better men, people must learn from their hardships in order to grow individually or gain a sense of community.

Works Cited

Camus, Albert. The Plague, ed. Gilbert, Stuart. United States: Vintage Books

1991

Crevecoeur, J. Hector St. John de. “Letters from an American Farmer” Norton

Anthology of American Literature Shorter Sixth

Edition, Ed. Nina Baym

New York: WW Norton, 2003. 299-314

Davis, Rebecca Harding. “Life in the Iron Mills”

Norton Anthology of American

Literature Shorter Sixth Edition, Ed. Nina

Baym. New York:

WW Norton, 2003. 1189-1217.