“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.”
-
Martin Luther
When
I first arrived to Woodstock School in second grade, my parents were the ones
who made the decision. I was a kid, and I wasn’t really in any position to make
a difference. They had asked me what I thought for boarding school, and I told
them that it seemed like fun. Though a naïve kid, I was excited to experience the
new life that had been set out for me. I arrived to India ready to attend my
new school and begin life without my parents. But after the student orientation
at the beginning of the school year, it finally struck me that I was going to
be away from my parents. They dropped me to Edgehill, the dorm in which I would
be living in for the next 3 years, and started saying their goodbyes. It was
hard for my mom to let me go, and it was even harder for me to let her go. I
didn’t want to be away from my parents; after all, I had lived a life with them
and I was not used to living along without them. Tears started rolling down my
eyes, and I was wailing telling them not to leave me. But my mother sat down
and explained the reason why my dad and her were sending me to Woodstock. She
told me that they wanted me to become independent and become someone who could
stand up on his own two feet. Though I was small, and didn’t quite understand
what she meant, I just nodded by head and continued listening to her. She told
me that she hoped I would succeed at Woodstock, and she told me that she hoped
I would become the best person I could be here and find myself. I can agree
with Martin Luther and say that everything in the world is done by hope, as
Solomon from Blood Diamond does
everything he can to get his family back during the civil war in Sierra Leone,
and as Elaina from Vampire Diaries tries
to take on Claus, the vampire from the Original Family, to win back Stephan.
Blood
Diamond is a movie about the Sierra Leone civil war that revolved around
the diamond trade. Many rebel groups would capture innocent children and men,
after terrorizing their village, so that they can go and hunt for diamonds. The
women and young female children and either put into camps or are used as sexual
objects to gain pleasure from. Solomon, the main character in the story, had
the same thing happen to him. He was captured to search for diamonds in a river,
while his family was taken away from him. The first day at the river, he
discovered a pink diamond, which was worth more than the other diamonds. Not
wanting the general to find out, he secretly went to hide the diamond behind
the bushes. The general caught him while the government party army had come to
attack that region. Solomon wouldn’t tell him where the diamond was and in
return, the general turned his son into a child soldier. Solomon then sought
help from Leonardo Dicaprio in the movie, to find his family and get the
diamond. Solomon tried everything to get his family back. Solomon hoped to get
his family back, and went to any extent. He dodged government armies fighting
against the rebellion; he dodged the rebel group armies searching for him
trying to find the diamonds just because he hoped to get his family and his
whole life back. He did everything in his power to bring back his family. His
hope for a normal life drove him to such extremes. This hope made him risk his
life to get his family back, made him face the biggest fears of his life, and
made him a stronger man by the end of it.
Similarly,
in Vampire Diaries, Elaina is a
doppelganger from the ancient vampire era, who is in love with a vampire. When
she finds out that he’s a vampire, she explains that she will still love him no
matter what. After a series for events, the Original Family come in Mystic
Falls and realizes that the doppelganger is among them. They know they need to
kill her in order to survive forever. They need Elaina to break the sun and
moon curse that binds Nick Claus to both the moon and the sun together. Nick
Claus is a vampire by day, and on a full moon he is a werewolf. When the
doppelganger is sacrificed, Claus has the ability to shift into a vampire when
he wants to. Stephan tricks Claus into thinking that Elaina is dead, where
Claus extends a hand of friendship towards Stephan. Stephan follows, and Elaina
finds out what has happened. Stephan changes into a bloodsucking vampire, which
he isn’t. Elaina is distressed to see this and tries to do everything to get
Stephan back to his old ways. Elaina tries to fight Claus by playing tricks on
him, unleashing is own father, Michael, who eats vampires as a diet, and takes
away Claus’ family just to get Stephan back to the old him. She hopes for a new
light, which Stephan will see, and she hopes that he will realize his mistakes
and go back to being the sweet, and caring person he is. She hopes that things
between the two of them will go back to normal and that they will be happy, and
this is why she tries everything to defeat one of the strongest vampires. She
wants him back and she hopes for a happy ending, making her more determined to do
anything to get him back.
Hope
is something that drives all of us to achieve what we want. It’s something that
we dream about and is something that we want in our lives. Hope is something that
will drive us to any extent to get what we want. Whether it is my parents
hoping that I do well at Woodstock, whether it is Solomon hoping to gain his
family back, and whether it is Elaina hoping to show Stephan what a good person
he actually is, hope is one thing that makes us all strive for that one thing
we want.
Interesting that you choose to use two hollywood shows to demonstrate your ideas on hope. Are there real life examples that would be even more poignant?
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