Kelley Barr

Mr. Thornburg
26 February 2019
AP Language

Most people would dream of a life without adversity, since adversity is all about hardship
and times where you are struggling. However, a statement made by Horace contradicts this
belief, where he claims that hardship is needed in life to “elicit talents which in prosperous
circumstances would have lain dormant.” This claim made by Horace says that without
adversity, we wouldn’t be able to discover some of our hidden strengths, but in most cases,
hardship is not the best way to find one’s strengths. One example that supports this claim is the
hardships that Frederick Douglass went through before he would become a free man and an
abolitionist. One claim that challenges Horace’s quote is the idea of nature vs nurture, since this
topic is the argument of whether one’s upbringing or human nature dictates how a person will
turn out. So, if a person were ruled by adversity, this would be supporting the nurture side of the
argument.
One example for defending Horace’s claim is when talking about the struggles Frederick
Douglass went through when he was learning how to read. Frederick Douglass was born into
slavery, however he would eventually escape and become a well known abolitionist. While he
was a slave, Douglass would learn how to read from other children whom he was “living” with.
Douglass could only learn from these children while the other family members weren’t around,
since it teaching a slave to read was frowned upon. With Frederick Douglass, he was only
limited to learning how to read during certain times of the day. Adversity played a significant
role in motivating Frederick Douglass to escape and also to later become an abolitionist. In this
case, adversity was a major role in motivating Frederick Douglass to escape and to become an
abolitionist.
One topic that contradicts Horace’s claim is the idea of nature vs nurture. Nature vs
nurture was coined by a relative of Charles Darwin, Francis Galton. Galton claimed that one’s
intelligence and development is a result of genetics, which supports the nature argument.
Meanwhile, the nurture argument would best support adversity since nurture is based around the
argument concerning one’s environment when growing up. For example, if one were to grow up
in a good household and with a good family, adversity would be limited. However, according to
Galton’s claim, the result would not yield a child with much better development than with a child
of parents who have a high intelligence. To summarize, in the debate of nature vs nurture, nature
would not support Horace’s claim since nature would be best supported by genetics, rather than
the environment.
As shown above, Horace’s quote about adversity is applicable in some cases, however,
not in all of them. Adversity played a big role in the development of Frederick Douglass, since
Kelley Barr
Mr. Thornburg
26 February 2019
AP Language
he had to overcome the trauma and dehumanization of being a slave. On the other hand, in the
argument of nature vs nurture, nature contradicts the claim made by Horace. This argument is
based on the idea that a person’s development is most impacted by genetics and their human
nature. To conclude, adversity can play a role in determining a person’s character, but to a
certain extent.