Taiya Quinlan

Ms. McKiddy

AP English Language 10

13 October 2020

Adversity itself in the life of an individual is inevitable. However, the extremes to which

adversity is experienced varies among each person. Some people, with a lot of resources at their

disposal, may still be faced with challenges, despite having a better condition. These same

people likely have times as well to develop talents and find what they are good at, but for many

people, that simply is not the case. Because of this the quotation written by Horace on the topic

of adversity only holds partial truth due to the vast number of people, especially people of color,

who are often faced with adversity on such a high level that it takes a toll on their ability to be

successful in today’s un-American, American society.

One way in which adversity is faced on a constant basis for many marginalized people is

through the systems of poverty that America still upholds, which prevents people from getting

out of a horrendous cycle of bad living conditions that are detrimental to mental and physical

health, but also to the economic well being of an individual in poverty. In the article “How

Poverty Affects the Brain and Behavior”, it is explained that research has shown that people in

poverty are all the more likely to take out loans to be able to get by and pay rent and buy

groceries. With the taking out of loans, there is an added stress on these people, knowing they

will need to pay back these sometimes very large sums of money in order to make any sort of big

investment that may improve their living situation. Another way that poverty plays into an

endless cycle of adversity is through its dismissal of putting those living in poverty in dangerous

circumstances as they bring things like incinerators and polluters in closer proximity to
neighborhoods in poorer areas. On one episode of the show United Shades of America on CNN,

host W. Kamau Bell goes to Philadelphia where about 4 waste treatment centers had been located

in the midst of a public housing flat. These toxic waste centers burn the waste using incinerators,

releasing alarming amounts of toxins into the air, and the effects trickled down into the health of

many of the nearby residents, with higher lead concentrations in a majority of their blood and

one of the highest infant mortality rates in the city of Chester, just outside of downtown

Philadelphia where the plants were located. This idea that impoverished neighborhoods can just

be dumping grounds for dangerous activities is detrimental to the health and well being of too

many people. Not only that, but these health conditions tie back into the economic despair of

many people, as they may not be able to pay for treatments for underlying conditions caused by

such careless, dangerous activities that they did not even bring upon themselves. In summation,

poverty itself more times than not is a trap for so many people, not being able to escape

hardships in that environment and being faced with so much stress that both the individual and

the society itself causes them to be unsuccessful in developing talents that come from such heavy

adversity.

Despite all the hardships that limit a person’s ability to overcome adversity and develop

talents that were rooted at first in a struggle, there are plenty of examples of people that have

defied the odds and have done just that. Early on in her career, ballerina Misty Copeland was

rejected from a ballet school because of the way her body looked, one of the instructors saying

her muscle structure was unideal and not of a professional ballet dancer. Despite this horrible

feat, Misty did not let this define her and she continued to train and train and work and work, and

as of now, she is one of the most well-known ballet dancers in America and is a principle(lead)

dancer with the American Ballet Theatre based in New York. Not only that, she made history in
that role as she was the first African American female principle dancer in that company, bringing

more diversity to the world of ballet and inspiring so many little girls, of all creeds, to follow in

her track to become ballet dancers in an art form that often plays into Eurocentrism.

Many people’s experiences with adversity are different and are influenced by a number of

factors, such as living conditions, mental and physical health, and economic pain. However,

despite this, some who face diversity use it as a tool to build themselves up and driving

themselves into a new passion or talent which leads to success unimaginable in earlier

experiences of adversity. For these reasons, the statement made by Horace is only partially true

because of the varied extremities of adversity faced, all having varied abilities to get over

hardship and escape caustic lifestyles.

Another example of a person overcoming hardship is personally, my grandfather, Abuelo Jack.

He was born in Tucson, Arizona to his mother, a Mexican immigrant, and his father, both of

whom did not have much money. He lived mostly in Tucson, and resided in an adobe house with

a dirt floor constructed by his father, with his three younger brothers. Eventually, he was drafted

to the US Navy, and served in the Vietnam War, earning the Purple Heart after being wounded in

combat. By the time he came home, he still hadn’t finished college, and would try to take classes,

but often found himself unsuccessful. Determined, he graduated from National University in San

Diego at the age of 46. This story strikes me because he did not care how old he was when he

finally completed his college education, he only cares that he had enough will to finish. Once he
did graduate, he became the only child out of his brothers to get a degree from a university.

While my abuelo grew up in poor conditions, he came out of that with much strength and

determination, and that is something that pertains to many people in society who may think that

their beginnings hinder them, but really it is only the mind that hinders people’s abilities to see

themselves succeed.

This inserts after the word Eurocentrism in third paragraph