Forgotten Fire By Adam Bagdasarian

Never Give Up Never Back Down Forgotten Fire written by Adam Bagdasarian is a novel about the horrific events during the Armenian Genocide. Invictus written by William Ernest Henley is a poem that focuses on the human spirit and its ability to overcome adversity. In both writings, the authors address the reader about the hardships of life and how to conquer them. Within the two works, Forgotten Fire and Invictus, the authors, both show the importance of never giving up and never losing hope. In the novel Forgotten Fire, Adam Bagdasarian enlightens us of the horrific events the main character, Vahan Kenderian, must go through. Vahan is a young son of a wealthy and influential Armenian, never expecting his life to be anything less than it had

Events no twelve-year-old boy should go through. Yet throughout his journey in life, he not only grows as a mature adult but turns into a strong man. When he was young, his father always told him, “This is how steel is made…Steel is made strong by fire” (Bagdasarian 55). Vahan takes this saying throughout his life and makes an imprint of it in his heart. The steel is to be shown as strength. The fire is to be shown as the trials that life brings him. The harder Vahan works and overpowers the obstacles he gets thrown at, the stronger he will become; hence steel is made strong by fire. At the beginning when Vahan is jolted into a dark room. When sitting down, Vahan thinks to himself, “Whatever pretense of hope or optimism remained inside of me had now completely disappeared, and I reached in the dark for the first hand I found and held it tightly not knowing or caring whose hand it was” (Bagdasarian 34). Vahan might say that his confidence disappeared, but he still has hope to begin with. Some of his family have already been gunned down, while others are held in prison with him, and yet he’s still holding out hope for them. After a long hard-fought journey, Vahan ends up in an orphanage and looks back on

Invictus in Latin means unconquerable or undefeated. While reading this poem, the reader should get a glimpse of what he must go through yet still having hope and can surpass through his own challenges. While writing this poem, William Ernest Henley did not think that his one line would go down in history as one of the greatest ever written. “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” (Henley Lines 15-16). This line gives the reader a sight of what it means to have hope in life. Being able to decide what will happen in your life when everything turns black and ghostly can be the hardest feeling to have. I am, a person in life that is born and can do and be anything he or she wishes. The master, the rightful owner and the absolute greatest at being themselves. Of my fate, the future that can bring happiness or sorrow to someone who chooses their path. I am, a single human being that was given a chance at life and can decide what they do with it. The captain, the one who steers the ship in what way it’ll take them. Of my soul, what is inside of them and what it truly means in life. Put these words together and this can give anyone the true meaning of hope. Within the poem, William not only talks about hope, but how he never let’s go in the face of evil and darkness. “In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the