Hope In John Steinbeck's Feeding A Hunger

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Within each of the three authors’ writing, I have learned that hope can take on roles of being either a vehicle to happiness and freedom, or an agent of possible destruction. This is important because hope plays an important role in creating each person's identity in these stories, as Kino learned the pain and anger hope can give, while Decker and Andy got to feel self fulfilment. Hope can be defined in numerous ways, as it all depends on one’s circumstances. Throughout “Feeding a Hunger”, Colette Decker portrays hope as a vehicle to happiness, as she discusses how hunger taught her to strive for success and achieve the impossible. Hunger was the overriding reason Decker developed this hope for a better life, teaching her many lessons along the way. “But my hunger wasn’t for food- it was hunger for a better life. It was a hunger for knowledge about the world beyond our simple existence. It was a hunger to prove Dad wrong when he told us we would never amount to anything.” Decker is …show more content…

Even though Kino succeeded in finding the pearl, success did not follow. “Kino’s fist closed over the pearl and his emotions broke over him. He put back his head and howled.” After wanting this pearl more than anything, Kino was forced to face his failure of saving his son. This failure was unbearable for Kino, as he had tried as hard as he possibly could. Kino completed the “American Dream”, he found the pearl that would save his son, but not in time. Now that Kino succeeded to find the pearl, but failed to save his son, this sense of failure is greatly increased. Kino serves the people of America that work hard, but end up failing in the end. Not every American life is successful, thus teaching us the importance of facing issues and not worrying about how you failed, rather how you can bounce