War Dance And The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

[A] Do you consider yourself hopeful? [B] Many characters throughout the book Of Mice and Men, the documentary War Dance, and the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty don’t know how to be hopeful or how to even make their dreams come true. [C] A lot of people don’t have hope, whether there was an absence of it from the beginning or they lost it. You may think there isn’t a way to be hopeful or to even revive the hope you once had, but there is. [D] Hopes, dreams, and goals demand that people strive to achieve their desires.

[E] In the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter was determined to save his job and he went out of his way to do so. [F] Mitty flies to numerous places to retrieve a photo for his job. [G] After the fear of losing

[F] George told Lennie about going to the farm as a possibility because Lennie liked listening about it. [G] Under the category of losing hope, Joe Wilner writes “ Victimization- When we are abused and belittled we can start to believe that is how life is supposed to be… begin to feel that we don’t have any control over what happens to us and that bad things will always occur... can relate to unfair treatment from prejudice and discrimination” (Wilner, 1). [H] I feel like George had an mindset that all bad things would happen to them and continue to happen to them because George didn’t seem to have control over what happened to him or Lennie. [I] Especially with what happened in Weed, George feels like bad things will continue to happen. [J] George had told Lennie about the farm and soon after, Candy found out. George did this even though he didn’t believe Lennie and himself would get to live on a farm someday. [K] On renewing hope, Wilner writes “...a major factor that contributes to our level of hope is the achievement of our goals. When we are able to reach our goals and have a sense of support and validation it instills hope” (Wilner, 2). [L] It took time for George to settle in at the ranch because he felt uneasy especially with what happened in Weed. In the end, George started to receive support from those he worked with. [M] Accomplishing goals as simple as making

[F] Dominic was so intent on fulfilling his dreams that he didn’t care about the negative things; hope demanded he aim for his dreams. [G] The author Scott Barry writes about hope with “Talent, skill, ability-whatever you want to call it-will not get you there… a wealth of psychological research over the past few decades show loud and clear that it’s the psychological vehicles that really get you there” (Barry,1). [H] You need more than just talent or the potential to get you to where you want and Dominic had more than that. [I] Besides being a great xylophone player, it took Dominic’s hope to get him to where he wanted. [J] There are many things Dominic had to overcome in order to reach his dream. [K] Scott Barry simply writes “hope involves the will to get there, and different ways to get there” (Barry,1). [L] Dominic hid from rebels in fear, watched many people die and was held captive by rebels for two weeks yet he still had the will to get there. [M] Dominic also spent hours and hours practicing in order to make it to Kampala where he then won a xylophone of his own. [N] Through dedication you can achieve your