Between A Rock And A Hard Place example essay topic

Throughout life many people are faced with situations that test their courage and loyalty to others and to themselves. Many of these experiences often reveal strength of character that would have otherwise gone undetected. In the excerpt, "From Brothers of the Deep" by Jim Cormier, readers are taken through an intimate story of a man named Robert Cormier who has spent his life being a coal miner and has seen tragedies that could have devastated his life. Yet readers come to see that instead of giving in to this devastation, he chose to let life's curveball's bring out a side of his character that allowed him to actively and successfully cope with the hardships he was facing. I have had the opportunity to witness people's best shown character in difficulty in the literature I have read and in my own personal experience. Reading "The Brothers of the Deep" clearly shows that the hard times these coal miners face go far beyond what anyone would consider normal.

Deep in the heart of the earth these men are forming friendships built on very unstable ground. In the back of their minds they know that any one of them could have their life cut short by uncontrollable events. Yet these realities are the bonds that tie these men so closely. "By experiencing enough close scrapes, tragedies and miracles, they have been bound into a community marked by pride, fierce fellowship and a passionate sense of history and place".

The way these men cope is through looking for humor in even the darkest of circumstances, by playing practical jokes on each other. This shows that despite the danger they know is lurking, they are able to reach down in themselves and bring relief to one another. This proves a truth that says the stronger the adversity, the stronger that character. In the thriller "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton, readers are introduced to the characters Tim and Lex who find themselves stranded and unprotected on an island where dinosaurs have broke free and have begun to attack them.

Although they are continually running for their lives, they still prove their strong characters through the bravery they show. The courage is shown by Lex after she got separated from Tim and was terribly frightened to be on her own. Tim finds her curled up inside a drainage pipe banging her head against the side of it. She is so afraid of the huge dinosaurs that she has seen, that she cannot pull herself together to come out of the pipe even with Tim's gentle calling.

Eventually though she has to face the reality that she cannot stay in her hiding place forever and is forced to reach inside herself to prove that the will of her character is stronger than the difficulty she is facing. This shows that through the overwhelming adversity that Lex faced, she was still able to display one of the best sides of her character to help her overcome her fears. Life does not promise a smooth road without any kind of difficulties. Yet, in facing and overcoming great adversity when it arises, one can find it in themselves to search deeper than the surfacing hardship and discover that when they feel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place, they can turn to others and even search inward to find a soft spot to land.