Perseverance In The Lost Hope

The first decades of the twenty-first century were full of overcoming obstacles. Prodigy by Marie Lu, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, The Lost Hope by Rick Riordan, or The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. What do these four stories all have in common, other than their dystopian category? They all are full of hope that leads to perseverance and in the end overcoming the main conflict.
Each one of these stories had an obstacle some character(s) had to face. From taking down corrupt governments to life or death in the woods, falling to your death at the Grand Canyon, or choosing to save your society from non-eco friendly groups. Every story has something to be solved. Why else would you read them? “Day jolts awake beside me. His brow covered with
sweat, and his cheeks with tears. He’s breathing heavily” (Lu, 1). In the book Prodigy, a Legend series, two recently graduated teenagers who have no one left in their family bond over trying to transform their current dystopian society into a utopian society. June and Day both grew up differently, but were similar in many ways. Both parents have died. Also, both character’s have lost an older brother as well. Everything else about these two is different. June grew up a daughter of a government official, while Day was a fugitive. Neither of these teenagers paths should have crossed but yet they did. Not only did these unlikely people fall in love but they went against not one, but two corrupt governments.
There is no reasonable explanation that these characters should have been able to save their society. Yet, they did. Prodigy is a reminder that the early decades of the twenty-first century people could accomplish anything. “Brian found it was a long way from sparks to fire” (Paulsen, 87). Hatchet tells the story of a thirteen-year-old boy who was stranded in the Canadian woods after a plane crash. This teenager raised in Hamptons, New York has never worked a day in his life, let alone know anything about surviving alone in the woods. Throughout the story, Brian is using his skills that he learned in different subjects throughout his schooling to make it out of the woods alive.
“What makes fire?
He thought back to school. To all of those science classes. Had he ever learned what made a fire? Did a teacher ever stand up there and say, ‘This is what makes a fire’. No” (Paulsen, 91). Realistically, there is no way Brian should have ever made it out of the forest. But through hard work and perseverance Brian overcame the obstacle of life or death.
“Leo got to his feet, breathing hard. He looked completely humiliated, his hands bleeding from clawing at rocks.” (Riordan, 24). The book The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan is about three teenagers with supernatural abilities, also known as demigods. The characters are Jason, Piper, and Leo. Unlike the other two books, the excerpt we were given is the only part we know about this story.
It all starts on page twenty-four the three characters have just been stranded after falling down the Grand Canyon. Their biggest obstacle being survival. These teenagers must work together to come out of the canyon. These characters have a bigger advantage than Brian from Hatchet. Brian had only school knowledge, while these teens have their super abilities as well as one another and multiple other people.
“He [Jason] opened his eyes. They weren’t falling. They were floating in midair, a hundred feet above the river” (Riordan, 26). These friends were able to overcome their challenge of life or death and safely make it back to the top of the
canyon. “Angel looked at her with contempt and lifted his shirt, all machismo, showing puckered scars. ‘I took a few’” (Bacigalupi, 54). In a world where people are illegally immigrating from Arizona to California instead of Mexico to America. Or the world where corrupt eco-groups run the water sources. The story The Water Knife was born. Angel is a “Water Knife”, special black ops for the corrupt group, SNWA, including bombing water treatment plans that do not want to associate with Angel’s boss. Unlike the other books mentioned, in this story, the obstacles must be overcome by somebody other than the main characters, the citizens. The Water Knife’s main obstacle is the lack of nurturing attitude humankind has towards the planet. “Behind her footsteps came running. Maria whirled and brought up her pistol. It was the scarred guy, the water knife” (Bacigalupi, 370) The entire excerpt/novel is about the obstacles that need to be overcome to take down corporations hurting the planet. To find out if in The Water Knife the main obstacle was overcome then we would have to have read more than a four-page excerpt. What do Prodigy by Marie Lu, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, The Lost Hope by Rick Riordan, and The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi all have in common? They were all written within the first decades of the twenty-first century. A time for overcoming obstacles.