Poetry Synthesis Essay

“Every successful individual knows that his or hers achievement depends on a community of persons working together,” as said by Paul Ryan. Communities can have a very positive impact on an individual’s life and his/hers accomplishments. In fact, community can be the very basis for people’s success. As defined by the dictionary, community is a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government and often have a cultural and historical heritage. Johnny Cade, from the Outsiders, Keith Ore, Justice Miller, and “the World Is Not a Pleasant Place to be”, all demonstrate how community can positively affect an individual. Altogether, community can benefit many people’s career and life.
The character Johnny, from
the Outsiders by S.E Hinton, was positively impacted by the community in his life. Firstly, his community, which was his gang, was very supportive of him, since his parents were abusive and malicious. In fact, Dally practically adopted him. That was an enormous help to his self-esteem, which is a positive change. Also, Johnny’s community was very protective of him. A member of his gang, Two-Bit, was going to go to great lengths to defend him. For example, Dally said, “Two-Bit was going to Texas to hunt for you,” (Hinton 88). In addition, Johnny learned a great deal from his community, and even shared it with a fellow gang member, Ponyboy. Johnny had this revelation that there is still good in the world, and you cannot be defined by society’s stereotype. For instance, Johnny’s last words were, “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold,” (Hinton 148). This quote means that he has learned from his community that Ponyboy should continue being nice and sensitive. Finally, one might argue that another character, Dally, did not grow up in a good community and was not positively affected by the community. However, that cannot be true because that very community in The Outsiders pretty much saved him, and he suffered when one of its members died. Dally was born in a bad community, but that community was not used for the setting of the novel. Even if in his life there was a small negative aspect, one character does not affect the overall tone of the novel. In conclusion, just because Dally could not escape the path society paved for him, does not mean that Johnny died in vain or a Greaser.
Also, the poem “The World Is Not a Pleasant Place to be” by Nikki Giovanni proves that community positively impacts an individual.
Firstly, the poem talks about how every individual needs somebody to rely on, like a community. For example, she wrote, “The world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by,” (Giovanni 1). This quote means that we all need community to support us and share our experiences. Additionally, she wrote about how society helps us get through the difficult times and be happy. For instance, she wrote, “An ocean would never laugh if clouds weren’t there to kiss her tears,” (Giovanni 3). That means people would always be focused on the dissatisfactory and never on the joyful, if someone was not there to comfort us. Finally the poem states, “A river would stop its flow if only a stream to receive it,” (Giovanni 2). This means that people are just hurling through life, with all these amazing opportunities coming and going. Communities’ help an individual slow down and realize how grateful they should be for everything they have. Overall, the poem demonstrated metaphorically that everyone needs a community to have a positive
future. "We can never get a re-creation of community and heal our society without giving our citizens a sense of belonging," said Hunter Campbell Adams.
These teenagers demonstrated this quote perfectly, and proved that community positively impacts an individual’s life, such as Keith Ore and Justice Miller. Firstly, Keith Ore, who is learning disabled, was absolutely changed for the better when his football community helped him make a touchdown. His community gave him the experience of the lifetime while crossing the end zone, which will greatly benefit him in the future. Furthermore, the Olivet football team gave Keith a sense of belonging, and made him part of the success with winning the game. One could say that is one of the most important roles communities can play. Finally, Justice Miller, the wide receiver, was positively impacted by his community. For example, Justice said, “I basically went from somebody who only really cared about myself and my friends to someone who cared about everyone and making everyone’s day in everyone’s life,” (CBS Evening news). Basically, he changed from being selfless and only caring about himself to wanting everyone’s day to be a good one. To summarize, that ‘life-changing play” positively affected not only Keith, but the football team,
too. In a final analysis, the role of a community has a positive effect on an individual’s life. As defined by the dictionary, community is a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government and often have a cultural and historical heritage. First, the Greaser Johnny was positively affected by his community because they supported, protected, and taught him some important life lessons. Secondly, the poem proves that community has a positive impact on an individual because you need community for someone you can rely on, share you bad experiences with, and help put things in perspective so you can appreciate all the gifts you receive. Finally, the video confirms that community has a positive impact on an individual because they gave Keith an amazing experience, made him feel like he belonged in the team, and gave Justice a reason to change from being selfless to caring about everyone. In essence, community helps us cooperate and make all of the technological advances we have made for the country, and we would not be where we are today without communities’ positive impact on the world.