“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.”
                       —Horace

A man, husband and father, sits at a computer everyday. He has never been drafted, hungry, nor financially unstable. People think he is a nice man, but not much more. Suddenly, an international war erupts and the man is ordered to join the army. Facing hardships, blood, and death, he learns that he is one of the bravest soldier’s America has ever had. A foundation of truth lies in the Roman poet Horace’s statement, for adversity does draw out talents which “in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.”
George Washington is someone that every American knows. He was not only our first president and the great General Washington, but also a man who faced a lot of inner turmoil. His father had died at a young age, and young George Washington grew up without a father figure. His mother was a strong-willed women who rarely showed much affection. Washington faced many challenges in trying to become the man he needed to be. He was constantly reading and writing, trying to learn etiquette and the ways of a gentlemen. He managed to become a man with great self-control, despite the many emotional obstacles he had faced. Not only did his father die at a young age, but his half-brother Lawrence Washington as well. Lawrence Washington had been a father figure to young George, and with his death came another earthquake in George Washington’s life. Originally, George Washington had been a surveyor of land, but with Lawrence’s death, George decided to enlist in the military. Lawrence’s death had taken quite a toll on the emotional George Washington; however, rather than sniveling and giving up, George made a brave decision. If it had not been for the all the emotional adversity George Washington had faced, America might have lost one of its most inspirational, intellectual, courageous political figures.
In The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, there is a character called The Stepmother. Before World War II began, she had been an affectionate mother and a loving wife. When the Nazis came, her whole world was shattered. She lost all her family and her warm heart turned hard. When the Germans took away her everything, she could have become a bitter woman. Instead, she followed a different path, that of the warrior. She married a new man who had two children. The children were ordered to run into the woods and find refuge while the adults ran from the German soldiers. The Stepmother and her husband ended up finding a group of men who were fighting for survival in the woods. The readers soon learn what the Stepmother is capable of. She ends up proving to the men that she and her husband are useful, even killing a Nazi captured in the woods. Towards the climax of the story, the Stepmother comes across a young girl being raped by two men. She kills the men and saves the girl, getting shot in the process. However, her last thoughts are not about the pain or how cruel the world is. They were about being successful in saving the girl and how she would soon be with her deceased son. The Nazis had created a lot of adversity for the Stepmother to face, but she ended up proving her talents rather than getting beaten down. She was a small gear in the machine that defeated the Nazis, but it is important to remember that she was a part of it in the first place. When the story is over, the reader remembers the Stepmother’s extraordinary sense of bravery, loyalty, and love, all which would have gone unnoticed if it had not been for the war.
My mother is the kind of woman who tries to forget her past. She and her two sisters came to America in the early 1970’s, when they were all children. My grandparents had no money and no knowledge of the language. My grandmother had never been educated, for my great grandfather had not believed in educating women. My grandfather was unloving, abusive, and cold-hearted. My mother and aunts faced many dangers in their own household from their own father and the chances of losing the house. They might have lost their way or grown up to be resentful people, but they did not. This adversity that my mother and her sisters faced ended up making them fighters. My oldest aunt is now an amazing mother to her children because as a child she had to take care of her two younger sisters. She was an amazing parental figure to my mother and younger aunt. Many people are aware that the Asian culture puts science and mathematics before the arts; despite this, my mother is a strong supporter of my artistic side because she knows what it’s like to have your passion beaten down as a child. My youngest aunt took the adversity the hardest. There is still remnants of anger and struggle within her, yet she remains one of the strongest woman I know. If my family was ever to lose all our money or face a major challenge, she is the one who would carry us all and remind us that we needed to keep fighting. My mother and two aunts emerged from their troublesome childhood as fierce, independent women.
Yes, some people who face adversity do not always become better people. Some might evolve into downright evil. But what Horace means when he says, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant,” is not that people will always change for the better. He means that we find that people are much stronger than we realized. We learn that everyone has an inner fighter within them that can be unleashed. Adversity always brings out an extraordinary power within someone, whether it is good or evil. Without it, all humans would be spoiled and have a sense of entitlement. We would never suffer, fight, nor learn. Adversity is necessary for mankind because we need to remember that there is going to be a lot of pain in this world, but we are capable of powering through for better or worse.