As humans when we try to succeed we often suffer from hurtful words, judgements, injury’s however this should give us strength to strive for where we want to be and how we plan on getting there. This is shown in my connection ” Characters who gain strength from adversity” The texts: “Dreamer” directed by John Gatins, “Coming back Stronger” written by Drew Brews and Chris Fabrey, Rudy directed by David Anspaugh, Pursuit of Happyness written by Will Smith. These all display a time in a characters life where they suffer from adversity and they choose to take these hurtful words and judgements and the injury’s they suffer from and turn them into something that helps them to strive for success. It is these individuals in these texts that demonstrate the power to take adversity and turn it into there success.

In the film Dreamer directed by John Gatins shows the key idea of characters who gain strength from adversity. The viewer recognise this in the film when Manny the Jockey that trains the horses explains to Cale the main character that he was riding in his second race and he looked under his arm and lost his iron and he got ran over by three horses. This has become Manny fear for a very long time and this is the adversity he faced daily. He felt as though he could never overcome this fear. ” In our second race, I looked under my arm, when I looked back up, a horse slide into me, my left foot came out of the iron, and I got ran over by three horses, broke both shoulders, sternum, 4 ribs and a punctured lung.” Cale feels sorry for Manny, and the fear he has faced she asks him ” You never raced again?” Manny replies with ” No that night I feel asleep dreamt that I was in a big race on a fast horse, and I look under my arm and my foot falls out of the iron but before I fall I wake up.” This shows the viewer that it made it impossible to forget the traumatising experience that Manny faced. This made him weak at the thought of even trying to step back into the race ring. This shows as humans we often create a barrier for ourselves like our safe zone that we never exceed but its when others push you to exceed that barrier that we become successful and less fearful of our anxiety that we face. Further on in the text when Cale Crane takes ownership of Sonyador and she chooses the race that she wants to run Sonyador in, she then appoints Manny as the jockey for the Breeders Cup the biggest race out, Manny couldn’t say no as Manny struggled with adversity throughout this film this made him more determined to succeed for Cale so Manny trained everyday for this race, he was so determined to overcome his fear. This teaches the viewer to be open to help from others as they can help you overcome your adversity this is exactly what Cale did for Manny and he is doing what he loves again. Manny gained strength from his adversity as it made him stronger to succeed in this profession and this teaches the reader to always take those knocks from bad experiences and learn from them, let them help you to succeed, and its important for the reader to take from this to not be afraid to let other people help you sometimes we can not always do it on our own.

Another aspect of characters who gain strength from adversity is in the film “Dreamer”  this is shown in the film when the horse Sonyador breaks its leg and the owner tells the trainer the horse will never race again. The trainer Cale’s dad buys the horse for $3000 dollars as he still believes that the horse will be able to race again or at least be able to breed another foal from her. He starts to help her gain recovery of her leg so she is able to breed a foal where then they find out from the vet that she cannot be breed, so she only can be raced, Carol’s dad does a brave thing and hands the ownership over to his daughter as she can have full control over what races, she will race her horse Sonyador in as together they have the strongest connection. The racing committee has no belief that this horse will be able to win or even place in the big race “Breeders cup” but Cale has faith that she can do it, no one believed they even had the money for that kind of race. “Now Cale Crane you know theres a fee of $40,000 and if your horse gets a shot to run in the breeders cup there’s another fee of $80,000 that will be due.” This shows that they are trying to find reassurance for themselves to actually see if Cale is going to be able to afford to run in this race they also no that she and her family do not have money as most of there farm is up for sale. Cale is determined to let them know she and Sonyador can make it to that race. This shows as human’s we often forget the idea of “money is not happiness” and we often use this against each other in a powerful way by ranking each other on the house you own, the car you drive and the job you have. Why should money restrict our goals and dreams? They also use close ups in this part of the film to show the emotions and facial expressions of Cale so we can feel the exact emotions of sad and the feeling of being confident that she is feeling. Further on in the text when Cale and Sonyador makes it into the Breeders Cup on arrival they meet Sonyador’s brother that is racing against her, they start the race and Sonyador ends up winning and she meets Cale Crane in the winners circle. In this part of the film they use a non – diegetic sound when Cale is putting flowers on Sonyador’s back. ” You are a great champion when you ran the ground shock the sky opened and the mere mortals parted the way to victory were you meet me in the winners circle were I put a blanket of flowers on your back.” This quote is significant to Cale and her family as her pop has always told this quote to her. She has always stuck by it and it is exactly what she did with Sonyador. This quote really brings the emotion to the film right at the end with the non- diegetic  sound it makes you feel emotions of happiness and excitement as they showed everyone that they could do it. As human’s we never forget something that is of value to us or has a sense of emotion or memory as they become of importance to us. This teaches the reader to always stick with your goals and don’t give up when things get tough or you find restrictions in your dream anything is possible.

“Coming back Stronger” written by Drew Brews and Chris Fabrey shows the connection of characters who gain strength from adversity, For Drew he shows this in numerous ways as he continues to have set backs, hurtful words but throughout the text manages to turn that into success. For the character Drew he has an ability to take the hurtful words and the set backs and turn them into success. This is shown at the start of the text when Drew suffered a injury while playing football this was an injury that was hard to come back from and recover fully. This was Drew’s turning point to weather to play football again the doctor repetitively told Drew he would only come back from this injury if he 100% committed himself to rehab, this is shown in the lines ” Was I going to quit or come back stronger? I chose to come back stronger.” This shows that Drew was determined to turn his injury into something that made him want to succeed more. This will get him where he  wants to be in his life. He shows the reader what it takes to be determined and not give up when the going gets tough and to turn those tough times into something that drives you to be more successful. This is also shown in the lines ” The doctor told me that my ability to recover from this injury was totally dependent on my commitment to rehab.” This shows to the reader that if Drew wanted to get back on the field he would have to be 100% committed to rehab and start back at square one. For Drew this was all he wanted to get back on that field playing football again. This shows the reader if you want something that bad you will do anything to have it all back. This can be compared to “Dreamer” as when Manny realised he could make it back on to the race track after all those injury’s he had suffered he became so driven to the idea that he would do anything to get it all back. All those set backs he came across had made him more determined to get back on the race track and drove him to the finish line with a win. This is the same for Drew in “Coming back Stronger” as all he wanted was to make it back to the field with his team mates and he was doing anything to get it all back.  This shows that from both texts the characters had taken there knock backs and hard times and turned them into something that helped them to succeed.

Another aspect of characters who gain strength from adversity in the text “Coming back stronger” is when drew and his football team verse against the Chicago team and they lost 20-7 he was playing quarterback and he had felt like he lost it for the team but he managed to find the positivity in this loss. This is shown in the quote ” You don’t learn much from winning, but losing can make you a lot stronger. Some say experience is what you gain when you don’t get what you want.” The reader can see from this that Drew was determined to not let this set him and his team mates back. This teaches the reader that when you don’t get what you want don’t go and give up learn from it and be better next time. As human’s we often struggle to find a positive in a situation where we fail and we blame the fail on ourselves and how we weren’t good enough but we all have our off days that’s just what life is.This is also shown in the quote  “Something inside was also telling me I was not going to go out like that. I had gotten this far; I was not about to give up now.” The reader can see from this that Drew could see how far he had already come and could use that to help him push through the losses and tough times he faced. This helped him to succeed and be better next time. This teaches the reader when things get tough have a reflect on how far you’ve come and use this to make you go further and further until you reach your goal/dream. As humans we always rely on our gut feeling when it comes to making decisions as we always believe it is right, this helps us to make tough decisions. This can be related to “Dreamer” as Cale could see how far Sonyador had come back from her injury and could see the progress she was making everyday and used this to keep herself positive and motivated. As a reader I know that animals can sense your fears and feelings and if Cale was feeling nervous and scared then thats exactly what the horse is going to feel as well. Cale also suffered from the money issue and not having the money to pay for the “Breeders cup” race so this was a bump in the road for her. A similar situation in “Coming back Stronger” When Drew faced the losses and had to try stay positive for his team because a poor sportsmen isn’t a good team player. This is relevant to humans as when things don’t go to plan or don’t go our way we instantly just break down and as a strong human like these two characters we need to see the positive in the situation and use that to come back stronger and better.

“Rudy” Directed by David Anspaugh shows that gaining strength from your adversity is vital to succeed. For Rudy this was tough as suffered from hurtful words from his friends and family telling him he was never good enough and would never make it. For Rudy he could only see the big picture at the end. This was shown in the film when Rudy had big dreams of where he wanted to head he wanted to play for the football team Norte Dam. He was always told from his friends and family that he was to short to play football, they laughed at him when he said his dream was to play for that football team as they knew he would never make it. “Chasing a stupid dream only causes nothing but heartache to you and others.” This quote shows when his dad says to Rudy that his dream was pointless and basically that he would never be able to achieve his dream and he would only get hurt but for Rudy all he wanted was to show his family and friends that he could get there no matter all the put downs he face. He wanted to show them he could gain strength from there hurtful words and there own opinions. This teaches the reader when people have there own opinions on you dreams and they try to diminish your dreams take those opinions and hurtful words and turn them into strength to help you achieve those dreams. As humans we often take peoples judgements and let them get to us to the point where it just becomes easier to fail or give up. This is also shown when his teacher also doesn’t believe in him and says in front of the whole class how he’s failing. ” if i were giving out grades for the dreamers you’d be getting an A but in civics your failing, you see ladies and gentlemen the problem with dreamers is there usually not doers, there achievement is grand up there but here where it counts they fall short.” Imagine your teacher standing in front of the class and shaming you like that you would feel like bursting out in tears and quitting school and all those big dreams you ever had so for the reader this makes it easy to relate to. As humans we often feel as though we should always be better than who we are and we should be getting top grades but in life if you are putting your 110% into school and your academic future than thats all that counts we can’t all be lawyers and doctors. For Rudy not only had his friends and family’s told him he couldn’t achieve his dreams he also had his teacher who diminished his dream of ever getting into the school. This shows how adversity gave Rudy the power and determination  to show his family, friends and teacher that he could achieve anything he put his mind to. This teaches the reader if you put your mind to a task or a dream and you are determined to reach those dreams and complete those task you will always find a way. This is different to “Coming back Stronger” as Drew was faced with an injury that he had to overcome and it was up to him to find the power and the strength to get back on the field and achieve his dreams to get where he wanted to be. Where as Rudy suffered from hurtful words and getting told by his siblings that he was to short to play football so he gained the strength from those hurtful words said by others to become successful and get to where he wanted to be which was the Norte Dam football team.

“Pursuit of Happyness” written by Chris Gardner shows the connection of  characters who gain strength from adversity. For Chris this was evident as he suffered from a unforgettable childhood experience where he experienced watching him and his family get hurt from his drunken step dad. As a child Chris experienced this unforgettable childhood most days where he had an abusive step dad, people constantly put him down and never believed in him the only one in his family who believed who could achieve anything was his mother. “I knew how to work hard, and in fact in the next few years, challenges helped to reshape my dreams to reach further and to pursue goals with an increased urgency.” In this part of the text it shows the struggles Chris was faced with and how they made him more determined to succeed. This teaches the reader that there will always be something or someone who will want to hold you back from achieving your dreams. Its how you overcome those that help you push through it that makes you a successful person. Chris learns that there are only a few people behind him. Further along in the text when Chris pushes through those hurtful words and the bumps in the road he finally became a successful broker at a multi million dollar brokerage firm. This shows him that he had achieved his dream of becoming successful. He also had the dream to never bring his son up in the world that he was brought up in as he believed for him that it was an unforgettable hurtful experience.  “As busy as I am, wherever I am, I try to get out to walk the streets, to check out the sidewalks for cracks, to remember how far i’ve come and appreciate every baby step of the way, to stand in amazement and joy that the pursuit never ends.” This shows that with all the struggles and challenges Chris was faced with he still managed to find a successful path and managed to achieve his dream. This teaches the reader to always stick with your goals and dreams no matter the doubters or the challenges you come across. Always remember when you achieve your dreams don’t take it for advantage of how far you’ve come and never forget the journey it took to get there. This can be compared to “Dreamer” as Manny had suffered from a bad experience which for him was unforgettable at the time and it took the determination from that experience to achieve his goal. Manny’s dream to get back out on the track and overcome that bad experience this is the same for Chris as he suffered from a unforgettable childhood from watching him and his family get hurt from his abusive stepdad Chris learn’t from that experience and never wanted his son to go through this so he gained strength and determination from that to become successful in his job and his life.

A person’s success can be determined by there strength to take hurtful words, judgements and knock backs such as an injury and help to make them more determined to achieve there goals or dreams. This is shown in the texts : “Dreamer” directed by John Gatins, “Coming back Stronger” written by Drew Brews and Chris Fabrey, Rudy directed by David Anspaugh, Pursuit of Happyness written by Will Smith. These all display the connection ” Characters who gain strength from adversity.” The characters in these texts helped to show a moment where they face adversity and use that adversity to gain strength to succeed. As humans when we come across people with judgements or hurtful words or we are faced with an injury we often prefer the easy route which is to give up and choose a easier goal or dream that seems more achievable, but its what makes a strong independent person when we choose to push through those hard times and turn those hard times into success.