Survival

Authors Note: I wrote this piece to compare theme of survival in two different books. I would like feedback on if I compared the two books with enough examples. 
Throughout life, you will probably find yourself surviving through many different types of things. Maybe it’s a health issue, financial issues or anything else. I am comparing the theme of survival in two different books that I have read this year. Both books had many similarities, but they also had many differences as well. The two books I am comparing are Breathless and Give Me Liberty. Within both books I noticed a common similarity: many people have difficulties throughout life, and they have to find ways to survive through the things they are facing. 

In both books, no one understood how the main character felt as they were trying to survive.Nathaniel from Give Me Liberty felt unwanted, disliked and basically useless. Since he was a slave it was probably really hard for him to do things for his owner, Owen, because if you don’t like someone; what would make you want to do things for them? Travis from Breathless was dying of cancer. His parents wanted to send him to a different country to receive a new special treatment. All he wanted to do was die because he was already suffering due to the affects of the cancer. A lesson that I learned from reading both those books is to always look at things from a different person’s perspective, because you never know how the other person feels.

There was also another big similarity I saw in both books. Many people have anger in life, but some people have a much deeper level of anger than other people. Possibly due to something that happened in the past. Some people still have anger about something that happened ten or more years ago. Nathaniel is a disrespected young boy until he meets Basil his new master. Prior to being a slave for Basil, his master beat him and treated him with little respect. In the long run that can do bad things to someone. Having anger is a common theme because in Breathless, Travis is faced with major anger. He is basically angry with the world. I mean I probably would be mad with everyone if I found out I had cancer too. Being faced with cancer took down all his dreams .At his High School, he was the best diver and once he got his leg amputated; that was the end of his diving career. Even though reading Breathless was really sad, I really learned to be happy with my life and cherish every moment of it.

There were also some differences in theme in both books. As I read both of these books, I noticed many differences. Once of the big differences is what each character is actually surviving through. One character was surviving through cancer, and the other is living through a war period. Breathless, is a real like book; that could end up happening to anyone on any given day. Give Me Liberty couldn’t really happen right now because we don’t have slavery anymore. Nathaniel is trying to protect himself from getting shot, and on the other hand Travis is living through cancer and all the affects of it. Unfortunately one day his battle with cancer ended, when he died in the hospital.

The main things I took away from reading both books were some very deep and life changing lessons. No matter how hard life is you just have to keep fighting through it, you can never give up. That’s the most important thing. Reading these books showed me how bad other people’s life’s are and then it really made me realize how much I need to be thankful for. Next time you’re having a bad day just think that you’ll get through it, but also remember how much worse your life could be.