The setting takes place at the end of the 16th century, Elizabethan England, in a small town called Cumberland in the North of England. Peter Brownrigg, a 14 year-old boy and his family and fellow villagers, were in a secret protest against Sir Phillip Morton, a knight who was stealing away their lands. But the initial incident began when Peter throws a rock at Sir Phillip, and accidently left his hat at the place. Sir Phillip found Peter's hat and decided to find and punish him. Peter, who needed to save his dear life, had to run away from his family and home, and began an adventure in London; there, he started a career as an actor.
The author made the choice of letting the protagonist run away from his troubles instead of facing them because, in some ways, it can lead the main character into an exciting adventure instead of letting him getting caught. Because Sir Phillip is a man with power, if Peter just faces him, he will be be likely caught and punished. Or the author might have wanted to show a character development of Peter being a young man who was a coward and not wanting to face his troubles, to a brave heroic man who at last is courageous and can face his troubles.
Should people face their troubles or not? Some people say that you should most definitely face your troubles because you can never run or hide from them and try to solve or stop them. Your problems won’t disappear if you just hide from them, as the quote "You can run, but you can't hide" also states. From my own experiences, I have tried to run away from troubles such as hiding a heavy secret in my heart and not wanting to tell anyone about it, but in the end, I cannot hide from it from my parents or friends, and in the end I gather up my courage and face the secrets in my heart and eventually talk about them with whom I trust, such as my parents or friends. From a novel I read a couple years ago, a girl was suffering from an abusive family and inherited mental health difficulties... she tried running away from her troubles, the reality. However, that did not help her get better. It did not allow her to realize the reality she was in. She did not want to tell other people about her situation, and did not want to accept anyone’s help. But at last,she found people who were in the same situation as she was; they communicated, they helped one another, and most of all, they tried to solve their problems instead of running away from it which does not help.
On the other hand, some people do not wish to face their troubles because it may bring inconvenience to the people around them. And other times, it may be hard to run away from our troubles. For example, in Peter's case, it will not give him an opportunity for a chance to escape, and instead it can get him in to even bigger trouble. In a particular Korean drama, the daughter of a couple leaned that she had cancer. But they would not dare to tell their daughter because they were afraid that she would die from fright. So instead, they informed her that she had a minor illness and acted like everything was fine. Surprisingly, the daughter recovered because she was happy and confident that she only had a minor illness and soon recovered! So instead, in that particular case, the parents made a right decision to not tell their daughter the truth so the daughter can “run away” from the fact that she had cancer. Also, in one of my friend’s experiences, her parents fought constantly and she did not have the courage to face her parents and tell them to stop. So instead, she went to live with her grandma for awhile, and after she came back, her parents had stopped fighting.
In my opinion, I think you should always face your troubles because you can never hide or run away from them. When I hide from my troubles, I would feel extremely bothered because I know that I will be able to avoid it for awhile, but I cannot avoid it forever. Sooner or later, I will need to face my troubles, and eventually get it solved. In some cases, I believe running away from your troubles will not help at all, but it would also complicate the matters.
I really like the varied examples that you use and especially when you blend your present day examples in contrast to the text examples in the same paragraph. This can be a challenge and you did it fairly well.
ReplyDeleteYou missed today's class of tips - check the hw blog for some ideas. When you return we will make sure you get the notes so that you can make some improvements. They won't make sense to you without the notes so we will wait for you to get them in class.