“…although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming it.”—Helen Keller, Optimism 1903

To begin with, Helen Keller once wrote in her book, Optimism (1903), “ …although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming it.” In other words, people everyday come face to face with challenges that make them feel like there is no future or light in their path. However, this does not mean that the world will remain dark; it also means that there are many people who have suffered but overcame their suffering. Two novels that prove this quote true are, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian and Sold, by Patricia Mccormick.

Firstly, in Tim O’Brian’s, The Things They Carried, every soldier’s story that the narrator tells is one of internal suffering. Many of the men simply want to go back to their homes but instead must also suffer in the worst conditions, for a war they may or may not support, while missing those they love and long for at home. Soldiers, if they haven’t been killed, are sent home to overcome their suffering but not many overcome it. The author writes his story to share with others like him who did suffer. The telling of his story is his form of overcoming his suffering.

Secondly, the women and young girls in Sold, bare a different type of suffering than the characters in O’Brian’s novel, but it is suffering all the same. Being devalued as a woman, as a human, being monetarily valued, are all the types of suffering that may not look like one can overcome. Lakshmi’s value for her life decreases every day and she must hold on to every little hope she can, which eventually influences her to free herself from her oppression.

What is interesting about both novels is that both the main characters, O’Brian and Lakshmi, had to motivate themselves to overcome their suffering. In other words, although their suffering was completely different but extreme, they could no longer live within themselves if they did not save themselves out of their oppression. Although O’Brian could not immediately leave the war, when he did finally return home, a huge part of him was still there. In order to cope with all that he saw and experienced, he had to overcome it by writing. His audience, soldiers who fought in the war like him, can use his novel as a way to overcome their experience too. As for Lakshmi, it was only until she learned to value her life to be more than forty rupees, that she was able to yell out her name to the man she hoped came to rescue her.

Finally, in agreement to Helen Keller’s quote, I believe that as people, we may feel like we suffer alone but it is only when we motivate ourselves to overcome our hardships, do we see that there are many others like us who have fought the oppression. Tim O’Brian and Lakshmi are two of many characters who have found motivation within themselves and their surroundings to overcome their plight.