Question

Consider the following statement: “Negative experiences, as well as positive ones, strengthen us and can help us become the person we are meant to be.” Do you think this is a theme of the novel? Why or why not? Explain your answer using textual evidence. Your answer should be 150 words.

Answer 1

The statement is a theme of the novel. Typically, it is because novels have narrative and characters' arc. Here, the protagonists encounter negative and positive experiences where they make a decision. And in every decision, it triggers the characters to internalize very well their actions. Thus, making them more careful. 

A lot of novels such as The Ghostwriter by Alessandra de Torre, Harry Potter by J.K Rowling possess this kind of theme.

In The Ghostwriter, Helena Ross suffers from the guilt of killing her family and brain cancer. This causes her to be imperious and hateful to other people as she grows up.  But she has experienced positivity, where Mark, her friend, helps her to become alive again and take away her burden. In the end, Helena becomes human with gladness in her heart.

In Harry Potter, look at how Harry Potter becomes stronger even without his parents and Sirius. He looks very lonely, sometimes discriminated by the Malfoys. However, in the end, he defeats Voldemort because he believes he has still friends beside him. 

The point is when negative and positive experience overlap, it creates a power that truly pushes a person to act, to make decisions, and be the person he or she really is. 

Answer 2

For the novel: Their Eyes Were Watching God

“Negative experiences, as well as positive ones, strengthen us and can help us become the person we are meant to be.”

This could be a theme of the novel. When we follow Janie back in time and watch her girlhood end, we see that only her physical needs are met. Most importantly, she lacks the nurturing love of her parents and is instead choked by Nanny’s overbearing protectiveness. When Janie’s forced marriage to Logan results in a similarly overbearing love, we watch her spirit crumble and reemerge disillusioned, though not defeated: “Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” From here, we watch her continue to search for the mutually uplifting love she witnessed between the bee and blossoms. And after years of hurt and humiliation in her two failed marriages, we finally see her realize her heart’s desire of respectful love in her marriage to Tea Cake. In Hurston’s novel, she seems to stating universal truths and making observations about life.