A Hope In The Unseen Essay

A Hope In The Unseen

A hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind, a descriptive litrature of an African American boy named Cedric Jennings, who struggles through different challenges in his life. Cedric Jennings is a student at a high school named Ballou in Anacostia Washingon D.C. Suskind writes this novel in a unique way which makes the novel difficult to read and understand. Suskind describes most things in the novel in a way that the reader has a negative picture in his/her mind. The social atmosphere around Cedric, the academic atmosphere he is studying in, the experiences he goes through and the negative influences he gets, potray a negative picture in the readers mind. These atmospheres force the reader think that Cedric has to struggle through many hardships and put exra-ordinary effort in order to succeed. Cedric does exactly what required, works hard during the high school and stands at an exalted point. His 4.2 GPA exemplifies this, his more than perfect scores show that he is giving his best and wants to make out of Ballou. Cedric's aims are higher and his dreams are exceptional, for instance he wants to go to the MIT. Although, he was fearless at Ballou, Cedric developed a fear of failiure at Brown University. Which comes from the social and the academic atmospheres he grew up with in Anacostia, Washington D.C.

Unfortunately, Cedric's social atmosphere at Anacostia, Washington D.C is not favourable. The crime rate it too high, selling illegal drugs is a common commerce, noticing armed personals and listening to gunshots has become a prevalent practice. Most of the teenagers are into the drugs bussiness and hardly make out of high school ; the drop-out rate at high schools is really high. In order to explain this atmosphere Suskind writes,"God knows-he could get killed. People do all the time"(10). Suskind throwing some light on the neighborhood says that, Cedric standing alone at the bus stop could get killed. As Cedric leaves the school he selects a bus stop which is quite, when he reaches there he sees two people who armed he is sure. Suskind describes the envoirnment of the society around Cedric, he shows the readers a picture in which readers can see a negative image of the society. Growing up in such kind of atmosphere leads Cedric lose faith in himself, as he thinks that there are many chances that he will end up here and probably never going to make it out of here. The fear of losing himself and unable to climb out from the abyss of his negative society has taken birth.

" Educators have even coined a phrase for it. They call it the crab/bucket syndrome: when one crab tries to climb from the bucket, the others pull it back down. The forces dragging students towards failure-especially those who have crawled farthest up th side-flow through every corner of the school. Inside the bucket, there is a little chance of escape"(17). Suskind says this in reference to Cedric as a part of the bucket and he climbs up to get out of the bucket. Other crabs pull him down and do not let him go out of the bucket as he struggles. At a school like Ballou,.