Strength-Year_of_Wonders

It is during our times of greatest trials and hardships that we realise our own strength and power. Discuss During The Year of Wonders we see a lot of different characters show strength and power because of many different situations that arise. Some characters show strength when they lose someone that they dearly loved from the plague and have to regain strength and power to keep living their lives, while others show will power as they overcome their past and start a new life. Other characters in the novel also get blamed for some things they did not do but take it on the chin to better the town, this shows great strength because the character is being criticised for something they didn’t do just to benefit the entire town. During the entire novel of The Year of Wonders we see so many different people go through the trauma of losing a loved one, but Anna doesn’t lose one loved one, she loses many. During these hard times on Anna’s life is when she show’s her greatest asset which is strength and power. Anna Frith shows that she is able to bounce back from negative experiences such as when her husband Sam Frith passed away Anna showed courage in her ability to ‘tend to so many [other] people’ including her children in whom she gave all her love to. After Anna’s babies passed away Anna continued to show strength by showing her love to the people around her. Such as tending to others even though she was hurting on the inside, Anna had the physical strength to go to others and sit with them as they slowly passed, but she also had the mental strength to get through each day, to get herself out of bed each morning and to try to continue to live life as normal as she possibly could. People’s past can play a major role on how they live their everyday life even if they have nothing to do with their past. Some people’s pasts are not as bright as others which is why it is hard for some people to overcome their past and start fresh. Elinor Mompellion shows will power by trying to forget about what happened to her in the past. No one in town except for Michael Mompellion knows what Elinor went through and the reason for her being in town. Elinor ‘believes it is natural to want to forget when everyday [of the plague] is a brimful of sadness. Regardless of her past Elinor still lives every day to the fullest and which also shows her ‘kindness and her unwillingness to judge the faults in others’. Because she was also once ‘lost in the fires of [her] own lust and did not greatly care’. But Elinor through her mental and physical strength managed to put all that behind her and with the support of her friends especially Michael, got through her horrors and torments and doesn’t a hint of anything to anyone. Whenever something bad goes on life or in a novel the first thing to happen is people are wondering why it happened and who is to blame, because of this so many people get blamed for things they do not do and some argue that they did not do it while others will just say nothing and act like they did do it even though they didn’t to help others which shows great strength and courage. Anys Gowdie gets blamed for the plague in the town because people think she is a witch, but the truth is that Anys is not the reason why the plague swept through the small town. It was in fact no one’s fault but the town did not want to believe that which is why they had to blame someone and that person was Anys Gowdie. Anys Gowide takes the blame of the plague even though she had nothing to do with it all because it would benefit the town in the end because hopefully it would disappear if Anys didn’t say anything about her not being the reason the plague killed so many people. In conclusion it can be said that through the greatest trials and hardships that we realise our own strength and power through the claims I have explained above.