If You Had To

Determination.  The thing that can keep you going on just a couple hours of sleep.  The thing that everyone has somewhere in them; the fire burning in your heart.  Many different authors use the theme of determination throughout their books.

In the book Sarah's Key, the theme of determination is used to create the one of the main problems; Sarah getting back home to her brother who she left locked in a cupboard.  He was dying in that cupboard and she thought it was her fault, but she didn't know any better.  She was trying to save his life when she locked him in there, but now she had to hurry home or she would feel the guilt of killing him.  "She had no choice.  She had to get back to Paris." She was determined not to let him die.

Suzanne Collins also used the theme of determination in her book The Hunger Games.  In this book, a girl named Katniss volenteers as a "tribute" in a fight to the death battle called "the hunger games."  Each year both a boy and a girl tribute are chosen from each of the districts to participate in this battle.  Katniss's younger sister, Prim, was chosen as a tribute, but Katniss could not put her younger sister in danger.  She swore to Prim that she would "really, really try," to win and come back home; but with 23 other tributes, the odds were against her.  Even though the odds were against her Katniss was still determined to win the hunger games and get back home to Prim.

The Secret Life of Bees is a book that also has the theme of determination.  In this book, a 14 year old girl, named Lily, supposedly killed her mother when she was younger and her father is abusive.  Her stand-in mother, Rosaleen, is one of her father's slaves.  After many years of living with her father, Rosaleen and Lily ran away from home to trace the one piece of information Lily had about her mother and to escape her father.  Lily "picked Tiburon 'cause her mother had a picture with that town written down on the back- that's it.'" Lily was determined to find out more about her mother.

Not all of these characters got a happy ending.  You can't always control the outcome of a situation no matter how much determination you have.  But, if it's not always a happy ending, then why should we be determined in the first place?  If it's not always going to be the way we want it, why should we try?  Hope.  It gives us hope.  It gives us a reason to live; a purpose for our lives.