Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian

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The Concept of Hope; An analysis from “Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, The Making of a Navy Seal”
Challenges are inevitable in life for every individual. People face different circumstances in life that call for reaching deep within themselves and finding that desire to soldier on or rather expect the best to come despite the extreme nature of the situations they face in their daily lives. Such occurrences or situations in a person’s life may range from their line of duties or daily operations at work, sickness or illness, difficulties in getting the basic needs or even loss of a dear one. Eric Greitens’ Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, The Making of a Navy Seal indicates how people can deal with different circumstances in life. The book is an excellent depiction of the manifestation of hope across different situations not only in the life of the author but through the experiences of others. Greitens demonstrates that hope is critical for individuals to survive through different phases of their lives.
Several definitions of hope exist stemming from different aspects of society including the spiritual orientation of a person, which often function as the basis for establishing the desire for surviving challenging situations. According to Acharya (619), hope is that inner desire to overcome difficult situations in life by believing that a better situation exists. It is during such moments that one requires to find that burning desire to overcome the difficult situation or rather expect the best outcome at the end of the day. Throughout the book, Greitens takes readers through personal experiences from which he gains inspirations from the different manifestations of hope as portrayed by various characters in the different stories contained in the book. Hope comes out as a primary theme in most of the author’s narratives contained in the book and thus forming an excellent depiction of the essence of the vital positive emotion in the life of human beings.
In one of the author’s narratives, Boxing, he takes readers down his memory lane as he sought to relive or experience his grandfather’s life in Chicago during the Great Depression (Greitens 40). He talks of the people’s discipline, hard work, and commitment to pursuing their dreams of succeeding in whatever it is that they are doing in life. Despite the desolate nature of the city streets and the closure of business entities and homes, the people of Chicago remained adamant in their quest for leading a happy life and would find the inner strength to keep on pushing past the challenging situations they faced in their lives. Eric, the lead character in the story witnesses first-hand the people’s resilience in the face of poverty and uncertainty over the future through his training sessions with Derrick and Earl, his boxing training mate and trainer respectively (Greitens 43). Earl expresses optimism in life and impacts the same attribute on his trainees by emphasizing on strict adherence to the set standards of training, conduct, and discipline. Despite being locked out of the gym following its closure, the trio continues to train in severe...