A Particular's Puissant Power

How much power does an individual wield? Does life shape an individual, or does the individual shape his life? As a junior high schooler, there are many times when I feel that life has taken control over me; however, I always persevere and bring myself up in order to combat the toughness of life. The individual has the power to shape his or her own life, yet a rare amount ever find and utilize this unfounded power to shape their lives while the rest allow their lives to take control over them. In the novel The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, the narrator Jeanette is the epitome of an individual who uses her power to overcome the hardships in which life puts on her. The dysfunctional Walls family lives a life of poverty and adventure, and Jeanette is often victimized by her fathers instable conditions and family problems. However, Jeanette does not let these hardships control her life; instead, she learns from these experiences and molds her own individual self apart from the misfortune and misery in which her family life influences onto her. Jeanette goes on to shape herself as a prominent writer in first the high school level, and then in moving away from the family into New York, establishing herself as a prominent writer and story-teller. Jeanette accentuates the point that even when the harsh realities of life can weaken an individual, the individual still has the power to shape their own lives without letting the life of the individual barricade one's hopes for success and a better life. Events in history also point to the fact that individuals do have the power to shape their own histories and futures. Thomas Jefferson changed both his own legacy and the legacy of the nation with his pen, taking leaps and bounds in writing the Declaration of Independence, a document which documented both a nations indepedence but also the natural law of man, and the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness in which all humans possess. Overcoming the fear of treason and the pressure of the delegates around him, Jefferson fought through and created one of the most profound pieces of literature and law in human history. Both Jeanette Walls from The Glass Castle and Thomas Jefferson portray the simple law of human nature that individuals do have the power to shape their own future, an unlimited power to create themselves, and it is only those who are able to realize this power and not let the hardships of life restrict them that truly succeed at life.