"What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." This old saying can be applied to the characters in many popular works of literature. In studying the literary works of Alice Walker, Richard Wright, Jeffery Paul Chan, and Sandra Cisneros, many observations can be made about culture and the harsh prejudices against these cultures. In their respective works: The Color Purple, "The Man Who Was Almost a Man", "The Chinese in Haifa", and "Woman Hollering Creek", each author presents a protagonist with much to overcome. Whether these obstacles come about because of gender, cultural differences, or both, they each serve to assist the protagonist with realizing his or her own identity. By facing the adversities that life has dealt out, the characters develop a better sense of who they are and what they want to become.

Alice Walker presents Celie as a battered woman without much to live for. Between being raped by her stepfather and beaten by her husband, Albert, Celie's attitude about her self-worth is extremely depressed. Both her stepfather and husband also abuse her verbally. They make her feel worthless. When h

Richard Wright also details the life of a struggling character in "The Man Who Was Almost a Man." The boy protagonist has to deal with the hardships of growing into adulthood. At seventeen years old, his family and coworkers still consider him a boy. Joe, the owner of the store tells him: "You ain't nothing but a boy" (Wright 1888). Dave, on the other hand, thinks that he has reached an age where he should be considered a man. He says to Joe: "Ahm gittin t be a man like anybody else" (Wright 1888). Additionally, Dave thinks that he should own a gun. He believes that by owning this gun he will find his true identity as a man and as someone to be respected. He realizes that he does not get any respect working in the fields. At home is not much different. His family still treats him like a child. After obtaining the gun that he desired, Dave proves that he still a boy, and not a man, by sneaking off and shooting the gun without permission. Eventually this gets him into trouble when he shoots his boss's mule. When people find out that he shot a mule, he becomes the laughingstock of the community. This definitely does not help Dave's quest to become a man. The ridicule forces him to sneak out and hop a train headed for anywhere else. There, Dave feels he can begin a new life as a man. Perhaps he realized that he handled the mule situation badly and learned from this incident. His misfortune prompts him to seek out a new life where he can find himself. He is search of a new identity as a man.

In all of the aforementioned works, the protagonists each face hurdles along their way to growth. Walker, Wright, Chan, and Cisneros make the journey to self-discovery a difficult one. As the characters suffer and endure hardships, they also gain valuable insight into the kind of person that they want to be. Although not all of the characters solve their problems, the groundwork is put in place for new beginnings an

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Approximate Word count = 1305
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)