William Saroyan’s quote in Room for Hate-Hope “Good people… are good because they have come to wisdom through failure” can also be interpreted as a person who has had a time in their lives where they have failed and had time to grow knowledge.
In the novel The Lovely Bones written by: Alice Sebold, Abigail Salmon faces failure with her family. Abigail lost her daughter Susie Salmon to a terrible tragedy. Losing her daughter made Abigail isolate herself from her husband and her children. Facing this tragedy she was mentally ill and lonely and needed someone to take her mind off of things so she had an affair with the detective Len Fenerman. She leaves her family for a while. Many years later her children are all grown up and haven’t seen their mother since the death of their sister. When Abigail receives news that her ex husband was in the hospital due to a heart attack she faces her fears of confronting him and her children. When she sees her husband and her grown children she realizes that leaving them wasn’t the right decision she should have made. Abigail decided to become a better person for herself and for her children.
Unlike Abigail Salmon people face failures dealing with their lives and end up becoming a good outcome. In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies written by: Julia Alvarez, the Mirabal sisters fight for the rights in the Dominican republic from their dictator Trujillo. Fighting for freedom the sisters were sent to jail beaten and taken away from their family. When they finally received a letter saying that their freedom would be granted they were finally free out of jail. Driving home the sisters were playing in a trap. A group of man stood near the sister and beat them to death. The sister lives were failed but the mission they were trying to succeed for their country was a great success. It was a tragedy that for freedom three brave sisters had to die.
“Good people… are good because they have come to wisdom through failure”....