Resilience In Gary D. Schmidt's Trouble

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Various characteristics are needed to be resilient. In the book, Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt, Henry loses his brother, Franklin. But, Henry is able to stay in control of the things going on in his life. He has a plan of what he wants to do; climb Katahdin. He is also able to forgive in order to heal, and he is able to maintain healthy relationships with his friends and family. Chay, a Cambodian refugee who supposedly hit Henry’s brother, is not as resilient and does not have a plan. Chay does not forgive and does not have any relationships whatsoever. Henry demonstrates more resilience than Chay because he has control over his life, maintains relationships and forgives Chay. From the start of the book, Henry has a plan of what he wants to do. Chay, on the other hand, does not. Being able to control his own actions and his own feelings is a key characteristic of being resilient. After his brother passes away, Henry is determined to climb Katahdin.

While Chay, on the contrary, is not able to forgive his dad for the things he said. Being able to forgive and heal from past wounds is an extremely important key to being resilient. After Henry beats up Chay in the cemetery, Sanborn points out that Chay did not fight back. Henry realizes that Chay is not that bad of a guy. He even gives Chay Franklin’s shirt. “The last shrouds of the fog were dissolving into the brightness of an early summer day” (186), is a metaphor for how the bad feelings Henry has towards Chay are going away. Unlike Henry, Chay is not able to forgive his dad. His dad says how Chay causes him pain whenever he looks at him and how he’s a bad reminder of how he didn’t save Chay’s mom from being raped. Chay ends up burning down his Dad’s business that he worked hard for and steals his truck. Henry continues to show more characteristics of resilience throughout the book than