Perseverance

Quote
I can relate to this book as it shows a lot of the same morals I have. I decided to find a quote that hit home. The quote shows how everyone goes through rough times: “there are times in life when Iya has come out of the darkness to overwhelm me and make me feel insignificant” (Marshall pg.35). This quote describes how someone can just make you sad. I can relate to moments like these because I have experienced them in my life before. I chose this quote because I thought it could relate to anybody in the world.

The Giant
The virtue is perseverance. In the story, there was an ugly giant named Iya. On a stormy night in the prairie, Iya comes to take Cloud’s people’s wives, daughters and sisters from the lodges. Cloud and his men go on to capture Iya and take back their people. They felt very hopeless, they wondered how they could capture a giant. “One of his strides was 20 of theirs” (Marshall III 25). The men then used Iya’s weakness: hunger, to lure and trap him into a hole. After they caught Iya, they went back to rescue their, wives, daughter and sisters. The moral of the story was that, even though the giant was, in fact, a giant, they were unstoppable.

Lakota Culture
The virtue of perseverance is very important in the Lakota culture as well as in other cultures. It shows anyone can do anything if they have perseverance. The only thing stopping them is time. If someone really, wants something they can get it through perseverance. The Lakota people quite obviously treasure this virtue, as in the chapter there was stories about it and an explanation of perseverance and what it means to them.

Virtue
To me perseverance means to never give up; even when faced with every reason to give up, you still keep trying. In the story “The Story of Giants” there is a man named “Cloud”, his wife Plum and many other women and young children had just been eaten by Iya. Cloud insists they go after Iya to catch him and kill him. The men disagreed but eventually Cloud convinced them. He used himself as live bait to lure Iya to the chosen destination. Tired and ready to give up and let Iya crush him. He thinks of his wife and continues on. In the end, they trap Iya and free the women and children he had eaten. A time in my life that I had to persevere through something was when I was 9 or 10. I went on this excruciating long bike ride with my step dad. We got to a steep hill and I thought nothing of it, I pushed down the hill thinking that it would be pretty fun. Once the bike was going to fast I tried pressing on the breaks but they were locked in place. By then I started freaking out, there was traffic below and I couldn’t stop. I stopped listening to my step dad’s orders to press the break and looked around quickly for another way to stop. Luckily there was a missing piece of concrete on the curb. Quickly I turned into the curb and I crashed into a tree instead of the traffic