Overcomin Adversity (pearl Buck)

Throughout the course of our lives, we all must fight adversity in one form or the other. It is through inner strength and perseverance that we conquer our greatest fears, struggles, and afflictions as a means of reaching some catharsis. Pearl Buck wrote, “Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.” (Buck, 1954, p. 119) Pearl Buck was no stranger to adversity, and she endured many hardships throughout her life, including a tragical marriage that led to divorce as well as constant relocation. I share these traumatic upheavals with Buck, and although I’m aware that I repress many of my somber memories, I sympathize with the grueling rigors that she had to endure to create a happy and rewarding existence. William James would have definitely referred to both of us as being of the “twice-born” variety of tortured souls.

Buck met her first husband, John Lossing Buck, while attending Cornell University, and the two were married May 13’th, 1917. The had a daughter that they named Carol, but Carol was born with phenylketonuria, a genetic disorder that if not treated properly, can lead to brain damage, and progressive mental retardation. Due to the severity of the disease, the Bucks decided to institutionalize Carol at a specialized clinic in New Jersey, but this decision took a heavy emotional toll on Pearl, and produced in her the feeling of a divided self, as she knew as painful as it was, it was the purest form of altruism. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Buck) Although the Bucks remained married until 1934, Pearl never classified their marriage as a happy one. Pearl left John in China, and moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to her daughter Carol. The excessive guilt created by leaving