It is inevitable that everyone suffers. No one has a perfect life, so at one point or another, every person in the world will have a bad day, week, or year. Everyone experiences their own losses, but the way we react to those losses determines what happens to the rest of our lives. In The Book of Ruth, all the characters deal with events that hurt and scare them. Most characters have little problems that scar them forever, or big problems that they sometimes dont even detect. While some of these characters let these problems ruin their lives, others rose above their everyday struggles to find a better life. Ruth, Matt, Daisy and May all took very different approaches on their suffering. Some of the characters use their suffering to motivate them, while others let their suffering wear them down.Throughout the book, Ruth is exposed to many forms of verbal and physical abuse. These abuses hurt her, but she is just as hurt by the little things as well. She is forced to deal with problems, like when her own mother doesnt buy her a brassiere, or when all the kids at school look up her skirt and tell her they will be her best friend. She suffers many embarrassing moments throughout the book. That doesnt mean that she doesnt enjoy herself at times. During her childhood, she specifically remembers one good day, when she ate ice cream in July with her family.It took me several years to figure out that on that July night we were actually experiencing the gladness some people feel everyday, not just once a summer. I saw how it was with other people, because I watched the children in church, running to their mothers after Sunday school. I saw it every Sunday, week after week, year after year. The mothers swept the children off their feet and kissed them on their cheeks, and both mother and child laughed. They didnt need to say words because they had this gladness inside, just the same as if for a few minutes, they all had a splat o...
