Hardships are a part of life that everyone must deal with. These hardships can either enable you to succeed or cause you to fail. The outcome of these obstacles all depend on how these situations are handled. In the novel, A Hope in the Unseen written by Ron Suskind, you follow a boy named Cedric through his struggles to success. Throughout the novel Cedric was criticized because of who he was and told he would not be able to compete in the white world. Cedric was able to overcome all these obstacles through determination, tolerance and the ability to ignore peer pressure.
Determination is what kept Cedric on his track to success. In the novel Cedric made himself a goal to get into college. If he did not set himself a goal, then he would not have been motivated to do anything. His motivation to accomplish his goal was what made him so determined. Cedric went to a ghetto high school in Washington DC, where most of the students never graduated. He did not want to live his whole life in the ghettos of Washington DC, so he set himself a goal. His goal was to make it to an Ivey League college. Cedric did everything he could to accomplish his goal, even went to school early to do extra school work. Bec

Cedric was considered a nerd in school. He was so focused on achieving his goal that he really didn’t try to make friends. Having no friends left most of the student body making fun of him. Thankfully, his tolerance level for ridicule was very high. A high tolerance level allowed him to ignore the remarks and stay focused on his goal. There were many other students at Cedric's school that were smart and could have made themselves a future if they just stayed focused. Instead, the other students decided it was safer to just fit in with all the other kids. A friend of Cedric’s in the novel was Phillip. Phillip was very smart like Cedric but he changed from a nerd to popular kid out of fear for his life. When Phillip was younger he watched an older boy in the projects get shot right in front of him. This was an older boy who Phillip strongly admired because of how smart he was. After Phillip witnessed this tragedy he was afraid of being killed because he was smart. Phillip let his grades drop and started making friends with the popular kids. Cedric proved to be a stronger person because he stayed himself despite the tragedy. Cedric himself was threatened many times by fellow classmates and constantly ridiculed, but he held his head high and stayed focused on his goal. Cedric had such a high tolerance level that he was able to ignore the bullying and acco