Through all the trials that people have been put through, throughout the years, somehow people seem to forgive and forget. How can anyone be so willing to let things go when they have done nothing wrong to deserve it. The lives of two people who so willingly forgave those who had done them wrong showed many virtues of perseverance, tolerance, and respect. Jeanne W. Houston in her book, Farewell to Manzanar and John Griffin in his book, Black Like Me, both demonstrate qualities that would, if revealed among all people benefit the world and all of mankind.
Through thick and thin both Jeanne and John perservere. No matter how hard life became Jeanne never allowed it to get to her. After her release from Manzanar she always tried to befriend others. Even when she was rejected, like the time when she wanted to be a part of the Girl Scout Troop. She just passively accepted it and moved on. Jeanne didn’t hold a grudge against others even though she had every right to. She saw through it all and knew that in the end she would come out on top for being the better person, but she just had to strive to reach that point.
As with John Griffin, whenever he felt like giving up he still stuck with it. When he would hitchhike to different places, most people just wanted to get into dirty conversations with him. They exploited him, as if he were some sort of sex feign. But just as he was about to give up on society a man without racial prejudice would come along and lift his hopes. John stuck with it no matter how hard it got, and how often he was denied service for his color. He knew that if he just smiled and walked away that everything would end up alright.
Jeanne and John pushed on through knowing that there will be better times. Though intolerable themselves, John and Jeanne tolerated how others acted and treated them. Though John was truly white at heart, because he looked black, he was treated like one. When the store clerk of whom he conversed with daily while he was white, wouldn’t even look at him when he was black. She saw him as nothing more than dirt and treated him as if he were dirt. Also the cashier in the bus station wouldn’t cash his $10 bill, because he was colored and she didn’t trust a black with a lot of money.
He was put into a category, a stereotype in which he wasn’t tolerated. But he politely asked again, and smiled and left if he was denied service again. He tolerated their intolerance and rose above them. Jeanne was one hundred percent American, but because she looked Japanese she was placed in a group to be hated. She did everything an average American girl would do, but because her eyes were slightly slanted, and her skin was an olive color, she suddenly was denied
