Hope

Frey, James. My Friend Leonard . New York : Riverhead Books, 2005.

Hope, intransitive verb1: to cherish a desire with anticipation. What does hope mean to you? My Friend Leonard shows the utmost of hope in a man's life. James Frey, recovering drug addict and alcoholic sturuggles through desires and temptations everyday of his life. While he struggles through these desires he faces heartache along the way, the love of his life Lily, taking her life. James was just released out of jail and was on his way to see her, when he received a frantic phone call from Lily. "My grandma died, what am I going to do now? I need you here James, you are all that I have that, I can't do this without you." (18) The phone call made Jame's heart drop, he was on his way but wouldn't be there for about 9 hours. He speed, and when he got there..he found out that Lily didn't wait for him, she had taken her own life, she hung herself in the shower. The tragedy drove James to a breaking point, he went down the street and bought a large bottle of alcohol..he sat in his car and stared at it. Was it worth it? Throwing everything you have worked for, to just throw it away? His unfailing faith carried him through, he left that bottle of alcohol in his apartment starring at him in the face, and it kept him going everyday, knowing he didn't want to go back. While I was reading, the novel seemed to be easy to contrast with Nectar in a Sieve, the novel we just finished in class. When I was thinking about it, when James goes through a loss of a loved one, he is heart broken and can barely do anything, and risks giving up his sobriety while when Rukmani goes through a loss of a loved one, she moves on right away, excepting the fact that there is nothing she can do about it. The different hope that each of them has, they each have a goal that they want to reach. Rukmani, wants to live a happy healthy life and return home to her family, while James wants to live a sober, clean life, and they are both willing to do what it takes to get that, and their hope is what pushes them to get through the heartache.