Sometimes life confronts individuals with inevitable challenges which can in some instances overwhelm a person. In a society that grapples with various challenges such as poverty, diseases, unemployment, increased crime rate, and racial inequality, individuals might sometimes find themselves corned with upheaval challenges which may necessitate patience, hard work, and hope to successfully overcome them. The film titled Rich Hill film and the story titled Life and Times of Strider Wolf are the perfect examples of how life can sometimes be unbearable to some people in modern society. These two sources show the existence of income inequality between the rich and the poor and how the latter is suffering to meet the basic needs, leave alone dreaming about the luxurious items. However, they both portray how resilience, hard work, patience, and being optimistic can help individuals overcome such challenges.

The Rich Hill film is an American documentary film produced and directed by Tracy Droz and Andrew Droz. The film was released in 2014 and won the US Grand Jury Prize in the category of the best documentary of the year. The film chronicles the challenges of three young American teenagers; Andrew, Appachey, and Harley. It also shows their resilience, hope, and dreams of living a better life in the future. The film also portrays the theme of poverty, family breakup, and crime. In the film, Andrew’s father has been moving the family frequently, an action which may trigger her wife to suffer from agoraphobia (Droz and Droz). Harley is forced to live with his grandmother in a small trailer because his mother is serving time in prison. On the other hand, Appachey is abandoned by his father while still at the age of six years and he is forced to live with a single parent-his mother. However, even with these challenges, these young teenagers are optimistic of a better tomorrow and constantly work hard in school to enable them develop into better citizens.

The Life and Times of Strider Wolf is, however, a story of a young boy, strider, who was severely abused by his mother’s boyfriend when he was two years of age. Because of such physical abused, the boy decides to live with his grandparents in a small rural town in Maine. However, in his new home, Strider is forced to cope up with the harsh reality of living in a house that lacks some of the basic commodities because of abject poverty facing his grandparents (Schweitzer). Despite the struggles he faces, Strider is optimistic of making it in life, living everyday with the hope that tomorrow everything will different.

Despite their similar central themes which is the issue of poverty and family break-ups, these two sources are significantly different when it comes to the highlighting the causes of poverty and the conditions in which the subjects live. The directors of the Rich Hill film portray the living conditions of the subjects in a manner that is intended to elicit sympathy from the viewers. This has been achieved by carefully selecting soundtracks that elicit grief and suffering. In the story of Strider, however, it is described in an objective manner with no attempts at eliciting sympathy for the young Strider. The two sources are, however, similar on the main reason for the abject poverty of the characters. The two sources both reaffirms that the societal differences and income inequality are the main factors that enhance poverty levels among the characters.

The two stories both rely on visual evidence to give a clear picture of what is happening. In Strider’s story, pictures have been used to show the feeding tube that was in Stride’s stomach, the instance when he was in hospital and when he was playing with his grandparents and his father Michael. The Rich Hill film, on the other hand, is a motion picture that vividly depicts the struggles the three children undergo in the day to day lives. The two stories have also show how those living in poverty are battling different medical conditions and abuses. In the Rich Hill film, Andrew’s mother is on the brink of contracting agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder in which a person perceives his/her environment to be unsafe. Appachey also suffers from bipolar disorders which affects his concentration and behaviors. In Strider’s story, Strider is put under medication to help combat post trauma effects of the abusive effects impacted on him by his mother’s boyfriend.

The next difference is on the mode of reporting employed in both sources. The Strider’s story is in the reported form and is described using past events while the Rich Hill story is in the form of a documentary recording the current things going on in the lives of the subjects. How the characters are described in the two instances can also be used to distinguish the different approaches employed. In Strider’s story the writer does not give an opportunity for the audience to connect with Strider at a personal level by sharing his thoughts.

It is apparent from the film and the story that poverty affects a great number of people in the United States as families from poor background struggle to survive. The film and the story also show how poverty results in a number of social issues such as disease and family breakups.  More importantly, these two sources show the vital role that grandparents play in staying with their grandchildren in case of family breakups. In conclusion, therefore, the Rich Hill film and the Life and Times of Strider Wolf story are essential in examining various challenges that individuals go through in modern society, and how patience, resilience, and hard work helps them to overcome such challenges.

Works Cited

Schweitzer Sarah. Th life and times of Strider Wolf. 2016. Retrieved from pps.bostonglobe.com/graphics/2015/11/strider/. (Accessed on 15^th April 2019).

The Rich Hill film. Directed by Tracy Droz and Andrew Droz. The Orchard
Independent Lens, 2014.