Cedric Jennings is the protagonist in the story “ A Hope In the Unseen” by Ron Suskind. He has a high motivation to perform well in his education even though he goes through so many challenges.
The challenges that Cedric goes through are brought about by his pat, his identity, his culture, and the people he meets in life.
Being from a low-class child whose mother struggles to make ends meet for him and his two other sisters. His father is a drug dealer who goes to jail. and comes out frequently. Initially, he starts school in a better school and proves to be worth it. The problem comes in when his mother cannot afford to keep him in this school, forcing him to change schools and as a result, he goes to Ballou High School where good performance is scorned. This does not however discourage him from being a good performer. He tries and does everything he can to make sure that he performs well. He is scared of coming for the celebrations that would expose him to ridicule by other students but he realizes that he likes his performance. He is attempting to carve out his identity through performing well in education. Even her mother Barbra Jennings shows her concern that if he gets himself so much into this education, he might lose his identity which, according to her and the society they live in, low-class people do not have a place in higher learning institutions.
The other factor that plays a very challenging role in his life is his race. Being a black student in a racist society, he is faced with all the difficulties that are associated with him being black. The presence of racism is demonstrated by the way other students nick-name the performing students in this school whiteys, a clear indication that goods education belonged to the white. Another instance where he is put off is when he gets to the Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science, although it proves to be very difficult for him, especially since he came from a poor school, he attempts to improve, the faculty director who is white- Leon Trilling tells him off that he did not belong there. He immediately dismisses Trilling as a racist, but on the other hand, he feels like he belongs to Ballou, where he decides to join Brown University that is more accommodative to the minority students, he discovers.
Even though he is here, he still struggles, though his personality keeps on changing. He keeps friends for a short time for example his roommate. At a certain period, he decides to behave like someone who is from the ghetto and he realizes that he even gets more people liking him that way for example some like him for his knowledge of hip hop. This makes him see that he has been taking trouble avoiding people who could be his friends, that is, other black kids.
Cedric’s culture also brings about difficulty because in his urge to seek education, he seems to be dealing with people who have a different culture than his. In the school in Ballou, we see that good performance is scorned and yet he is struggling to be a good performer. The culture of associating good education with being white is not in him. Unfortunately, even his mother seems like she is afraid that if he goes ahead in education, he might lose his culture and identity. However, she supports her in everything. The other people he deals with are the kinds of Trilling who do not just believe that a black can perform, because of the racism factor. That is why he dismisses Cedric’s ability even though he has improved a great deal.
Cedric and his mother go to Bishop Long’s church for as long as he could remember. It is in the church where he got his first motivation that everything is possible. Even though it turns out to be a factor of negative influence when they do not reward his efforts as a choir leader, it has always been a source of inspiration to both him and his mother. Apart from Bishop Lo0ng, other people help him so that he maintains his motivation. They kept encouraging him to thaw it was possible to change his future by working hard. They include Reverend Keel who is his Science teacher. He did a lot of encouraging Cedric. Shirley Briscoe, his English teacher who helped him in writing his speech so that it became gentle. Justice Thomas also gave him some tips on how to handle himself while in college, and this was a positive influence that could build him. His mother was the greatest inspirer because she supported him even when she seemed afraid of the outcome. Unlike his father who was a drug peddler always being thrown in and out of jail. The encounter with Cedric was not the best because he beat him hence contributing to his habit of being moody.
In conclusion, we see that even though Cedric faces great challenges, he does not easily give up. In addition, we can say that the conditions surrounding him at any given time only act as demoralizers for a while but it is clear that he needed them to set for him a target, which was, to make sure that he proved those who underestimated him because of the culture and class, wrong.