What factors or qualities make a survivor? Examples from the novel weve studied in class The Wave and my two related texts I am Sam and the short documentary Mr Cheng.

The movie ‘I am Sam’ written and directed by Jessie Nelson follows the life of a father with developmental disabilities; after taking in a homeless women and her falling pregnant then leaving after the baby is born Sam is faced with the challenge of bringing up a daughter who soon enough will have a mental capacity higher then himself. Eventually after a misunderstanding his daughter is taken off him and he is left with the challenge of finding a lawyer who can fight his case to get his her back. In the beginning a high class lawyer refuses to take his case on. But by the sheer determination Sam portrays by the constant visits he pays trying to convince her she gives in and fights his case till eventually he wins welfare over his daughter. In the process he also teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family. Sam demonstrates the key qualities a survivor needs throughout the entire movie. He has a close bond with his friends who are almost like a family and are always there to support him, he moves forward doing anything he can to get his daughter back including moving apartments and getting an extra job and he follows his intuition which is him knowing that he will always be the best father doing anything he possibly can to make sure.

“Mr Cheng” the short documentary directed by Maia Harniak looks into the hard life of strong willed Chinese immigrant Laurie Cheng, who survived one the most horrible and traumatic childhood events imaginable. At only four years of age Laurie was taken into the city of Peking by his father who was ‘looking for work’ who then never returned, abandoning him and leaving him to fend for himself for the rest of his life. To begin with, his survival skills involved addressing his physical needs, which included him living in cemeteries as a form of shelter and looking around for whatever food he could possibly find. He demonstrated amazing resourcefulness in finding these basics for surviving at such a young age. Although this was not even the hardest factor he would have to survive, his greater challenge was surviving the mental and emotional trauma of these years. He later immigrated to Australia and began to build himself a life which he claims wouldn’t be this way if he were to have known his family. Laurie also tells the documenter, “If I wasn’t strong… he wouldn’t be here,” This documentary is a prime example of a person showing the qualities of a survivor.