Will Wight's Cradle And The Many To Be Gleaned From It. by Muawiyah

Will Wight's Cradle And The Many To Be Gleaned From It. by Muawiyah - June 2022 Scholarship Essay

Cradle, by Will Wight, is fictional work about the journey of a young man as he tries to save his town. While the books in the series are interesting, each novel, particularly the first one, Unsouled, provides many pivotal lessons that can be analyzed along with a fantastic story. The main lessons that the story revolves around are not to let the people around you define you, perseverance is not a fruitless journey, and hard work beats talent.
At the beginning of the novel, the main character’s society rejects him because he has no latent ability that makes him impressive. Because of this, they dishonor him and leave him to do the most menial labor. However, it is later revealed that there are societies outside that circle that do not have such prejudices against the weak. Because his hometown has a fixed barbaric mindset of only the strong will survive, they didn't give him the support he needed. So when the main character becomes a powerful figure, later on, that surpasses everyone in his home village, the author is driving home a point that can be found in other meritable novels such as Metamorphasis by Franz Kafka or Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. This lesson is that no matter how convincing it may seem, society does not dictate the limits and potential of an individual. How far an individual can go is based solely on the individual’s drive. In Unsouled, the main character’s drive leads him to surpass all expectations anyone had for him essentially providing evidence for the point just mentioned.
In addition, through the main character's laborious journey, Wight reveals to us another life lesson: perseverance when put together with patience is never futile. In the novel, the main character is shown a vision of his town and family being destroyed in the future. The reason why he starts his journey is to save the town. Through his hard work that was so taxing it almost led to his death and patiently waiting and grasping opportunities as they arose, he was finally able to save his town and family. This is yet another lesson in the novel that can be learned. It might not be easy, but even the future can be changed. The main character saw a vision of a catastrophe, but against all odds, he took matters into his own hands and persevered patiently until he was able to quite literally change the future and save his loved ones.
Furthermore, the novel also discusses the difference between hard work and talent. The main character is born with a defect that prevents him from being as successful as his peers. The famous saying goes “Hard work beats talent every time if talent does not work hard”. The main character's defect puts him pretty low on the talent scale. However, he quickly surpassed everyone when he works ten times harder than them. Wight makes it very clear here that this moral lesson is in fact true and he applies it almost everywhere in the series, not just in the novel.
In conclusion, while the main character exhibits these three qualities throughout the novel, it would be a lie to say that the novel is just that. Unsouled provides not only quality entertainment in the form of an invigorating plot, but it also supplies a treasure trove of lessons to be gleaned and applied to day-to-day life.