The burning excitement which one gets from gaining more knowledge as to out-compete others is a uniquely human desire. And to use that knowledge to ones advantage so as to attain luxuries other than basic necessities needed for survival is what differentiates humans from animals. In A Hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind, Cedric Lavar Jennings, the main character, is a boy raised by a single mother in the dangerous ghettos of Washington D.C. He shows his passion for knowledge and desires to be successful despite being surrounded by evils, hardships and disadvantages. Cedric shows that he is human by withstanding all the barriers that come his way, and successfully fulfilling his dream of acquiring an education. In the book, Cedric demonstrates his dream for knowledge by first being a top student in his high school surrounded by gangsters and druggies. He then gets accepted into a MIT minority program, where he proves his desire to be the best student. Lastly, when Cedric finally gets admitted into the Ivy League college of his dreams, he strives to become the best there as well.

Humans, when they are faced with hardshis such as their peers not having faith in them, or evils that try to limit, and stop them from prospering, tend to use determination to get through their troubles. Cedric Jennings is no different; throughout his high school career, he was mocked by his peers, and laughed at by “dreambusters”, for having big goals. At his graduation, when Cedric was asked to give a speech, he brought this up. He said, “When one of my peers found out that I was going to Brown, he told me I wouldn’t last two years. While they were laughing in the corner and trying to predict my future, I laughed back…I said to myself, ‘THERE IS NOTHING ME AND MY GOD CAN’T HANDLE.’” (Pg. 137) This shows Cedric’s determination to do well and gain knowledge despite all the hardships he must conquer. Although people told him that he would fail, his human characteristic of desiring knowledge kept him determined to do well, and that is exactly what he did.

Being behind his fellow minority students in studies, enrages Cedric, and makes him determined to become better than all of them and gain more knowledge. When he is at a special program at MIT designed for minority students, Cedric discovers that his fellow blacks are further ahead in their studies and most of them are getting better grades than him. Cedric, who is used to getting the best grades and being the best in his class, does not like the situation at all. He feels that he is struggling to understand the concepts that his teachers are teaching, while all the other kids easily comprehend. When he gets his midterm report back for Calculus, his best subject, and finds that he got “68 out of 104 points” (Pg. 87) right, Cedric is determined to become better than everyone else. He thinks that although, “he started miles behind most of the other kids did…he’ll just have to run twice their speed to catch up to them.” (Pg. 86) Cedric has a drive for gaining knowledge, and becoming better than all his competitors, despite having to face the disadvantage of not having learned the subject before. He demonstrates that he is human by doing this, and with his newfound determination, he becomes one of the best students in his class, and shows a great deal of improvement in his grades.

Cedric believes that knowledge is a trait that helps one gain luxuries, and rise above the level of survival. When he is at Brown University, he is given an assignment for his History of Education class to write about his family educational tree.Cedric includes his thoughts about education and how it is beneficial for humans, who naturally want to do well in life: “I was always taught in church that education is the way. My pastor would always say, people fail because of a lack of knowledge. This knowledge included God’s word and important information that can help anyone better in society.” (Pg. 241) When Cedric writes this, he says that he believes that knowledge can help humans acquire their dream of being successful in society. He believes that if one does not have knowledge, then they will not be as successful in life, and will not be able to achieve and gain things past the need for survival.

Humans are characterized by many things, one distinguishing trait being their desire and determined drive to acquire knowledge and an education to help them become better. They do this despite being put down by their peers, and told that they are hopeless fools that are never going to get anywhere in life. In “A Hope in the Unseen”, Cedric Jennings shows this determination to obtain knowledge in his high school graduation speech, where he shows that with his willpower, he will prosper. At MIT, he rises to the top of his class fueled with the determination of becoming the best. Lastly, once he gets accepted into the college of his dreams, Brown University, he expresses his beliefs that humans desire knowledge in order to flourish in society. Cedric expressed in his story that anybody- with the determination, drive, and desire to seek knowledge, can gain it, and can use it to their maximum potential. Regardless of where one comes from, ones skin color, or what people think about them, it was shown in the “America Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League”, that humans can get anywhere in the world with hard work fuelled by herculean determination.