Perseverance through Powerlessness in "Requiem"

“Requiem” by Anna Akhmatova illustrates a heart-breaking true story of a woman in the prison of Leningrad, Russia during the World War II. She describes the pain of her loss and of her survival through several poems written from her perspective, both as a mother and wife, but also as a human sharing the pain of her experiences with many. As it is a mostly autobiographical piece, it shows the loneliness of survival through the lenses of pain, fear, love, and even hope. It opens as such:

"No, not under the vault of alien skies, / And not under the shelter of alien wings— / I was with my people then, / There, where my people, unfortunately, were."

This captures her terror and hurt for the suffering of her people found in several of her works. Throughout the poem, she shares feelings of loneliness and pain that she suffers through the death of her son and the imprisonment of her husband. Although the poems are written from the first-person perspective, they describe a common fate suffered by millions during that period, but Akhmatova persevered to share their story. Thus, one predominant theme in this work is that persevering despite hardships, loneliness, and powerlessness will allow people to move forward in life.

The poet states:

"Already she is cut off from the rest, / As if they painfully wrenched life from her heart, / As if they brutally knocked her flat, / But she goes on… Staggering… Alone…"

Akhmatova’s poems illustrate resilience and perseverance despite everything she experienced. She went on and survived despite the loneliness of her family and friends dying around her. The speaker of this poem is a woman who pushes past her hardships and her struggles to move forward with her life. She shares her story in order to move on and explain her experiences showing the strength that comes only from persevering where others have fallen or failed. It takes a special kind of person to do this since growth mindset plays a key role in perseverance.

A 2016 article published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology showed a similar positive relationship between growth mindset and well-being. The authors showed that different mindsets help individuals perceive events and lessons in different ways. The article states that "growth mindset promotes resilience while fixed one does not."

Akhmatova exemplifies a person with growth mindset and an attitude that helps them get past hardships to ultimately reap a reward.

As an encouragement to you as writers, persevere through your hardships and your creative blocks. Just as Akhmatova suffered through the prison of Leningrad, you as a writer will also suffer setbacks and blocks. For example, J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, was rejected by eleven different publishers before she eventually convinced one to publish her book. She has now become a best-selling author around the world. If she had given up, we would never have been able to enjoy her stories. Akhmatova has become a renowned author and has even had a monument built in her name across from the prison where she was kept. Don’t give up and continue pushing forward and persevering through your setbacks. Someday, you will hopefully reap the reward from your hard work and dedication.