The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

“We are going through dark times. There is armed conflict in many parts of the world, racial and religious discrimination, hate crimes, terrorist attacks […] On top of that, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused so much suffering and death, loss of jobs, and economic chaos around the world. And the climate crisis, temporarily pushed into the background, is an even greater threat to our future—indeed, to all life on Earth as we know it.”

Jane is the first-person narrator of the Prologue. She uses direct address to speak to the reader, referencing a variety of current events happening around the book’s publication, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Jane uses the first-person plural pronoun “our” to address the reader, putting herself in the same group as them. This anticipates her focus on how people must engage in collective action to help the planet.

“It was David Greybeard who Jane first observed using grass stems as tools to fish out termites from a termite mound—their earthen nest. And then she saw him stripping leaves from a leafy twig to make it suitable for the purpose. At the time Western science believed only humans were capable of making tools and that this was a main reason why we were separate from all other animals.”

Doug’s first-person narration recounts a story Jane tells about her breakthrough discovery. A chimp named David Greybeard was the first chimp ever observed making and using tools. Jane counts this remarkable discovery as a moment that gave her hope after repeated failures in gaining the chimps’ trust. For Jane, this was an early lesson in The Nature and Power of Hope.

“I did some research into the relatively new field of hope studies. I was surprised to learn that hope is quite different from wishing or fantasizing. Hope leads to future success in a way that wishful thinking does not. While both involve thinking about the future with rich imagery, only hope sparks us to take action directed toward the hoped-for goal.”

This quotation characterizes Doug and contrasts him with Jane. Doug gravitates toward academic studies and quantitative research while Jane gravitates toward anecdotes and stories as evidence for The Nature and Power of Hope. In this quote, Doug’s research-based inquiry backs up Jane’s observational inquiry about how hope necessitates action.