Throughout their lives, young adults and adolescents tend to face many challenges that alter the outcome of their adulthood, either benefiting or harming them. This is evident in “The Pact,” by Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt and “Gifted Hands: A Ben Carson Story,” by Ben Carson. These two books are similar in many aspects such as: the influences and environment to which the characters are exposed; the characters' goals and struggles; and the purpose for writing the books and the lesson learned from reading the books. All these aspects together develop an underlying theme that both stories have in common. The theme is that education is the key to a peaceful life, which means that life will be easier if you mentally invest in knowledge. In both "The Pact" and "Gifted Hands" the main characters are the authors and grow up in similar environments and experience common influences. In “The Pact” it is stated that the three young men grew up in Newark, New Jersey, a poor neighborhood composed of crime, drugs, and death (Davis et.al 20). Ben Carson similarly grew up in Detroit, Michigan and in Gifted Hands it is said that his family was struggling financially so badly where they had to move in with relatives (Carson 21). The men in the two books also had both negative and positive common influences. The most influential impacts for the authors of "The Pact" are said to be their friends because the text states: "friends have more influence on the lives of others than anyone else, especially in those teenage years when kids They're trying to find out who they really are." " (Davis et al 174). However, in "Gifted Hands", Ben Carson does not mention friends as his greatest influence but mentions his mother... middle of paper... two different time periods and environments, which proves that it doesn't matter what your circumstances are because there is always someone who goes through the same kind of situation and uses the same "defense" as you to overcome it and in the case of the authors of "The Pact" and "Gifted Hands" defense was education.Works Cited"Nelson Mandela." The Biography.com website. May 3, 2014. New York, New York Publishing Group A division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2003. Print page. Carson, Ben.