All 5 Uses

resolve
in
The Color of Water
(Edited)

He lived in Brooklyn until near the end of his life, staying away from the thronging masses to come home on weekends, bearing food and tricycles and the resolve to fix whatever physical thing we had broken during the week.
Chpt 2

resolve = firmness of purpose
We watched in awe as Helen stood her ground, repeated her resolve not: to play for the church choir, and survived a beating with the belt by Mommy without a whimper.
Chpt 8
I knew Jack was right, and when I got back to New York in the fall of 1973 for my junior year in high school I resolved to jump back into my studies and rebuild myself.
Chpt 16 *

resolved = decided
Ma was so hurt she resolved never to go back there again, a promise she broke again and again, braving the two-hour subway and train commute from her home in Ewing, New Jersey, to sit in church, the only white person in the room, a stranger in the very church that she started in her living room.
Chpt 24
Like most mothers, she wielded tremendous power and my staunch resolve would crumble like a sandcastle before her frontal assaults, which were like tidal waves.
Chpt 25 *

resolve = determination (firmness in holding to his decision)

Definitions:

(1) (resolve as in: I resolved to stop drinking.)
to decide -- typically a firm or formal decision

In modern writing resolve is typically used to emphasize a firm or formal decision. In classic literature, it is used more frequently and often simply replaces decide or determine.
(2) (resolve as in: This committee hereby resolves...)
make a decision or voice an opinion by formal group vote
(3) (resolve as in: Her resolve weakened.)
firmness of purpose (strong determination to do something)
(4) (resolve as in: How was the problem resolved?)
to solve a problem, settle a disagreement, or for a situation to change
(5) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Less commonly, resolve can mean:
- to make clearly visible -- as in "The microscope cannot resolve that level of detail."
- to divide into parts -- as in "The problem resolves into three parts,"or (math) "Resolve the polynomial into factors," or (chemistry) "As the temperature changes, the compound resolves into its component parts," or (physics) "The force on the inclined plane resolves into horizontal and vertical components."
- reduce or convert into something else -- as in "The URL is resolved to an IP address," or (music) "The progression is resolved as the dissonance is replaced by consonance."