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The folly of ambition
The folly of ambition
Professional growth and career aspirations
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One of the hazards of ambition is the way it causes an individual’s self-esteem to drop severely when the wrong kind of ambition is developed. In the excerpt from Elizabeth Hay’s novel, Late Nights on Air, she illustrates this theme when the main character suffers emotional issues related to overriding ambitions. Hay shows how a person, such as Gwen, can become trapped in their own ambitions and lose sight of what they are doing to others and themselves. In my own experience, I understand how ambition can change the life of others physically, socially, and mentally. Ambition has the ability to push people to great heights, but many people do not take time to understand the consequences of it. Often times, ambition pushes an individual away from others, makes one lose sight of what is actually important to them, and fills them with thoughts of failure. In Late Nights on the Air, Gwen is one of the two new announcers in a radio station. Of the two, Gwen is the most ambitious, yet, at the same time, she did not realize that her ambitions are slowly eating her soberness. Her drive to become a great announcer like her trainer, Abe Lamont, has caused her to become bitter and caustic with her co-workers, which has brought up comments like “She’s so judgmental,” and “But compared to you she’s inexperienced and unsure of herself. She’s shy.” These comments made Gwen feel wounded and doubtful of her choices. Gwen has not realized how to control her ambition to …show more content…
In the excerpt from Hay’s novel, Late Night on the Air, Gwen has become trapped in her own ambition and lost sight of what it is doing to herself and those around her. I understand how dangerous ambition can be, especially when it leads to depression, and unbalanced social lives. Ambition is an amazing thing, but only when it is used properly and
Any goal in life is achieved through ambition, fueled by determination, desire and hard work. Ambition maybe a driving force to success or to a pit of failure, the path chosen by an individual determines the end. Remember that any goal to be fulfilled needs desire, desire that strives to do good or greedy desire that is selfish. Also the actions that contribute to our ‘hard work’ need to be morally and ethically right to enjoy the sweet success. However, when the desire and determination is stronger than conscience, many tend to fail often reach or don’t reach what they strived for, leaving them emotionally or even physically dead. The inner lying consequence of ambition is clearly stated by Napoleon, he quotes “Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principals which direct them”. The undesirable consequence of ambition can be observed in the lives of the protagonists of ‘The Great Gatsby and Macbeth. This describes the direction in which ambition is driven could change the end result, it is simply based on the individual itself rather than the dream they seek to achieve. Therefore, the strong drive of ambition helps the seeker attain their goal but greedy desires and wrong paths taken eventually lead to downfall.
Elizabeth always had the dream of becoming a writer one day, she did not realize however just how close she was to reaching her long held dream.
What Jessica desires is to be in control and she sees an opportunity to achieve this within the popular group of the school. Jessica earns her position within her clique by being demanding. She scrutinizes students at school, and her dominant demeanor allows her to control people’s behaviours. Although Jessica plays her part exceptionally well, Valerie is able to see through the facade. During a conversation between Jessica and Val, Val sees the true Jessica. She says, “The confidence was gone, the superiority was missing - all replaced by this weird vulnerability that didn’t look right on her,” (Brown 215). Valerie sees that without her public persona, Jessica is vulnerable. What Jessica desires is control, and without it she feels just as insignificant as those she picks on. By developing a public persona of a confident teenager, Jessica controls people’s lives and makes an impact on others, positive or
Motivation was something that Lena never lacked. “I’m going to get my mother out of that old sod house where she’s lived so many years. The men will never do it.” Lena took her mother’s fate into her own hands when it was not socially acceptable for her to do so.
The style in which characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby conduct their relationships shows how ambition and lack of it causes destruction.
Motivation is the main element towards success. Students, scientist, teachers and/ or any individual who wants to reach a goal needs to be motivated/ambitious. This motivation/ambition is what guides and keep people going. This ambition may be geared towards inventing/creating something, obtaining more money, and/or succeeding. The ambition people have are good, but sometimes lead to bad consequences. These consequences set the relationship between action and ambition. But, no matter what the goal is people with ambitions will not stop until their goal is met. Ambition towards obtaining something is what motivates people. For example Victor Frankenstein wanted to create a human being. As Mary Shelley writes in "Frankenstein", Victor Frankenstein wanted to be "the first to break through life and death ideal bonds"(231). His ambition was to create a human and to break these boundaries. But most importantly, he wanted to be recognized as the first individual to do this. This recognition would make him famous forever. The only thing he thought of was to break the boundaries of life and create a human creature.
Andi Anderson (Kate Hudson) is a beautiful, young, and successful writer who maintains a “How-To” section in “Composure” magazine. Her dream is to “write about things that matter, like politics and the environment, and foreign affairs- things I’m interested in.” (How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, time stamp 02:00). She knows that the only way she will eventually be able to write about subjects she’s passionate about is to be successful in writing her superficial “How-To” section in the magazine.
Pittman, Wendy. Elisa's Unfulfilled Desire. 9 July 1998. Online. Internet. 29 November 2000. Available http://spectrum.troyst.edu/~rqray/english/wendy.htm
Rodriguez, Richard. "The Achievement of Desire." Petrosky, Anthony and David Bartholomae. Ways of Reading An Anthology for Writers. Boston ; New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. 516-532.
In William Faulkner’s “Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature,” he asserted, “It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past” (Faulkner). Humans, by nature, are capable of achieving the unimaginable. However, individuals often do not believe very strongly in this ability. While they possess the potential, many people do not have enough determination to reach toward their goals and “not merely endure: prevail” (Faulkner). As expressed by Faulkner, writers hold the duty to motivate their readers in an optimistic way. Although many individuals believe that the “writer’s duty” is primarily
Knowledge is an addictive drug. If administered in controlled dosages, it has the ability to cure a critical illness; however, if taken whimsically and in excess, it acts as a consumptive toxin that can result in powerful suffering or even death. If this is the case, then what makes knowledge so desirable? Throughout their texts, Aeschylus and Shelley depict numerous characters in mad pursuit of knowledge, like Victor’s creature from Frankenstein or Io from Prometheus Bound. Yet, one after another, characters are propelled into an existence of utter despair because of their unquenchable thirst for new enlightenment. Prometheus Bound and Frankenstein demonstrate that the pursuit of knowledge often results in grave suffering, physically and mentally; yet, Shelley and Aeschylus’ characters cannot abandon their chases, as knowledge provides the ultimate form of individual glory, power, and freedom.
In society today, limitations are bestowed to humans at birth and range from economic class, culture, and a country they were born into. All the previous examples of limitations only limit a person to the extent the person allows. People developed these situations into perceived shortcomings or they reason they can not to rise above or grow passed where they started. Maya Angelou, in “Graduation Day,” writes about situations she perceived as limitations, however, throughout the paper the obstacles she faced become the catalyst for growing belief in herself. Awareness that shortcomings develop from a mind’s own negative perception; sheds the light on the fact that limitations cultivate self-actualization.
...rn day society, illusive ambitions can be incredibly detrimental, just as they are demonstrated to be in Macbeth. Ambitions, if they are untamed, can be an impediment to free will; they can overpower your good conscience, possibly leading you into causing death and destruction. They can also corrupt one’s mental health, while practically morphing that person’s perception of reality into something demonstrably wrong and twisted. Finally, they can boost ones ego to a point where that person is engulfed and imprisoned in the vehemence of their own denial, which can ultimately bear fatal consequences. If one’s hopes and desires are innately destructive, then it logically follows that that one’s ambition is also innately destructive; be wary of one with an immense ambition.
Her role as a wife and a mother starts to become her daily routine, and she is not satisfied with it. She tries her best to satiate herself. She starts making efforts to achieve different approaches to satisfy these efforts but still “she does not get pleasure in her duties” (Goodwin 39), and this is the reason why she always get dissatisfaction in her life. Her dissatisfaction with this role in life also leads the narrator protagonist to try on other roles. Though she tries on many, none of these seem to satisfy her either; she "tried these personalities on like costumes, then discarded them" (Goodwin 38). Her inability to find any role that satisfies her probably contributes to her general sense of helplessness, and continues to withdraw from her family. Since she cannot find any particular role that suits her, she attempts not to have any role at all; the coldness and isolation of the undecorated white room make it seem that she is trying to empty herself of her previous life.
I truly believe that every single person in the world has a purpose in life. God created each and every one of us for a reason. Whether we know it or not our life is planned and we follow a path throughout our life. In this path, we have the option to make good decisions or bad decisions. In order to achieve salvation and enter a virtuous after life we had to do deeds that had a positive impact on other people. In order to do this though, one must have the self-discipline and devotion to God. There are many obstacles that can get in the way of achieving this goal and the main one is our desires. Desire is a strong feeling of something we want or wish to have. Our desire negatively impacts our life because it detaches our body both physically and emotionally from our mind which then influences us to make morally wrong decisions.