Selfish Ambition In We Were Liars

Lies are often told spontaneously as the result of troubling events occurring to someone or something and are often used to manipulate segments of these events in order to attempt to alleviate the trouble or punishment given to the causer of the event. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Dimmesdale committed a sin and has withheld this secret for the rest of the town, while he watched the other perpetrator of the sin be punished, ridiculed, and isolated by the town of Boston. The pressure and guilt of lies is often too great of a force to withstand, judging by a past life experience, Dimmesdale reviled his secret to alleviate this dreadful feeling of pressure and guilt.

Hawthorne once said, “Deception may give us what we want for the present, but will later take it away in the end.” Thus being said, it is inevitable to portray the actions of deception toward others. Many adolescents today seek pleasure in this particular behavior. The continuous cycle occurs in asking oneself, “Why do we put others down in order to put ourselves up?” In the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, selfishness and intentional dishonesty is intensely demonstrated throughout the characters. Readers are simply introduced to characters through only detailed and descriptive character traits. This enables readers to take a dive into the mind of each character to analyze different perspectives. The breakdown of these characters do result in their own parallel lives, yet the development of relationships between each other occur. In particular, Anse, Jewel, and Darl resemble these traits of misleading personalities.

In the novel The Running Man by Michael Gerard Bauer, the author captures the experiences of a marginalised character, Tom Leyton. The use of the silkworm metaphor invites the audience to uncover the dark secrets of Tom Leyton 's mysterious past. The introduction of the character Joseph Davidson provides the author with a catalyst to open the metaphor of the silkworm and take the reader on a journey to understand the life experiences of Tom Leyton. Joseph Davidson, who is portrayed as someone with poor self esteem is also described as an outsider. The running man is used by the author to reveal the experiences of Joseph Davidson and demonstrate his growth of becoming less marginalised throughout the novel. By creating characters in the novel who are excluded and labelled the author demonstrates how cruel society can be to people. The purpose of this essay is to show how the author reveals the experiences of marginalised characters in society.

Is ignorance bliss? Or can true happiness come only from knowledge? In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist, Guy Montag, lives in a futuristic, dystopian version of the United States in which knowledge is frowned upon, ignorance runs rampant, and uniformity is imperative. To fit in with the societal assumption that sameness equates to happiness, Guy feels he must conform and play the part of a contented citizen. However, Guy frequently finds himself questioning the validity of his society’s mindless, materialistic approach to life. This disharmony between inward thought and outward action catalyzes Montag’s desire for change, leads him to deeper introspection, and contributes to the novel’s central message that if one remains

In Robertson Davies’ novel Fifth Business, the author utilizes the characters to illustrate that a person’s guilt may become a deadly venom to their conscience if it is carried as a burden throughout their life. This only leads to the deterioration of the characters, themselves. Paul Dempster’s guilt begins as a child when his father, Amasa Dempster, starts to blame him for his mother’s simple behaviour. Being a gullible child, Paul’s father is able to strictly reform how Paul thinks of himself. The words of Amasa’s verbal abuse continue to form Paul’s life as he immerses himself with guilt over what his mother has become. As an adult Paul still believes “it was [his] birth that made her like that” (Davies 266). His father who was the man responsible

Since humans romanticize war, Death can strike any family. This is demonstrated in Luis Valdez, in the 1969 play,”The Buck Private” demonstrates that. Valdez supports hi argument by illustrating stock characters, by using death as a main character, and flashbacks show Johnny’s, the protagonist,reasons for enlisting to earn respect, and the consequences of his enlistment; his death.Valdez’s purpose is to entertain the audience and protest the Vietnam War so that the audience stops glamorizing war and starts recognizing its dangers. Valdez writes in a satirical tone for young adults. Johnny was young and irresponsibly drank heavily so, that makes him not be a tragic hero because his motives were not honorable since he had nothing better to do.

In life, humans have many different traits that describes themself. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass shows life a slave in the nineteenth century. In the story, Douglass brings us back in time to show his experiences of the hypocrisy of human nature. Disputes with Douglass and his masters are seen throughout the story showing both the good and bad traits of human nature. American literature of the nineteenth century reveals that human nature embodies contrasting traits such as love and cruelty through the uses of literary devices.

Pride is an aspect of life that has the ability to either improve or impede on one’s life. It is a reality that many despise. trans……… In the captivating novel, Johnny Tremain, a young boy struggles with the idea of pride. Gifted in every way imaginable, especially silver smithing, the young boy, Johnny, let’s it go to his head. This results in conceited actions, haughty remarks, and an overall arrogance which illuminates from the young boy’s body. Life serves exceptionally Johnny well, until a heinous accident falls upon him, leaving him maimed and useless. Since he no longer attained the incredible talent of silver smithing, Places switched, tables turned, and the once pride full, rude, egoistic boy becomes hated due to the way he once treated everyone else. Johnny allowed his talent and pride to travel into his massive, bloated head. Although enjoyable in the moment, the type of pride Johnny possessed harmed him later on. As John C. Maxwell once stated, “There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. ‘Good pride’ represents our dignity and self-respect. ‘Bad pride’ is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.” Pride is not always a harmful attribute. People just have to understand the difference between ‘bad pride’ and ‘good pride’.

What is ambition? Ambition is the determination to achieve one’s goals. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare the protagonist, Macbeth, possesses ambition, which led to his downfall. In the play Macbeth’s ambition is driven by prophecies from witches and his wife’s aspiration. Ambition caused Macbeth to commit multiple homicides and after those wrongdoings Macbeth is left with nothing. At the end of the play, Macbeth’s ambition caused him to lose Lady Macbeth to suicide and to no longer have moral sense. Ambition led to Macbeth’s downfall because Lady Macbeth and the witches caused him to make brainless decisions that caused his collapse.

The Chicago World Fair stirred many emotions in this great time of industrialization, but not only was Chicago shining in the spotlight from the fair, it was also promoting something much more sinister, this dark enclosing spotlight shined directly on H.H Holmes. Burnham the leader of the World Fair and H. H Holmes the notorious serial killer, are the two main characters in this novel that Erik Larson uses the balance between light and dark between these two’s personalities. In the novel The Devil in the White City Erik Larson uses Imagery, paradox, and alliteration to show the balance between the light and dark in the ever growing city of Chicago.

Ambition is a powerful force and is a common motif. While ambition does positively benefit the wielder by giving them the necessary will and motivation to pursue after their goals and dreams, it can also harm those around the person. In doing so, the person themselves is also harmed. In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, it is clearly shown how ambition’s negative impact on others plays into the harm it beings on the wielder.

In Arthur Miller's “The Crucible” (1953), it is shown that people seem to forget basic morals when dealing with mass hysteria. Puritans in the play do not want the devil or any other demonic figures such as witches in their community, they will go to great lengths, as far as turning their back on their own people to get rid of these demonic figures as shown in “The Crucible”. This idea of witches in the community caused chaos in the village which led to the deaths of 20 people in the village. Do people in the play not care about the consequences other people face because of their actions? In the play, loyalty falls far below self selfishness in the face of mass hysteria.

Station Eleven, a science fiction novel written by Emily ST. John Mandel, tells the stories of characters’ lives and careers before and after the Georgia Flu, is a strong infection causing infected patients’ deaths within forty eight hours. Mandel describes feelings and actions of characters about their home islands, their places in their world, and two categories of art, high and low, which trigger survivors’ different responses, to mimic modern citizens’ emotions and points of view about their current society. By constructing an imitation of modern citizens’ feelings in the book, Mandel shows readers how their lives will become after losing their current positions in order to remind them that they need to appreciate what they have and not

In this excerpt “from The Tell-tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe creates the supercilious character of an unnamed narrator through indirect characterization. Using the components of character motivation, internal thoughts, and actions, Poe portrays a story about deception and reveals the feelings of superiority, and ultimately guilt, that is invoked by the pretense of innocence.

The novel ‘A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove’ by the author, James Maloney, is a story about the protagonist named Carl Matt, who faces many issues and tribulations as a teenager. The protagonist is left with the responsibility of his younger brother, while also managing insecurities of his own, regarding body image, love, and neglect. Maloney demonstrates the following themes, by using his protagonist as the victim of some of the modern issues facing today’s society.