Stone Angel Essay - pride

In numerous books, I noticed how it is looked down upon to be a prideful person. This is a lesson that too many people do not seek knowledge of. Those are the few who do not realize the way that you act towards other is only a reflection of yourself. I have seen up close and personal how being a prideful person can seriously hurt your life. In the Popol Vuh I saw them mention pride countless times and one example of that would be from the story of the twins grandparents healing the Lord. “They had desired the death of Seven Macaw, and they were able to do it. For they saw pride as evil and went to do these things according to the word of Heart of Sky.” (p. 88, PopoVuh). What is evil to one could be good to the other, just as what is good

Therefore, pride is an unatractive quality because it can cause people to only be focused on themselves, destroy relationships, and harm others. “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 our superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.” The author of this quote, John C. Maxwell, a world known leader. He is a renowned author for his inspirational books about improving one's quality of life, strategies that help business people, entrepreneurs, achieve person success in work and in life. He has changed lives throughout the world, and continues to make a lasting impression. He always motivates his fans to have a good life ahead of them. John C. Maxwell is saying, pride can be a wonderful thing, but can lead to, self destruction and harm of others. This belief is stated clearly through the short story, The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst.

Even though pride can be a good thing at times, it is hurtful, it is an emotion that can make or break someone.

This is a pivotal moment in Hagar’s life, as she could have fought for her dream and gone to South Wachakwa to teach, but instead, she gave that all up just to please her father, and to maintain her family’s reputation. With the decision to stay in Manawaka, Hagar opened a new door in the meeting of her future husband Brampton Shipley. The marriage of Bram and Hagar caused the estrangement between Hagar and her family, as they viewed Bram as common and not good enough for Hagar. Despite her family’s opinion of Bram, Hagar continued to marry him out of spite, which proves to be a detrimental point in Hagar’s life, which can be conveyed through this quote: “Never a bell rang out when I was wed. Not even my brother set foot in church that day”(Laurence 49). This quote signifies the beginning of the separation between Hagar and her father and brother. This feeling of isolation and detachment from her family is one of the reasons Hagar feels trapped in her relationship with Bram and is unable to open up to him. These past events of Hagar’s life have had a long-lasting effect that resonates in her and Bram’s unstable

Hagar’s inability to be wrong causes Bram and herself to argue throughout their relationship, such as what Bram spends his money on. Hagar does not even consider Bram’s opinions. Bram becomes so used to her stubbornness that he does not expect Hagar to ever show compassion. Hagar apologizes to Bram for the first time in their relationship following the argument, and Bram did not expect it: “Bram looked up at me with such a look of surprise that it pains me still, in recalling” (Laurence 87). Hagar’s pride impacts the relationship she has with her father and husband in a negative way; her father’s or husband’s opinion should be considered just as much as hers. Hagar treats her peers poorly because of the temporary pleasure she gets out of it, her feelings of superiority fade in her elder years because embarrassment constantly attacks her pride. Hagar feels inferior to Doris when Doris undresses her. Hagar’s insecurites outbalance her feelings of superiority, and she can show emotion to Marvin: “I’m – frightened. Marvin, I’m so frightened” (Laurence 303). Hagar redeems herself from the negativity she has brought to others lives, by changing her mindset and having a mother-son moment with Marvin for the first time since he is born. She opens up to Marvin for the first time, allowing him to apologize for being tough on her at times. Hagar provides her son with closure, and finds redemption by overcoming a problem that pride causes. She also fails to please herself because of

“There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. ‘Good pride’ represents or dignity and self respect. ‘Bad pride’ is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.” John C. Maxwell. This quote has a great explanation on good and bad pride. It helps the audience realize that good pride is great. Therefore, good pride is an amazing this to possess because it can lead someone to do terrible things, it can help one achieve their personal goals and help one preserver.

The moral of the story is the consequences of pride. Achilles is a great warrior who has a clear and a close relationship with the gods and even possesses supernatural strength. Nevertheless, his pride gets in the way of his responsibilities as a mighty man of the Achaean army. At some point, he abandons his friends and prays for their destruction. He does all this because he feels insulted by his commander, at the end of it, his friend Patroclus dies in Achilles armor and, that is when he reconciles with his commander and joins the army. Agamemnon is another prideful character who insists on leading the army to battle even though he takes no real risks. Due to his pride, his army is attacked by a plague as they have refused to return a kidnapped

A father smiling down at his son; a teacher learning from his pupil; a soldier gazing up to his country’s flag. Or a woman masking her face with makeup; a man boasting endlessly of a talent; a child cruelly mocking another child. All textbook examples of pride. Nevertheless, the first trio is of outward pride—pride not of one’s accomplishment, but those of someone or something else. The second trio consists of an inner pride—vain, conceited, and egotistical. As Jane Austen said, “A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” Although “pride goeth before the fall”, it has the capacity to be healthy if it is outward or relating to our—not society’s—view of ourselves.

The Iliad is a classic story of a Greek warrior, named Akhilleus, whose anger causes many soldiers to die during the Trojan War. When Akhilleus becomes angry, there seems to be nothing that can stop him from totally destroying his enemy. While many consider anger to be the primary factor in motivating Akhilleus, the main reason Akhilleus acts the way he does is because he is extremely self-centered.

Greed For Good: The Positive Side Of The Seven Deadly Sins defines pride as “is that dangerous desire to be more important than everyone else around you to the point that you disregard their accomplishments and harbor excessive love for one person and one person alone: yourself.” This definition really highlights the dark and sinful side of pride, and this

"Pride...is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us." (13)

Man has always had a big problem swallowing pride since the early days, it’s something that man finds very hard to put behind him. Swift the author presents this theme to us the reader in both books one and two, but he approaches it in two different was. By hitting the different points of pride he shows us not only from the point of view of a king but from the point of view of person who doesn’t want to hear the truth and own up to his flaws. Both books can be compared and both can be contrast in manageable manner and with great reasoning.

Hagar's pride prevents her from expressing her emotions or relating to other people, and as a result she turns out to be just as hard and unyeilding as the stone angel itself. She never reveals her real feelings at the risk of being thought of as "soft" and as a result she misses out on a lot of potentially great relationships. At a very young age, her pride prevents her from comforting her dying brother:

Throughout the novel, The Stone Angel, Laurence explains Hagar’s, lifelong journey of unscrambling her inner problems, in order to discover her true identity. Hagar is in the midst of determining whether she has really lived her life to its fullest potential and she considers what she could of done differently. In her old age Hagar is reexamining her past life as she moves forward on a journey toward self-discovery. It is not until the end of a long life that Hagar experiences her revelation. The forward movement of the novel is combined with moments from the past. During the beginning moments of the novel Hagar remembers herself as a young girl in this way: “There was I, strutting the board sidewalk like a pint sized peacock, resplendent, haughty, hoity-toity, Jason Currie’s black haired daughter.” (Laurence 6) Throughout her life her pride never left her side and because of this her relationships with her father, brother and husband were destroyed. Her pride also led her to the death of her son John. Her stubbornness nature resulted in her marriage to fade, Marvin to be unhappy, her daughter-in-law’s frustration, and her own death. Due to her pride she was unable to show love and affection to those around her. Even at a young age Hagar always refused to show emotion because she was too proud to let people see her weakness. This is evident when Hagar says, “I wouldn’t let him see me cry, I was so enraged” (Laurence 9) This is very unlike

Pride is one of the enemy’s devices used to cause believers to self-destruct. There are many different forms of pride in operation daily, most of those ways people may not even realize. My prayer is that through this chapter, those ways are revealed and encourage you to self-examine and prepares you to go on a journey of removing all pride from your heart and spirit.