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Hana Utama

Ms. Starry

English 9-H

3 April 2017

Ambition: Blessing or a Curse

Imagine this: you have a test tomorrow, this test will be your last assignment that goes
into the gradebook. You are stressing about this test because your current grade is an 89%, it is
your only B. Passing this test is imperative, so you plan to dedicate the whole night to study. But
you become so stressed out that you begin to believe that not all the odds are in your favor, and
you wont be able to pass your test. You then plan to work on the test with your friend instead of
studying. Studying test could also get you an A, and you dont have to cheat and ultimately get
caught. But you are worried that studying is not enough and you wont have your honor roll.
Ambition can cause you to walk along a thin line between right and wrong. What are you willing
to do in order to achieve your desires? Is it the journey or the destination that has become
important? Ambition can be a blessing or a curse; it could push an individual to achieve their
desired goal, or in contrast ambition could also turn into a force that brings one to do appalling
deeds without given thought to the outcomes or consequences. Today I will discuss the positive
and negative effects of ambition and how it affects the characters in A Separate Peace and
Macbeth.
Ambition is a commanding force that helps one to achieve their goals, and if used

correctly it can have rewarding outcomes. Take Gregg and Drew Shipp as an example, fraternal

twins who both co-own Hi Fi Personal Fitness club. In a Time article Jeffrey Kluger stated that

the twins had completely changed themselves once they graduated college, ... both Shipps had

entirely transformed themselves, changing from boys who might have grown up to live off the

familys wealth to men consumed with going out and creating their own (Kluger). The boys

consider themselves to be maniacally ambitious, for them there is a thirst that needs to be

quenched. Without ambition nothing in this world would be accomplished, there would be no

dreams, no aspirations, and no motivation.

As previously stated, Ambition can cause one to walk along a thin line between right and

wrong. What happens when one falls into the wrong side of ambition? What happens when your
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goal becomes more important than your journey? What happens when ambition turns us into

dishonest, corrupt, and destructive human beings (Samuelson)? To illustrate the effect of

negative ambition take runner Marion Jones, who was one of the worlds biggest track and field

athletes and was the first female to win five medals in one of the Olympics. But in 2003, Jones

was convicted of taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs and was stripped of all her medals.

Harvey Araton for the NY Times marveled at how her ambition had destroyed her career, ... you

wondered how a poised, college-educated woman could have failed to comprehend the

difference between public spin and the risk of legal self-destruction. Does transcendent stardom

blind these people to how far there is to fall? (Araton). Joness ambition had blinded her from

seeing the consequences from her decision to use drugs and instead she only saw the glory of

winning. As stated by Robert Samuelson in the The Downside of Ambition, As ambition

inflates, so does self-absorption. Everything else in life deflates. (Samuelson). To sum up, when

ambition is misused it can drive one to become distracted and forget the consequences of their

actions.

In the book A Separate Peace and the play Macbeth, ambition has played out to be both

negative and positive. From the beginning of A Separate Peace the reader could immediately tell

that Phineas is an ambitious teenager. He was the first student to ever think of jumping off the

tree, Gene described Phineass plan as insane, No one but Phineas could think up such a crazy

idea. He of course saw nothing the slightest bit intimidating about it. He wouldnt, or wouldnt

admit it if he did. Not Phineas. (Knowles 14). Phineass ambition had caused him to jump out of

the tree which in turn convinced the other boys including Gene to jump as well. In the play,

Macbeth , Macbeth was ambitious to be the king of Scotland. Macbeths ambition brought him to

become king, but he also turned evil. In a soliloquy Macbeth describes his ambition as black with
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deep desires, Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black deep desires. The eye wink at the

hand; yet that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see (1.4.55-60). Macbeths ambition

brought him to do atrocious acts like killing King Duncan and others who were in his way. All in

all Phineass ambition brought him to positive outcomes, while Macbeths ambition brought him

to his own downfall.

Ambition is not necessarily good or bad but instead is determined by its beholder,

whether a person decides to turn their ambition into a drive for good or decides to abuse it for

wrongful deeds ambition is a powerful trait that launches dreams and aspirations into reality.

How do you use your ambition? Do you abuse it or use it for good? Its up to you whether you

allow ambition to control you or instead you decide control ambition.

Works Cited

Araton, Harvey. Blinded and Broken by Ambition. The New York Times, The New York Times,

11 Jan. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/sports/othersports/12araton.html. Accessed

27 Mar. 2017.

Economy, Peter. The Remarkably Positive Power of Ambition. Inc.com, Inc., 27 May 2016,

www.inc.com/peter-economy/the-remarkably-positive-power-of-ambition.html. Accessed

27 Mar. 2017.

Kluger, Jeffrey. Ambition: Why Some People Are Most Likely to Succeed. Time, Time Inc., 6

Nov. 2005, content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1126746,00.html. Accessed

27 Mar. 2017.

Knowles, John. Separate Peace. Place of Publication Not Identified, Simon & Schuster Ltd,

2016.
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Press, Associated. Jones Stripped of Five Olympic Medals, Banned from Beijing Games.

ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 12 Dec. 2007,

www.espn.com/olympics/trackandfield/news/story?id=3151367. Accessed 27 Mar. 2017.

Samuelson , Robert. Articles - The Downside of Ambition. RealClearPolitics, The Washington

Post Writers Writers Group , 17 Oct. 2007,

www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/10/the_downside_of_ambition.html. Accessed

27 Mar. 2017.

Shakespeare, William, and Kenneth Muir. Macbeth. London, Bloomsbury, 2013.