genre 1: Orientation
The question of ambition and what role it plays in one’s life manifests itself expansively in both literature and current events alike. It is a theme that opens doors to a wide range of topics, from scientific discovery to interpersonal relationship; it is multiplicitous. Thus, I hope to use each of the sources I have chosen to move through different avenues that the question of ambition invokes. Explicitly stated, the question that will drive the multi-genre inquiry project is: what role does ambition play in one’s life? My goal is for each source to expand upon the complexity of ambition and its interconnectedness to all aspects of students’ lives.
I chose my essential question because of the centrality of ambition in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein’s ambitions regarding scientific innovation (particularly his desire to animate the inanimate) spark the novel’s conflict and tension. Once he achieves his ambitions, Shelley asks her readers to bear witness to the unintended consequences of Victor’s ambitions. Thus, one text I would like to connect to my question is Dr. Faustus. This text is, of my chosen sources, the most like Frankenstein. Like Victor Frankenstein, Dr. Faustus has a preoccupation with acquiring new knowledges and, more importantly, expanding the domain of human achievements. Dr. Faustus trades his soul to the devil for the ability to manipulate reality beyond human possibility. Dr. Faustus pushes readers to think about the connection between ambition and power (particularly the abuse of power). I hope this will encourage students to engage with the question of what motivates ambition and how to describe and assess those motivations.
Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman approaches the question of ambition through a bit of a different perspective. The play centers around a salesman and his struggle to live up to a set of prescribed ambitions/goals. This text is valuable in that it points to the question of where our ambitions come from. Are our ambitions truly our own, or do they come from societal conventions? Are we aware of those societal forces that shape our ambitions? This text also opens the topic of the American Dream, which I think could be a relatable concept for students in an American classroom.
The concept of the American Dream presents another avenue through which students can explore the question of ambition. I think this is an important concept to explore because it enables students to see how ambitions play out on a societal/collective level rather than just the individual level. The article I will use to explore this concept is titled “Ta-Nehisi Coates is right: The American Dream is a lie” from an online publication titled The Week. This article challenges the prevailing narrative of the American Dream, one that insists upon a vision of America as a land of equal opportunity and upward mobility. The article works to dispel the mythos of American exceptionalism by focusing on the systematic subjugation of minority populations in America. This article will encourage students to think critically about the ways in which appeals to ambition are used in the construction of a national identity. Furthermore, this article will push students to think about the politics of such conceptions of national identity (i.e. who is included and who is excluded?) This could also enable students to think about the historical role that ambition has played in the creation (and destruction) of civilizations.
Another text I could connect to my question is the Book of Genesis, particularly the story of Adam and Eve. I hope that this text can encourage students to think of ambition as somewhat of an archetypal literary element. The story of Adam and Eve is an allegorical expression of human desire to push beyond the boundaries of what is known. Thus, this text can show just how deeply entwined the theme of ambition is within human history. In some ways, the story of Adam and Eve (according to Christian tradition) is humankind’s first experience with ambition. Interestingly enough, it leads to the fall of man. How might this text inform literary traditions and modes of thought in our society?
As far as current events go, there are a number of relevant topics that I can connect to my question. Firstly, the concept of automation is extremely relevant. Today, we have lofty goals of automating activities like driving. This kind of automation is certainly a collective ambition of the modern age. However, this kind of automation presents a number of unintended consequences. For example, a large portion of the American work force is employed by driving jobs (truck drivers, taxis, etc) and to automate their labor could cause serious economic instability. Automation provides an interesting interrogation of ambition as it relates to technology, demonstrating the complexity of ambitious endeavors.
Another current event to connect to my question is the series of scientific advancements being made towards the colonization of Mars. This is perhaps the outermost limit of our scientific advancements, pushing the frontier of human possibilities. However, how do such ambitions as colonizing Mars effect our cultural mentality towards the resources of the Earth? The article “Should we leave Earth to colonize Mars…,” considers this question. This article will spark a number of questions for students to reflect on. For example: do our ambitions to seek life on other planets effect the way that we perceive and treat our current planet? This keys into a central tension in my question of ambition: how does looking forward with ambition effect our treatment of the present? Do we often overlook what we have in preference of what we hope to attain or achieve? Lastly in terms of current events, I could not help but draw the connection between the colonization of Mars and the U.S. involvement in the Middle East (i.e. colonization). How do our national ambitions shape the way that we interact with the rest of the world? I hope that this conversation will encourage students to think critically about ambition as it plays out in the world with modern nation-states.
I found two scholarly articles to connect to the question of ambition. The first is titled “New Generation, Great Expectations: A Field Study of the Millennial Generation.” This article talks about the shifting generational paradigms, particularly as they relate to the work force. It focuses on the differences between millennials’ and their parents’ generation in terms of what they hope to get out of their work. This article brings in the conversation of how ambition, as a socially constructed concept, changes as the cultural climate and attitudes of new generations change and react to the modern world. The second article I found is titled “The City and Westward Expansion: A Western Case Study.” This article examines cities as centralized sites of ambition in the times of American westward expansion. In a sense, this article sets up cities as emblems of ambition that serve to fortify the will of a nation. It could be interesting to explore physical embodiments of ambition (i.e. skyscrapers, stone henge, etc.)
Works Cited
Marlowe, Christopher. Dr. Faustus. Dover ed, Dover, 1994.
Ng, Eddy S. W., et al. “New Generation, Great Expectations: A Field Study of the Millennial Generation.” Journal of Business and Psychology, vol. 25, no. 2, 2010, pp. 281–292. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40605786.
Shelley, Mary, and Keren Karbiener. Frankenstein. Barnes & Noble, 2003.
Should We Live on Mars? NASA Astronaut Ron Garan Believes We Should Focus on Fixing Problems on Earth Instead of Martian Colonization — Quartz. https://qz.com/907211/should-we-live-on-mars-nasa-astronaut-ron-garan-believes-we-should-focus-on-fixing-problems-on-earth-instead-of-martian-colonization/. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.
Stelter, Gilbert. “The City and Westward Expansion: A Western Case Study.” The Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, 1973, pp. 187–202. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/967171.
Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Right. 21 July 2015, http://theweek.com/articles/567203/tanehisi-coates-right-american-dream-lie.
The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.