What Makes Sammy Run And My Life — страница 2

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thinking nothing but me. I just kept saying Sammyglicksammyglick over and inside my head and it kept growing louder SAMMYGLICKSAMMYGLICK (33). Insincerity in human relationship, unfairness in competition, disloyalty, disregard of others, these are some of the typical characteristics of Sammy Glick and of all the other people that try to imitate Sammy Glick. Sammy is fighter for money and publicity, a ruthless careerist. His constant drive to capture every opportunity that emerges on the horizon has absorbed everything human Sammy has ever possessed. He is unable to build a family or maintain a relationship. ?You are physically incapable of having friends?All you can ever have are enemies and stooges?(26). Doing favors is also not one of his best characteristics. ?I found out long

ago that was a sucker?s trick. It leaves you wide open?(13). He is an individualist, relying on his own strengths and capabilities, and not letting anybody else in his realm. This is why he never allows Rosalie to come too close to him, and then, when he finally finds his love, it is hard for him understand that Laurette has her own private world and he is not to be let in it. The romantic and the sentimental cannot find a place in Sammy?s life. It is simply not natural for him. Sammy Glick is a ?frantic marathoner? of life, ?springing out of his mother?s womb, turning life into a race in which the only rules are fight for the rail, and elbow on the turn, and the only finish-line is death?(xvii) And the finish line soon comes to Sammy. He destroyed by all the characteristics he

possesses. Alone, crying for friends, and people he can laugh with. ?My mind skipped from conquest to conquest, like the scrapbook on his exploits I had been keeping ever since that memorable birthday party at the Algonquin,? writes Al Manheim remembering of Sammy?s life. ?It was a terrifying and wonderful document, the record of where Sammy ran, and if you looked behind the picture and between the lines you might even discover what made him run. And some day I would like to see it published, as a blue print of a way of life that was paying dividends in America in the first half of the twentieth century?(276). Sammy Glick is a ?victim of cultural conditions?(xvii) and poor living standards. I think it is the Western civilization that created the Sammy Glicks. All the numerous

opportunities for advancement and personal fulfillment make people forget what their life is really about. It is all image that counts. Other people judge how successful one is, by all the ?dead possessions? one has. People waste their lives sitting behind heavy wooden desks and watch cheap, ?crappy? movies from Hollywood, but forget about the simple pleasures in life. I would not imagine life without going to the mountain, feeling the breeze hit my forehead, and smelling the pleasant aroma of flowers and pines. The Sammy-drive is still to be found everywhere in America, in every field of endeavor and among every racial group. It will survive as long as money and prestige and power are ends in themselves, running wild, unharnessed from usefulness (xiv). The Moral Compass serves

as a moral education. The different chapters and the stories they contain teach young people of hard work, perseverance, courage, compassion, responsibility, discipline, and many other virtues that a person should have, when he leaves his home-place in the search for self-fulfillment. Most of the stories included in the book constitute a journey. Each story is a ?moral compass? that guides humans through their lives. The book can also be used to build one?s character. Young children are susceptible to these teachings. Those stories create a model that children follow until they grow up. The first chapter teaches that home is the most beloved place. A well built family, which is based on mutual respect and understanding between the spouses, enables the creative atmosphere that

children need. Some stories like What Bradley Owed and The Boy Who Kissed His Mother reveal the altruistic love between a son and his mother. I heard a footstep behind me, And the sound of a merry laugh, And I knew the heart it came from Would be like a comforting staff In the time and the hour of trouble, Hopeful and brave and strong; One of the hearts to lean on When we think that things go wrong. (The Moral Compass 72) Mother is always the one who takes care of her child. She is the one that has given life to him and he is part of her. Sometimes I have evidenced my own contempt towards my mother?s reproaches, but in the end I realize that everything she does, she does it for me. I love my mother, because she has always been the one help me and to give solace in my saddest and