My Greatest Ambition- Morris Lurie Essay

My Greatest Ambition is more or less a young Australian boy of thirteen who has a intake of being a comic hand artist. This dream is rubbished and scoffed at by everyone whom he knows. He has to keep his desire a secret from his parents as they constitute little or no support for such frivolous activities. However, the young Lurie follows his ambition and makes his first comic strip and sends it to a dying magazine. Seeing his clear the editors of this magazine considers asking young Lurie to work for them as a fulltime employee.Here Morris Lurie highlights the prejudiced and judgmental mind-sets of adults towards the capabilities of the youth. Lurie skillfully commits desire to highlight some important breaks in the order of magnitude. He twists the words and the words to get his point across to the readers in the most entertaining fashion. Lurie uses techniques such as irony, imagery, dialogue, typical teenage exaggerated language and different point of views to make his s tory most enjoyable. At the opening of the story, Nu hilariously describes his peers as There they sat, the astronomer, the nuclear physicist, the business tycoon (on the stock exchange), cardinal mathematicians, three farmers, countess chemists, a handful of doctors all aged thirteen and all with their heads in the clouds.Dreamers Idle speculators A generation of hopeless romantics Here, Lurie uses the exaggerated and overtly striking language of a typical thirteen year old who thinks he knows everything. Also this idea is very ironic as in most societys professions such as doctors and chemists would be considered perfectly normal and creditable. And the idea of becoming a comic book artist would be considered pure fancy. Something which is not stable or keepable.Therefore it is ironic that Lurie thinks of children who aim of having a conventional and conservative occupation as idle dreams and hopeless romantics. Morris Lurie in like manner makes wonderful use of imagery in th is short story. read by the sorts that were always t sitting under trees and wearing glasses and squinting and turning pages with licked fingers?An august prospect His sarcastic description of people who read stories without any pictures forms an ideal visual imagery in the readers minds. Lurie also describes the comical garb taking books out f the library and wears to the meeting and the struggle which lead to the final decision. The description of his Good Suit which was slightly short for him at the ankles and the clavus yellow, silk tie which with the proper Windsor knot would prevent anyone to look elsewhere. This provides a vivid visual. Luries conversation with Ms. Gordon also provides wonderful auditoria imagery.He also uses imagery when he illustrates how Nu humouredly imagined himself walking into his office through a garden of exotic plants with a pipe in his mouth. our eyes met and I would smile, or was that smile stretched across my portray from the second I came in? Gives another hilarious deterrent example of imagery which is spread throughout the story. The conversation and description of his father is a perfect example of the way Lurie shows the typical teenage exaggeration and uses amusing dialogue to highlight prominent problems in the society.The discourse with Nus father where the father is only concerned in the money shows how badly the father is influencing his son. As the father was materialistic and money minded the son feels defensive and begins to think about the money he will receive too. Maybe Ill decide not sell them. Which I will if the price isnt right. This is one of the perfect examples of how the author uses humor to emphasize on social trouble. The description of his clothes shows another instance where teenagers exaggerate and hyperbole.He also foreshadows the fate of the young Nus comic book artiste dream when he writes about the reaction of the editor when he sees Lurie live or the first time. The awkward behavior and the disappointment at Nu age gave hints about how any more of Nus comic strip will be treated. As long they didnt know the age of Lurie he was given the respect his work deserved. But as soon as they discovered Lurie to be thirteen he was dismissed with a capacity of a child. The author also shows how disappointed and humiliated Nu was being at being treated as inferior.In this wonderful story issues such as parental negligence and the judgmental and narrow mindedness of a rigid society is shown. Problems all teenagers face such as lack of support and teenage angst which is usually not considered as an issue and are stereotyped and dealt with and an indifferent sigh Teenager. Theyll grow out of it. In this story Lurie shows how this attitude and narrow-mindedness can actually suppress natural natural endowment and passion. Again, in My Greatest Ambition Morris Lurie uses great language and humor to create an entertaining but indirectly instructing story.