Pride

Explanation: I just read The Illiad for literature class and had to write and journal entry.

One trend I observed throughout The Illiad was the destructive consequences of pride and selfishness that ultimately led to pain, conflict, and unjust suffering. These consequences affect not only the person who was the original source of arrogance, but an innumerable amount of people. For example, the book begins with Agamemnon being too prideful to admit that he had done wrong. When confronted about it by the Seer, he made excuses for his actions before accusing the Seer of being wrong and unfair. Why? Because what the Seer said was not beneficial to him. This attitude seems to be an unfortunate disease in our society. Less and less people seem to be taking responsibility for their actions. If a person makes a mistake, there’s always an excuse or blame can be pushed onto someone else as being the main contributor. If we see that we’ve hurt someone, either emotionally or physically, we justify our actions and claim that somehow the victim deserved it – maybe they hurt us first and we sought revenge. I know that I have hurt countless friends, family members, and acquaintances through my rude, selfish, prideful, self-seeking actions and attitude. How much longer will we go on considering ourselves better and more important than others in our lives, never realizing the damage we have inflicted? Will we be like Achilles who was unwilling to forgive the pride of Agamemnon, which in turn caused Achilles to be prideful? His lack of response resulted in the unnecessary loss of lives. Will the breaking point come only from the death or injury, physical or emotion, of a loved one? Is it only then that we will look in the mirror and realize the damage our prideful heart has done, costing the lives of innocent people, mere bystanders in the fight against ourselves? Is it only then that we will finally be broken enough to surrender our pride?