Good Pride Is Good Or Bad Analysis

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“There are two kinds of pride both good and bad. ‘Good pride’ represents our dignity and self-respect. ‘Bad pride’ is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance” (John C. Maxwell). John C. Maxwell, the famous motivational speaker once stated this quote as a way to encourage others about the good and bad qualities of pride. In other words, John C. Maxwell is saying that pride itself can tell a lot about a person. The way they express their pride is how we as people define others. This quote sums up the diversity of how we think about pride. Whether pride is good or bad or a combination of both, we still see it everyday . Thus, pride is an unattractive quality to process because it causes destruction of relationships, produces …show more content…

One may argue that Pride can motivate individuals to help others. For example, in the short “The Scarlet Ibis” it says “I should have committed defeat but my pride wouldn’t let me” (Hurst 174). This proves that pride can be used as motivation to help others because instead of giving up on helping Doodle, the brother still continued to work with Doodle. In addition pride can improve one’s self image. .A second example from the short story is “But all of us must have something or someone to be proud of and Doodle was mine” (173). This proves that pride can be used to improve a person’s self image because self image does not only come from our personal behavior, but it also comes from how we treat others. The narrator improved his self image by helping out his younger disabled brother and showed the world that if you stay true to yourself and work hard, anything is possible. To conclude, many people can look at pride in a bad way, but it is clearly true that pride isn't always …show more content…

Even though, there may be examples of good pride, there is much more evidence on how pride is an unattractive quality to possess. “When Doodle was 5 years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother that couldn't walk”(169). This proves that pride can cause a loss of relationships of family members and friends. If Doodle had been able to walk the narrator would have looked at Doodle in a completely different way, but instead he left his pride take over him. Along with this, pride can lead an individual to hurt others. “He lay there very awkwardly, with his head thrown back, making his vermilion neck usually appear long and slim...I began to weep and the tear-blurred vision in red before me is very familiar”(176). This proves that pride can hurt others because if the narrator had not left Doodle alone during the thunderstorm, he would not have had a heartattack. Finally pride can make a person egotistical. For example “They did not know that I did it for myself, whose slave I was spoke to me louder than any of their voices, and that Doodle only walked because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother”(173). This proves that pride can cause arrogance because the narrator was only motivated to help Doodle because of the fact that he was embarrassed of having a disabled younger brother. As a conclusion, clearly, there is much more evidence that pride is a destructive quality that only leads to terrible