EN 101: Composition I
05 Nov 2014
A More Subtle Effect The effects of greed can be dreadful. The obsession over materialistic goods, like money, can preoccupy their entire time with getting more of it and cause great deals of stress in losing it. That is the first downside when people think of greed. However, there is another subtle effect of this, and that is depression. When a person becomes filled with greed, this can lead to them cutting important people from their life to help them focus on obtaining and retaining the object or idea of their greed. Given enough time and loss of their idea or object, this effect can also lead to depression. It is important that we take pride in what we love to do or what we have, however, it is much more important to have the people around us who care about us and want to help accomplish your goals. It is also important to keep up mental health by surrounding yourself with people you love as well as participating in activities, unrelated to your desired object or idea, that bring you joy and happiness. In the event that greed has overtaken someone, it is highly likely they will suffer from depression without people around them who care, as mentioned in You Can’t Have it All, and the subconscious worry of losing your object or idea, as mentioned in Greed. In Barbara Ras’ poem You Can’t Have It All, she had said, “You can’t count on grace to pick you out of the crowd, but here is your friend to teach you how to high jump” (Line 30). I believe what she meant by this is you can’t just hope opportunity will come to you, but you can lean on your friends to steer you in the right direction. This being said, if you were greedy and after making a lot of money, it would be better for you to have skills your friends and family have taught you rather than hope to win the lottery. If you work a dead end job spending your earned money on lottery tickets, you will become more and more depressed each and every time.