Lightning Mcqueen Character Analysis

Although I may not be a living car, I find a character that I am easily able to relate to being Lightning McQueen from Disney Pixar's animated film, Cars. Besides my flashy smile and confident attitude, I don't share much else with McQueen from a first glance. I am not covered in a coat of red paint, I do not race cars on an international level, and I do not love saying "Ka-Chow" over and over. "What makes him connect to Lightning McQueen then?" you may ask. The most crucial part to Lightning's character is the reason I am able to sympathize with him; the fact that what he wants and what everyone expects from him contradict one another.

In the beginning of the first Cars movie, McQueen is originally a high-placing young racecar whose ability and prowess quickly goes to his head. McQueen feels like this is what he wants as he has not experienced anything else besides the rush the race provides him. As the story continues, however, McQueen quickly falls in love with the small town of Radiator Springs and the people he meets there and learns that what he wants, a calm life in the isolated town, will never be possible if he doesn't address what the rest of the world wants him to become, a famous racecar.
When I was younger, I was always competitive with others in academics. Whether it was reciting multiplication tables in first grade, reading the most books during the summer in second, or winning my districts spelling bee five years in a row, I always wanted to strive to be the best I could and surpass those around me. This helped when I got into junior high as I started to learn about GPAs and Class Rank. Knowing that this would be important to my future, I was bound and determined to strive for great grades in all of my coursework while still challenging myself