My Greatest Ambition- Morris Lurie
Discuss How Lurie Uses Humor to Create an Entertaining Story
“My Greatest Ambition” is about a young Australian boy of thirteen who has a dream of being a comic book 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 give 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 work 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 uses humor to highlight some important issues in the society. He twists the language 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 story 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), two 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 dramatic language of a typical thirteen year old who thinks he knows everything. Also this idea is very ironic as in most society’s 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 respectable. 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 also makes
“My Greatest Ambition” is about a young Australian boy of thirteen who has a dream of being a comic book 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 give 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 work 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 uses humor to highlight some important issues in the society. He twists the language 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 story 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), two 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 dramatic language of a typical thirteen year old who thinks he knows everything. Also this idea is very ironic as in most society’s 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 respectable. 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 also makes