The One And Only William Moraley Analysis

The One and Only, William Moraley
Moraley lived his earlier years in London with his somewhat wealthy father, it seemed like William was on a road to success. His family was decent enough that he would be able to over achieve on his goals and become a powerful, well respected individual. As he grew up William decided to ditch his father's ambitions that he had for him and pursue the lifestyle of what we would call today, “the 40 year old virgin who still lives at his parents house,” type of lifestyle. Laziness and also lack of ambition overwhelmed Moraley and was present for the rest of the book.
Now as clear and relevant as it is, yes, his laziness did take a huge part in the reasons why William did not reach his full potential. He could
have taken advantage of what his father was offering and even after his father’s death, still could have done well for himself. But that is all theory as William was indeed lazy.
Before he ventured to the New World, William thought his mother had cheated him out of some of his father's inheritance.
This affected him greatly mentally even though the book did not explain that, that is an assumption I feel, as a reader, I can make. This is what I would assume where Williams decline begins. He feels as if his own mother screwed him over, that is not something that is easy to overcome mentally.
Life goes on for William and he decides that becoming an indentured slave is one of his only reasonable options left to make. As he ventures over to his new life in the New World the journey is very rough. He battled sickness and poor nourishment over the whole course of traveling to the New World. That isn't just tough mentally but also physically. At this point in his life he has already suffered the tragic loss of his own father and feels as if he cannot trust his own mom.
Once he has reached land in the New World he goes to work for his master. At the end of his journey he speaks very highly of his relationship between him and his master. He is grateful for the things that he has provided for him. Over the years that Moraley was over in the New World he experienced many types of jobs and people. Even though he was exposed to many of these jobs and talented people he still did not take action in his life and pursue anything. His loss of ambition to succeed overwhelmed his
mind.
Overall I think William did a good job at living. Even in today’s society not everybody becomes successful. William was just one of those people that through the bad things that happened to him over in London and in the New World greatly affected him he was not able to get his stuff together and be successful.
Something the authors have done well in this book is describe William’s environment to create very vivid images in the reader’s mind. I noticed that the book did not describe his mental state. Throughout his life William suffered and the book just talks about it as if its not that big of deal. When in reality these things could destroy him and lead to him never recovering and being just mediocre at life. Upon returning to England at the end of the book, William reflects on his life and I sense that he almost realizes he needs to move on. I believe what he is moving on from is all the negative events in his past. William was lazy; but that was not the primary reason why he never prospered in a specific area in life. From his dad dying, an unfortunate set of events involving his mother, harsh conditions at points while being a slave, being unsuccessful and realizing it, William still continued on with life which I personally respect him for.