Others Advice to be Successful

 “Failure is success if we learn from it,” mused Malcolm Forbes.  The American Civil War taught us that we must remain unified despite our differences.  The World Wars taught us that we need to justify when to help an ally based off what is right rather than simply because we are allies.  The Red Scare taught us that fear is a prominent emotion than blocks reasoning.  We can either learn the hard way, by ourselves, or through examples, through previous mistakes or others, but why not simply look at mistakes already made?  It is necessary to look into our history or through lessons in books or in other people for advice in order to be successful and knowledgeable. Ged, the protagonist in The Wizard of Earthsea, learned he must conquer his hubris as Annabel, the protagonist in Just Listen, learned she must conquer her fear of being open with her feelings.

As a young prodigy originating from a small town, Ged had an enormous hubris as he was passed from teacher to teacher due to his excessive power.  Unfortunately, his ego had lead him to lose control of a dangerous forbidden spell- a spell to bring the dead to life.  This mistake and overestimation of his control over his powers caused the death of a dead great professor Ged had considered as a father.  Realizing from his grave mistake which almost cost him his own life as well as his professors, Ged travelled around all of Gont to run away the dangerous shadow he had released in place of the dead.  His travels made him realized that he cannot keep narrowly escape the monster shadow anymore and decides to confront the deadly shadow.  From Ged, we learn that we must remain humble and open-minded and if we run into troubles: we must face them rather than run away. 

            Unlike Ged, Annabel was much more humble and docile- perhaps a bit too docile.  She was afraid to confront her feelings and to tell others about what she truly wants or thinks.  Despite getting raped by her boyfriend at the time, Will, betrayed by her ‘best friend’ Emily, and ostracized by the rest of her friends, she does not tell anyone that she had been raped or she is being ignored.  Along with dealing with a rough time at school, she does not know how to tell her mother she wishes to quit modeling, an apparently family activity and ‘joy.’  Rape, betrayal and isolation are much for anyone, let alone a teenager.  As she meets another boy who has been ostracized too, and people start to come out and sue Will for the charge of rape, Annabel gains the strength and courage to be open with her feelings and not afraid to voice her thoughts.  We learn from Annabel to not be afraid to be open with our emotions and opinions.

            So from both Ged and Annabel, we learn that we must remain open-minded and humble but yet be open with our emotions and opinions, but these are only a few lessons we can and should learn.  Ged and Annabel learned their lessons on their own where we have the chance and the benefit of learning their lessons through their experiences rather than making the same mistakes as them.  We learn through stories, history, and others what we should and should not do and we may build off of these experiences and events.