It’s early Monday morning. We see a woman in her early forties (we’ll call her Laura) leading her way down the street. We might also notice her driving a SUV. She is rushing to her working place. Laura might be an advanced lawyer at the “Big Four” firm, or counsel at the largest law firm in the state. Her tired face says she is overworked at her job, likely because she is constantly striving to attain partnership. Previously this was a pleasant idea but one which does not make her happy anymore as she has no time to even think of a personal life. Her dull facial expression tells us that she is unhappy. Yet, she feels glimpses of happiness when an e-mail comes from a client expressing their satisfaction in response to a very professional deliverable she just completed. Or when she receives a bottle of Champagne during the department’s “Champagne Award”. Even at receiving the “best lawyer” title at the annual lawyer’s day celebration doesn’t quite have the same impact as before. Regardless these are the sweets of her life and the few moments she lives for.
Laura literally lives at her work. She stays at work late, and often comes to the office on weekends. Her bowed posture and her hollow gaze screams out that she is single yet married to her profession. While, she was actually married to someone other than her work before, two years of continuous overnight work caused her husband to leave her.
You would probably be surprised how such things happen. Laura managed to enter a prestigious university and graduate with honors. Then she got a job at one of the best law firms in the country. She did her best to climb the career ladder more quickly than the others. She neither killed nor robbed anyone on her way to the top. If anyone deserves happiness, doesn’t she?
Try to look at the other side of the coin. How many gifte” students have passed through her during the 15 years of managerial position with the company? Probably a dozen or two. How many of them were fired because she felt they might be talented enough to make partnership quicker than her, or just because they turned up in the wrong place at the wrong time? How many of them received no praise for excellent work which she pretended to have done herself? What influence has she had on the yet unformed young souls? Would they carry such experiences over to others – similar wet-nosed students?..
Sometimes we are surprised why life (or God) does not cherish us for the work we do, and why “punishment” in certain form comes so unexpectedly. In fact, Laura has been worshiping money and power over junior lawyers and trainees. Gradually striving for money and power has become her unconscious “default setting”. After a while she continued through life as though she were an airplane on autopilot. As David Foster Wallace put it, this is “the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing”. Still, this is the kind of freedom she consciously chose once.
The words of Billy Graham seem very appropriate here: “Self-centered indulgence, pride and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle”. This isn’t how it has to end though. Many people make a different choice in life; they teach us “awareness and discipline to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriadways every day” (“David Foster Wallace, in his Own Words”, Moreintelligentlife.com).
Works Cited
- “David Foster Wallace, in his Own Words”. The Economist Intelligent Life, n.p., 19 Sep. 2008. Web. 14 Nov. 2013
- Billy Graham Quotes. Brainy Quote, n.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://www.brainyquote.com/>
Essay Analyzed
The title is general yet informative, alerting a reader to the topic.
The first, second and thirds paragraphs hold the reader’s attention: the reader reads a story about Laura, and gets interested in her life. The reader is curious where the author is going, why is this woman unhappy, since she seems to deserve happiness.
The fourth paragraph reveals further sides of Laura’s life; it appears that she mistreats other people, and as a result young people are taught wrong ideals. The reader is supposed to make a conclusion and to draw a line between Laura’s personal misfortune and her behavior.
The fifth paragraph is more personal: the author reveals his attitude to a type of people Laura is, and supports his position by a citation from David Foster Wallace’s speech.
The final paragraph wraps the story up. The author comes to a sad conclusion that people like Laura come across more and more frequently in the modern society. However, the author still believes in good nature of people overall and ends the story up on a promising note.
