PERSUASIVE

What is ambition? Ambition is the determination to achieve success or distinction. With ambition, people are usually determined to get money, have fame and satisfaction. Both, in the movie Blood Diamond and the book Fountainhead, ambition was displayed from most of the characters. If the movie did not show any types of ambition, there would be no importance of the stories. Each important character had their personal goals and their ambitions led to the morals of the story. In Fountainhead, Peter Keating’s ambition was to be successful have fame and get money. He wanted the best jobs and the best opportunities and he figured that he could get his name out to society. He wanted people to know that he was the best. For example, in college, Peter did not want anyone to outdo him. If he knew that he was better then another person, he would prove it. He graduated as the Valid Victorian of his class. He rarely had any competition. He was the type of guy who went down all roads to get to his goal and knock out any competitors. For example, he knew that his only true competitor in his graduating class was this guy, Shlinker. Shlinker gave Keating stiff competition but Keating worked as hard as he could to have the best scholastic record. Peter Keating was not only the star student of his class, he was also president of student body, the captain of the track team, he was a member in an important fraternity, and he was most popular on campus. He was known and liked by many people. Sometimes he knew that since he was known by certain people, that he would get good opportunities, which in his case was mostly true. Keating went off to New York to take up a brilliant offer and went to go work for Guy Francon. He took this offer with the intentions of having a brilliant career. He got so caught up in society, it’s like he lost control of his own life. In Blood Diamond, Danny’s ambition was wealth. While there was fighting over diamonds, Danny took no side in that. He was a smuggler, he just wanted diamonds. While Solomon was trying to get his family back, Danny offered to help him only if he was willing to be his partner. He used Solomon to help him get diamonds and he knew that Solomon would not object the offer because he was desperate to get his family back. Throughout the whole movie, Danny was risking his life, but at any chance of getting to the diamonds, he was all for it. In the end, Danny died but he never once lost sight of his goal. Even when he met Maddy, the journalist, he still knew what he wanted, even though he wanted her as well. If he had diamonds, he was satisfied. Howard Roark was the main character in The Fountainhead. His goal was to only make art. He made art through architecture. He showed no interest in anything else art. His work stood out from what society was used, and that was his purpose. He did not want to be like the rest. Roark did not intend on following anyone’s rules, but he would make his own. In the book he said, “I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.” This is when he got expelled from Stanton and he was having a conversation with the Dean. The Dean was telling him about famous buildings and how buildings that are built now can not get as good as the one’s back then. Roark objected. He knew that he could do things even better. When Roark set his goal to go to New York and work for Henry Cameron, he did just that. He knew that working for Cameron would not be like any other job because Cameron was barely getting any jobs anymore. Roark respected Cameron’s work and the uniqueness and the quality. It was not a lot of people in the business of architecture who appreciated unique and different work. While working for Cameron, Roark’s hopes and dreams of being a successful architect scared Cameron. He did not want Roark to be like how he was in the past. He saw how passionate Roark was about his work and knew that he would not be accepted by society. Roark didn’t care about society, just buildings. Solomon was a little similar to Roark. He was the main character of Blood Diamond. His goal was to get his family back. The Rebels took them away. They kidnapped his son and trained him to get power and to kill. He knew what was going on around him but the only important thing at the time was to get back to his family. He was willing to do everything he could in order to get them. The Rebels had Solomon on the search, digging for diamonds in the fields and such. He did, because he knew he had to. He really didn’t care about the diamonds but he knew what he had to do to get what he wanted. Danny knew that Solomon had lost his family, and he also knew that Solomon had been forced to dig for diamonds as well, that’s what prompted the deal. Solomon would not have done such a thing if his family was not involved. Throughout the movie, Solomon never gave up. He didn’t loose hope. His life was on the line as well, and he took many risks. In most cases he let Danny take the lead and he just went along with Danny’s plans. Roark and Solomon are both outsiders to society. Roark is an outsider because he chose to be. He did not want to fit in. He wanted to be his own man. He would not let anyone run him. He did not try to impress society. He did not care about society or the people in it. He often made people feel uncomfortable in his presence. That was not his intentions, that’s just how he was, and he was not going to change. Even when he started to get notice for the buildings that he designed and built, he still only cared about the art. He did not care for fame. He wanted to be successful at doing what he loved to do. Solomon is just a fisherman in a small village. He had no business with the blood diamonds until his family was involved. He was a family-based man. He was close to his family. In the beginning of the movie, they showed the close bond he had with his son. He lived in Sierra Leone and there was a lot going on, but he stayed out it. Family is much more important to him. I love these stories. I get a good message from each. In The Fountainhead, Peter was expelled; you would not think that he would have turned out to be so successful. In Blood Diamond, as much violence that was going on, you would have never thought that Solomon would have been reunited with his family again. From The Fountainhead, the message that I got was that; when you are yourself and you follow your own dreams, you will come more successful than those who try so hard to please society. You must please yourself before others. Out of Blood Diamond, I got out of it, that family is priceless. No matter how many diamonds there was, family was the goal. If I were to tie Ayn Rand’s philosophy into these stories, I would say that Howard Roark and Solomon display most of her ideas. She said “To live... one must act. To act... one must make choices... To make choices... one must have a CODE OF VALUES... To have a CODE OF VALUES... One must know your own nature and understand the universe. In my opinion, Roark displayed all of those ideas. He made his own choices and he acted upon them as he planned to. His CODE OF VALUES was to do things the way he thought they should be done. He knew his own nature, he knew what he wanted, he knew what was going on around him, and he knew what he wanted to do. Solomon made choices and acted on them as well. His CODE OF VALUES was his family. Ambition can take you a long way. If you continue to go through with your goals and never underestimate yourself, you can get far in life. You need something in life that will give you the urge to do what you want to do, and be what you want to be. That drive is your ambition.