Human Lot To Try And Fail Analysis

David Mamet once stated, “..it is the human lot to try and fail..” This quotation implies that an individual will attempt to achieve success throughout their lifetime, but he/she will also have to face the failures as well. The quote relates to the philosophy that in order to achieve something, one will have to work for it. This quotation is correct and is further supported by two literary works. The two novels are Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Pearl, also by John Steinbeck. In these two novels, the protagonists know that their goals are very farfetched and out of the norm, yet they both try to achieve it and ultimately fail.

In Of Mice and Men, the author attempts to portray the hardships that a man attempts to face yet fails to withstand. Set in the post-depression era, the book depicts the harsh truth of the

struggles of people who want economic stability. The novel shows the motivation of all the hard work George and Lennie does. The motivation is a farm and this is a conflict in the novel because that is really difficult to achieve and also because Lennie always creates dilemmas for them both. George and Lennie try to achieve something that is beyond their economic standing and fail to achieve it. In the aforementioned example, the author uses the literary element of conflict to depict the hardships of that time and how George and Lennie were constantly failing yet they chose to continue to try. Furthermore, by understanding the conflict at that time, one can observe how the protagonists tried and tried yet again to achieve an unrealistic goal and thus, failed. Therefore, it is clearly depicted in the novel, that the humankind will always try and ultimately fail sometimes.

John Steinbeck’s The Pearl also shows the readers the idea that individuals tend to strive to try and attain the nearly impossible and be incapable to do so.

Set during the colonial era in Mexico, the story reveals the subjugation that the natives had to face and it shows the protagonist’s, Kino’s, attempt to go against the norms of the society and ask for something that was frankly unrealistic. This part of the story is related to the creative lens because Kino tried very hard to secure a future for his family but because the circumstances were not in his favor, he failed. It wasn’t socially accepted to ask for an education or a court marriage at that time for the natives because a native cannot desire to have what the colonists have. In this part of the story, the author uses the literary element of conflict to convey the message that even though Kino had the means to secure a future for himself, because he is a native and because he is aspiring to go against the social norms, he will eventually fail. As a result, it is clearly proven in The Pearl that humans will try to achieve something farfetched and will be unsuccessful in doing

so.

David Mamet once said, “..it is the human lot to try and fail..” In Of Mice and Men, it was seen that Lennie and George attempted to achieve an unrealistic objective and because of the conflicts they faced, either through Lennie’s tendency to get in trouble or through society’s lack of acceptance, their goal was improbable. Similarly, in The Pearl, the desire to attain something that is not meant for Kino and his family will cost them a heavy price. The society will not accept them otherwise. From these two works of literature, one can clearly see that humankind will always try hard for something out of their reach and fail.