The Plague Of Pride In Ethan Canin's The Palace Thief

The Plague of Pride Ethan Canin’s “The Palace Thief” is a short story about a teacher who overestimates his importance in the life of his students and in the world, but eventually realizes this through a series of life changing events. The narrator, Mr. Hundert, is an egocentric individual who seems to always have the best interest of his students in mind, when in reality most of his decisions are made to further his career and better his reputation. In “The Palace Thief,” Ethan Canin explores how a person’s ego can affect their decisions and relationships with other people. When Hundert notices Sedgewick Bell’s improvement in his class, he makes the decision to raise the B he earned to an A, and place him in the Mr. Julius Caesar competition instead of Martin

When Deepak Mehta tells Hundert about his recent heart attack, he thought “it was not the type of thing one talked about with a student,” and he “let [the] revelation pass without comment,” (190). Hundert doesn’t elaborate any further on his visit with Deepak Mehta and switches almost immediately to describing his time spent with Fred Masoudi. This was an attempt made by Deepak to have a personal conversation and form a deeper connection with his former teacher. Later in the story, Hundert says he wishes Deepak and himself “could have talked more than [they] actually did,” but he is “afraid that there must always be a reticence between a teacher and his student,” (204). At this time, Hundert is the one wishing for a deeper connection with his former student, but he does not allow himself to form one because of his morals as a teacher. He still thinks of himself as a teacher, despite being retired for decades. Hundert thinks of himself being on a higher level than his former students, and he lets his inflated ego negatively affect his life and relationships with other