Theme Of Pride In C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

Pride. Something that all of humanity struggles with and those who think they do not struggle with it, struggle the most. Both, C.S. Lewis and Flannery O’Connor describe their views of pride through their writings, Mere Christianity and Everything That Rises Must Converge. Both authors view pride as a negative quality, but they reveal this in different ways. I agree with both authors in their explanations and views of pride. Pride is a great sin, but I also believe that our acknowledgement of pride can produce the great virtue of humility.

In C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Lewis discusses the great sin: pride. He describes pride as the utmost evil according to Christian teachers. “Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God

state of mind” (Lewis 122). Pride is the starting point of every wicked or immoral behavior. Although some people may believe they are not prideful, everyone is and the more pride you have, the more you dislike pride in others. Lewis advocates that, “each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride” (122). Pride is competitive by nature while other sins are competitive by accident. An example of pride being competitive in human nature is how man always wants to be better than the next rather than equal. We are always looking to be richer, better looking, more athletic, etc. We gain pride in being superior to others.
Lewis uses the illustration of wealth to prove that things such as greed or selfishness result from one’s own pride. According to Lewis,
Greed will certainly make a man want money, for the sake of a better house, better holidays, better things to eat and drink. But only up to a point. What is it that makes a man with $10,000 a year anxious to get $20,000 a year? It is not the greed for more pleasure. $10,000 will give all the luxuries that any man can really enjoy. It is Pride-the wish to be richer than some other rich man, and (still more) the wish for power (123).
This illustration proves that power is the main motivation of pride.

Nothing makes man feel more superior to another than when he has the power to control him. Lewis believes pride is the chief cause of having enemies or rivals. It is the primary reason families experience such enmity. It not only causes enmity between men, but also between men and God. Those who are eaten up by such great pride, although they say that believe in God, cannot believe in God. They believe in an imaginary God. Lewis’ point is that, “They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people” (124). We are constantly looking for God’s approval rather than applying the virtue opposite of pride, humility, to our lives which would allow us to understand that we are so incomparable to God and need to live our lives for Him rather than ourselves. This humility, which has the possibility of resulting from recognition of our pride, can bring clarity and positivity to our lives free from

pride.
Not only can pride affect our relationships, but it can also affect how we behave. In other words, Lewis believes, “many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper, by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity-that is, by Pride” (125). For example, school teachers implore a student’s pride or self-respect to make him behave well. This then causes students to be blind to that fact that their pride acts as a spiritual cancer and eats every possibility of love, contentment, and common sense. As a counter act of this implored pride, students should be encouraged to be humble because their humility will ultimately benefit their lives and others in the long-run.
After Lewis describes pride and its effects, he presents us with misunderstandings we may have of pride.

The first one being that, “Pleasure in being praised is not Pride” (125). When we are rewarded for something we have done well our pleasure comes from the fact that we have pleased someone we wanted to please, not in ourselves. When we delight in ourselves, we become unsatisfied with praises, and the worse we become. Although pride is the great sin, we must not believe it is forbidden by God because he is offended by it. God wants us to give ourselves to Him because when we do that we will become humble. Lewis shows his agreement when he states, “delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life” (127). To accomplish this goal of humility we must first acknowledge our

pride.
Similar to C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor also describes the negative aspects of pride throughout her story Everything That Rises Must Converge. She portrays her view of pride through Julian and his mother. Julian brings his mother to the YMCA every Wednesday on the bus to her exercise class because she needs to lose twenty pounds to lower her blood pressure. Although Julian does not want to do this, he lets go of his pride and gets on the bus with his mother. One Wednesday Julian impatiently waited for his mother to decide whether or not she should wear her new hat. The hat cost seven dollars and fifty cents and her main motivation for the purchase of the hat was status. She believed that if she wore this particular hat people would think she was rich. Here we become aware of pride within Julian’s mother; her need for people to think she was richer than others. Julian becomes frustrated with his mother and teaches her a lesson which shows her that her old-fashioned views on class are wrong. Julian’s first attempt failed, when a well-dressed black man sits next to him on the bus, but ignores Julian at all costs when he tries to make conversation with him. Julian’s second attempt to teach his mother a lesson occurs when a black mother and son enter the bus and sit next to Julian and his mother. Julian quickly realizes the woman is wearing the exact hat his mother is wearing which immediately brings a sense of excitement to him, however it angers his mother. Flannery states, “...he saw his mother across the aisle, purple-faced, shrunken to the dwarf-like proportions of her moral nature, sitting like a mummy beneath the ridiculous banner of her hat” (Flannery 284). Unfortunately, his mother’s embarrassment does not last long enough and his lesson does not follow through because his mother is too distracted by the young black boy on the bus, Carver. Julian’s mother finds an immediate attraction toward Carver, but Carver’s mother is not amused and restrains him from going near her. When the four of them get off the bus Julian’s mother quickly reaches for a nickel to give Carver, because once again her pride is getting in the way and she feels the little black boy is needy and should have the joy of owning a new, shiny penny. Carver’s mother quickly realizes Julian’s mother is condescending towards her son and she refuses to allow him to take the penny. Although it may seem like the black woman’s pride may have also come into play because she would not allow her son to accept the penny, her pride was a healthy form as opposed to Julian’s mother’s condescending pride.
Lewis and Flannery each understand the idea of pride and display their knowledge of pride throughout their writings. Both authors have an awareness that there such thing as a healthy pride and unhealthy pride. They agree that pride is for the most part a bad virtue, but it also has positive aspects such as self-confidence. Ultimately, they agree that one can diminish his pride with an acknowledgement of it and, as a result, gain a valuable sense of humility.