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3. Striving for Superiority
The striving for success or superiority is the one dynamic force behind human’s activity Adler in Feist, 1985: 70. It motivates human to
achieve higher but it does not necessarily to pursuit the dominance of high status. Striving for superiority is a single motive, flowing from life itself,
and shaping the various subs drives. Persons always make an effort to reach the goal. When the person thinks that they want a better life, striving
for superiority will always exist. Lara is a kind of a struggle girl. She will do anything to make her
dreams come true. The first thing that she does is she tries to collect the money for a boarding house. She does this because her father is taken to
the hospital because of his bad attitude. Lara tries to make her father like her by collecting the rents, while her father still stays in a hospital.
….My father has had a….. a little dizzy spell. He’s in the hospital. They want to keep him under observation for a bit. So, until he
comes back, I’ll be collecting the rents, after supper, I’ll wait for you in the par lour. TSSD: 39
The owner of the boarding house is really excited with Lara’s job.
He cannot imagine how a little girl like Lara can do that job which is usually done by man. Unfortunately, the things that Lara do never get a
good apprecia tion from her father. Until he died, he still hates Lara as a girl who causes her mother died. But Lara is a stronger girl, without being
cared from anybody; she can continue her life in her father’s boarding house. There, she learns many things which can make her survive,
including learning about how to make a business in real estate. In this
77 boarding house, she strives to make her life better. She also tries to make
her dreams comes true. Here, she meets with Charles Cohn, an executive with Continental Supplies. This man teaches Lara about real estate
business and his aim to come to Glace Bay is that he wants to look for a land where he can put up a building there. Hearing the aim of Charles and
the information that she gets from that man, makes Lara think, how if she has the land and puts up the building there and Charles will lease that
building for five years it must get a lot of money from that. Lara evaded the question.’ let me ask you something. If I owned a
location that you liked, and if I put up a building on it, would you agree to lease it from me for five years? TSSD: 47
Lara’s idea makes Cohn confused and disbelieved. He cannot
understand why Lara so fast to understand the information that she just gets from him.
He shook his head. That’s a rather hypothetical question, isn’t it?’ ‘Would you?’ Lara persisted….. TSSD: 47
Cohn was studying Lara. She’s too young, he thought. It’s a foolish idea. And yet……I found a kosher meat…..she had such
compassion. TSSD: 48 Finally, Cohn gets his deal with Lara about the land. But Lara has
to meets with Sean MacAllister first, because he is the owner of the land where she will put up the building for Cohn. Lara realizes that she has no
money to buy the land, so she has an idea that she will make a loan to Sean and buy the land with the money.
78 It took a moment for it to sink in. ‘Wait a minute. Are you telling
me that this land is land that I own?’ ‘Yes. It’s the lot on the Corner of Main and Commercial Streets.’
‘You came here to borrow money from me to buy my land?’ TSSD: 49
Later, Sean MacAllister agrees with Lara‘s request, but Sean is a
kind of keen person. Of course, he will take an advantage from Lara. He agrees to give Lara loan but he has a special request to Lara if she wants
her loan fulfilled by Sean she has to go to bed with him first. This situation makes Lara feels disgust, because she cannot imagine how it will happen if
she makes a bed with Sean. But, lately she will think again that she will have the land and she has to sacrifice a thing that is her virgin.
‘Your request is completely unorthodox. You’ve had no experience. I would need a very special reason to make this loan to
you.’ ‘I don’t understand….what kind of reason?’
‘Let’s say….a little bonus. Tell me Lara, have you ever had a lover?’
The question caught her completely off- guard. ‘I…no.’ she could feel the deal slipping away from her.
‘What does that have….?’ ….I find you very attractive. I’d like to go to bed with you….
TSSD: 53 Lara gets what she wants that is the land that for a long time she
dreams after she makes a bed with Sean MacAllister. Time goes by, Lara become successful with her innovation on making a new building with the
new concept and full of luxurious in it. But again and again, Lara cannot desperate with the men who stay around her. The success that Lara gets is
not only from how intelligent she is, but it is also because her beautiful appearance that can make all of the men interested and easily falling in
79 love with her, and finally they also will easily give their money to Lara to
help her on making a new building in Chicago. Her striving for superiority appears again when she faces the fact that the next building that she wants
to build is in the middle of ruin. It happens because one of the workmen has been slapped by Lara when he drops something in front of her and it
will kill her. Lara fires that man, and suddenly after a few days all of the workmen do not do their job. Lara gets angry and panic, and in this
situation she is helped by an old man called Paul Martin. He helps Lara on managing all of the workmen, and finally the building is finished and it
becomes a huge building in Chicago. Lara is very happy knowing that her building finally finishes and
she wants to say thank you to the person who has helped her. Again and again, Lara is falling in love with the men who involve in the real estate
business. Furthermore, when she knows that the man is Paul Martin. Although he is an old man but Lara thinks that he is a perfect guy that can
give her not only money but also love, passion and affection that she never gets from his father. Lara arranges the time to meet Paul Martin to say
thank you for helping her. ‘Thank you.’ She lowered her voice. ‘And I do mean thank you.’
He was staring at her, bemused by how ravishing Lara looked, and the way he felt, looking at her. TSSD: 146
Day by day, Lara does her daily activity with Paul Martin behind
her. She loves him; furthermore she knows that Paul Martin is a married
80 man. One night as a striving for her superiority and to show how big she
loves him, again she makes love with an old man. Her lips were on his and they were in bed, and he experienced
something that had never happened to him before in his life. He felt as though his body were on fire. They were making love and it
was without beginning or an ending, a river that swept him along faster and faster, and the tide began to pull……….. TSSD: 150
Lara enjoys it and she feels that she becomes a wonderful woman
right now.
4. Social Interest
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