“Don’t Be Sorry for Yourself,” a thought-provoking essay written by A. J. Cronin. It deals with the problems of anxiety and trepidation in our life. In this age of competition and rush, everybody seems either afflicted or knows someone who is afflicted. The highly competitive and material culture undermines our nerves. Anxiety and self-pity are due to the fear of failure and doubt in various professions, different relationships, achieving success and other materialistic things which may lead us to humiliation, poverty and dark future for us and our family members. Intense and extreme doubts and fears, often lead some people to insanity. In this essay, Cronin shows a deep insight into human nature. In the beginning of the essay, Cronin narrats
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After disclosing the secret of this disease to his husband, he finds that the manager was not feeling concerned or pitied for his wife, rather, he was feeling pitied for himself and the writer still remembers his (ironically) incredible words. “Self-pity is essentially humourless, devoid of that lightness of touch which gives the understanding of life.” (Anthony Powell) Cronin narrates another incident that took place when a woman editor asked for lunch. She was an attractive woman enjoying a reputable place, excellent salary, well-furnished flat, car, chauffeur, excellent healthy and no family troubles at all. But still, her talk sounded like she is the most wretched being on the earth. She was one such type of women who’s never happy or content with her life. She had a definite martyr complex that things were always bad and getting worse. She thought that the sorts of things that are happening to her just don’t happen to anyone else. Nobody could have so many problems like the difficulties in job, the noise made by the people residing on the flat above her. She finally lamented over her mere existence. In reality, she had a smooth and wonderful life but none of that matters, because things were awful for her. She made herself quite unhappy because she didn’t see the positive
After disclosing the secret of this disease to his husband, he finds that the manager was not feeling concerned or pitied for his wife, rather, he was feeling pitied for himself and the writer still remembers his (ironically) incredible words. “Self-pity is essentially humourless, devoid of that lightness of touch which gives the understanding of life.” (Anthony Powell) Cronin narrates another incident that took place when a woman editor asked for lunch. She was an attractive woman enjoying a reputable place, excellent salary, well-furnished flat, car, chauffeur, excellent healthy and no family troubles at all. But still, her talk sounded like she is the most wretched being on the earth. She was one such type of women who’s never happy or content with her life. She had a definite martyr complex that things were always bad and getting worse. She thought that the sorts of things that are happening to her just don’t happen to anyone else. Nobody could have so many problems like the difficulties in job, the noise made by the people residing on the flat above her. She finally lamented over her mere existence. In reality, she had a smooth and wonderful life but none of that matters, because things were awful for her. She made herself quite unhappy because she didn’t see the positive