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one that was made up of bits and pieces of earlier human achievements.
Instead of continuing to play the game of hustlers and pimps, he created
a more complex purpose that could help order the lives of many other
marginal men, black or white.
A man interviewed in one of our studies whom we shall designate
as E. provides another example of how a life theme can be discovered,
even though the purpose underlying it is a very ancient one. E. grew up
the son of a poor immigrant family in the early part of this century. His
parents knew only a few words of English, and were barely able to read
and write. They were intimidated by the frenetic pace of life in New
York, but they worshiped and admired America and the authorities who
represented it. When he was seven, E.’s parents spent a good chunk of
their savings to buy him a bicycle for his birthday. A few days later, as
he was riding in the neighborhood, he was hit by a car that had ignored
a stop sign. E. suffered serious wounds, and his bike was wrecked. The
driver of the car was a wealthy doctor; he drove E. to a hospital, asking
him not to report what had happened, but promising in return to pay
for all expenses and to buy him a new bike. E. and his parents were
convinced, and they went along with the deal. Unfortunately the doctor
never showed up again, and E.’s father had to borrow money to pay the
expensive hospital bill; the bike was never replaced.
This event could have been a trauma that left its scar on E.
forever, turning him into a cynic who would from now on look out for
his own self-interest no matter what. Instead E. drew a curious lesson
from his experience. He used it to create a life theme that not only gave
meaning to his own life but helped reduce entropy in the experience of
many other people. For many years after the accident, E. and his parents
were bitter, suspicious, and confused about the intentions of strangers.
E.’s father, feeling that he was a failure, took to drinking and became
morose and withdrawn. It looked as though poverty and helplessness
were having their expected effects. But when he was fourteen or fifteen
years old, E. had to read in school the U.S. Constitution and the Bill
of Rights. He connected the principles in those documents with his own
experience. Gradually he became convinced that his family’s poverty
and alienation were not their fault, but were the result of not being
aware of their rights, of not knowing the rules of the game, of not having
effective representation among those who had power.
He decided to become a lawyer, not only to better his own life,
but to make certain that injustices such as he had suffered would not
occur so easily again to others in his position. Once he had set this goal
for himself, his resolution was unwavering. He was accepted into law