Arrowsmith Pride Quotes

When he first starts drinking, Martin doesn't know what to think of himself. He has a lot of pride in his ability to think clearly, and getting drunk undermines this pride in a way that usually ends up making him sad.

Martin brings Leora to a fraternity dance in the hope that the young man there will find her pretty and want to dance with her. But as the evening creeps along, more and more men pass her by, and every time they do, it's a blow to Martin's pride.

Martin's pride is often hurt inside the hospital, where senior doctors tell him what to do and criticize his mistakes. But whenever he goes out with an ambulance on his own, he feels super proud because everyone looks to him for leadership. And truth be told, he's usually pretty awesome at his job.

After Max Gottlieb gets fired from Winnemac State University, he's too proud to go begging to other schools for a job. Instead, he just goes to a job placement agency to take whatever he can get.

Martin's first house isn't anything to write home about. But the fact that it's his house fills him with pride, especially now that he doesn't have to live with his overbearing in-laws.

When Martin strings together a few successes as a doctor, he suddenly thinks that he's going to save the entire world. Don't worry, though. He's going to get plenty of reality checks before this book is done with him.

Max Gottlieb is Martin's mentor, and like most mentors, he often pushes Martin to be better. This usually comes at the expense of hurting Martin's pride. But even though Martin storms away from Gottlieb, he always comes back.

Pride isn't always a happy thing for Martin. Toward the end of the book, he takes pride in the fact that he'll stick to his mission and only vaccinate half of the people on the island of St. Hubert. But he feels this pride at the expense of knowing that he'll be condemning thousands of people to death. In this case, Martin almost wishes he were weaker, so he could give in and give the vaccine to everyone who needs it.

Martin's second wife Joyce isn't willing to live in the background of his life in the same way Leora was. She demands respect and attention, and she says as much when she demands that he come crawling back to her after leaving. Martin never does, though.

In the closing sections of the book, Joyce complains to her friend that Martin Arrowsmith is simply too self-involved to ever love another person. Plus, he's too proud to realize that he isn't always right about everything.