Many people face problems regarding pride and arrogance throughout the course of their lives. Q, a character in the short stories "The Aquatic Uncle" and "The Dinosaurs" by Italio Calvino faces these problems in his life. His pride and arrogance brought about extreme life changes, that could be considered positive or negative. Q's life has been dramatically changed throughout the coarse of his life because of his prideful and arrogant characteristics.
Throughout his life, Q has evolved and changed into various organisms. In "The Aquatic Uncle," Q portrayed one of the first vertebrate species. Q faced difficulties centered around his life, many of which involved prejudices. "This business about warts was a widespread prejudice among the old fish: a notion that from living on dry land, we would develop warts all over our bodies, excluding liquid matter....."(Calvino 72). Q faced much prejudice from his uncle in particular; he had evolved and never felt the need to go back to the water. He felt that it was necessary to evolve and was proud of who he was, no matter how many prejudices he faced. The problem was, his fiance, Lll, became enthralled with the idea of living in the water, having been indoctrinated by Q's uncle. Out of pride for himself and arrogance in his belief that living on dry land was a better life than in water, he refused to go live in the water with Lll. "And yet I wouldn't have traded places with any of them, "(Calvino 82). Lll consequently left Q. Although Q lost the one he loved, he felt it was a necessary sacrifice that was needed in order for positive progress and evolution in his future life. Because of Q's pride in himself, he lost the one he loved in order to follow what he believed in, which was to evolve and progress in life.
Throughout the coarse of his life, Q evolved, as well as the others around him. In "The Dinosaurs," Q had evolved into a dinosaur, while others around him evolved past him to become New Ones. Eventually, dinosaurs were all but myths to the New Ones; In these myths, the New Ones portrayed the dinosaurs as being monsters. This was a true fact, but Q could not accept that. "Sometimes I couldn't help but saying: 'Come, let's not exaggerate. What do you think a dinosaur was, after all?"(Calvino 103). Again, Q felt pride and arrogance for who he was, which blinded him from the truth. He could not accept the fact that dinosaurs were monsters, although he knew the truth mentally. Because he wasn't accepting of the truth, he realized he couldn't exist around the New Ones. "I had to escape as fast as possible, let them stew in their own juice, have nothing more to do with these old stories,"(Calvino 106). Eventually, Q left the New Ones. He new that he would never be able accept them because he could only accept himself. Q's prideful and arrogant personality was the cause of this change. He felt too much pride for himself and his species. Q knew he had to continue life elsewhere because his pride and arrogance for himself.
In both short stories, Q was forced by his mentality towards others to move on in life and adapt. This was because of his pride and arrogance that he felt for himself. "I traveled through valleys and plains. I came to a station, caught the first train, and was lost in the crowd,"(Calvino 112). Because of Q's prideful mentality, he knew he could not coexist with others. That is why he felt the need to continuously migrate and move from place to place. He could never accept others because he could only accept himself. Because of this, Q's life had faced many dramatic changes such as loosing the ones he loved and the ability to socialize because of his ongoing migration. Q's strong characteristics of pride and arrogance cause Q's life to continuously change because he could only accept himself.
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