Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire is about Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, and they are both runners. Harold Abrahams is Jewish and attends Cambridge University where he feels anti-Semitism from the teachers. Liddell is a Christian from Scotland and is serving a mission in China, Scotland. They both run against each other for the first time and Liddell wins the race, and Abrahams takes losing really hard. For the next few years they both train with trainers and work their hardest. Eventually they are both invited to be on the Great Britain team for the Olympics. Liddell learns his event is run on Sunday, and due to his Christian beliefs he won’t race on the Sabbath. One of Liddell’s teammates gave him his spot in another event so he could still compete. Liddell goes on to win gold in his event. Abrahams gets beat in his first event, but in his second event he realizes this is his last chance. Here Abrahams wins gold.
Socratic self-knowledge is the highest knowledge that you know about yourself. It shows that you know what you want in life, and that you carry yourself in a virtuous manner at all times. I feel like both Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams show a great amount of Socratic self-knowledge. They both came from different backgrounds but they knew they wanted to be a runner and become the best one they could be. They both put in tremendous effort in becoming Olympic athletes. Liddell held his beliefs in god by not running on the Sabbath and by all ways preaching his beliefs when he had a chance. He felt like god made his purpose in life was to run, and for him not to run would bring dishonor to god. Abrahams feels like he is standing up for what he believes in by running. He wants to prove everyone who is against him and his religion that he is a great person. At the beginning of the movie he lost and he took it hard, but he turned it into motivation to become better. Both Liddell and Abrahams showed great virtue at all times even though they were criticized for what they believed in. Standing up for what they believed in and putting all the hard work in was for sure challenging, but the reward they received for what they battled through was worse all the blood, sweat, and tears.
A few people who didn’t have Socratic self-knowledge were Liddell’s sister and the staff at Cambridge because they were the main people to discourage their goals in life. They both wanted something else out of those two individuals and in the end they didn’t get what they wanted. But also everyone in the movie and in life who doesn’t realize what their dreams are in life or people who don’t strive after their goals don’t have Socratic self-knowledge. You have to work hard and stretch your abilities to fully understand yourself. True happiness doesn’t come without suffering.
