"People do not decide to become extraordinary....

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I'm sure if you decide to "become extraordinary" then everyone would laugh at you for being terribly presumptuous and maybe a little bit pretentious and would secretly be crossing their fingers that you fall flat on your face. Or is this just an English thing?

I suppose it may be an English thing. In the US, it's pretty much accepted (and expected) that everyone wants to "become extraordinary". If one doesn't, one is seen as kind of pathetic and boring...
(I, of course, already am extraordinary. )

But, trying to remain somewhat on-topic, I'll add that Sam's humility, and the fact that his upward-mobility is not planned, make him a deeply un-American character. Which is, in my book, a good thing. (Actually, one of the main things that always strikes me as wonderfully different about Europe is that people there don't seem to be quite as consumed with insatiable ambition as Americans are.)