Student Resources

• Douglas MacArthur and Hubris Narrative  
• Primary Source Analysis Handout 
• Virtue in Action Organizer

Teacher Resources

• Analysis Questions 
• Virtue in Action  
• Journal Activity
• Sources for Further Reading  
• Virtue Across the Curriculum  

• Hubris: To have excessive pride, vanity, and arrogance that usually leads to a tragic fall. 
• Arrogant: Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities. 
• Imperious: Assuming power or authority without justification; arrogant and domineering.
• Contempt: The offense of being disobedient to or disrespectful.
• Admonished: Warn or reprimand someone firmly. 
• Insubordinate: Defiant of authority; disobedient to orders.

Procedures 

• The following lesson asks students to consider how hubris in leadership can lead to downfall. As a constitutional republic, the United States needs leaders who encompass humility by putting others’ needs ahead of themselves. Students will engage with the story of Douglas MacArthur as they consider the question: How can excessive pride or hubris undermine our ambition and civic responsibilities/goals for our communities?     
• The main activity in this lesson requires students to read and analyze a narrative that explores how Douglas MacArthur fell victim to the vice of hubris.  
• Students will also conduct a primary source analysis of a speech by MacArthur. Additionally, the lesson includes reflection exercises to connect the historical example of MacArthur with your students’ daily lives. You may choose to use either or both activities.  
• Lastly, the lesson includes sources used in this lesson for further reading and suggestions for cross-curricular connections. 

Anticipate

• Write the word “hubris” on the board. Discuss, as a class, what it might mean. Post the following definition if students are unfamiliar with the term: 

•  To show excessive pride or vanity, arrogance, or conceit that usually brings about a downfall.  

• Explain the ancient Greeks are generally credited with creating our understanding of hubris and the fall of the tragic hero from greatness in their epic poetry and drama. However, the literature of many different civilizations and the texts of many different religions also warn against the dangers of pride.  

• Ask students for real and fictional examples of hubris and write them next to the definition.  

Engage 

• Transition to an activity that creates a mind map of hubris. 
• Assign students to groups of 4 or 5. Have them take a sheet of paper and draw a mind map with hubris at the center of the diagram. Then, students should draw lines to 4-6 vices that result from hubris and give a brief explanation of why. 
• Then, ask the students in their groups to list an important real person or fictional character for each of the vices they tied to hubris.  
• Ask the students to share their reasoning about why a vice might result from hubris, which person/character they chose to represent the vice, and why? Ask:  How did hubris lead to the downfall of the person/character?  
• As a large group, ask the students the following question and briefly discuss: Can a hero sometimes fall because of a character flaw related to pride? Explain.  

Explore

• Transition to the Douglas MacArthur and Hubris Narrative. Students will read and analyze the story of Douglas MacArthur to understand the downfall of hubris in leadership.   
• Scaffolding Note: It may be helpful to instruct students to do a close reading of the text. Close reading asks students to read and reread a text purposefully to ensure students understand and make connections. For more detailed instructions on how to use close reading in your classroom, use these directions. Additional reading strategies are provided for other options that may meet your student’s needs.  
• Essential Vocabulary: 
  • Hubris: To have excessive pride, vanity, and arrogance that usually leads to a tragic fall. 
  • Arrogant: Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities. 
  • Imperious: Assuming power or authority without justification; arrogant and domineering.
  • Contempt: The offense of being disobedient to or disrespectful.
  • Admonished: Warn or reprimand someone firmly. 
  • Insubordinate: Defiant of authority; disobedient to orders. 

• Transition to the analysis questions. Have students work individually, with partners, or as a whole class to answer the analysis questions.
• Scaffolding Note: If there are questions not necessary to your students’ learning or time restraints, then you can remove those questions.  

• Analysis Questions 
  • To what extent, if at all, is some degree of ambition necessary in order for a person to carry out significant leadership roles? At what point does ambition become arrogance and affect military leadership in a republic?  
  • What were MacArthur’s accomplishments and adversities in the Philippines?  
  • List examples from the narrative of MacArthur’s arrogance and/or disrespect toward others during World War II and the Korean War.  
  • To what extent did MacArthur’s arrogance contribute to his adversities? 
• Transition to the primary source activity and assess MacArthur’s statements to Congress.  
  • Read and analyze General MacArthur’s Address to Congress, April 19, 1951 and explain whether you believe humility or pride takes precedence in this particular speech. Use specific examples.  

Assess & Reflect

Virtue in Action  

• Transition: It is common to have excessive pride or hubris. Let’s look at a few examples and think about why each is or is not hubris, if other vices are connected to this behavior, and how moderation, the avoidance of excess or extremes, can help soften any excessive pride.  
• Distribute the Virtue in Action Organizer.   
• After completing the handout, transition to the journal activity for reflection and connection.  

AND/OR

Hubris Journal Activity  

• Transition: As we saw in the Virtue in Action handout, hubris and pride can be difficult vices to avoid. It is a common human vice and a favorite subject of authors of literature and writers of screenplays. Even otherwise heroic people, such as Douglas MacArthur, can fall prey to the temptations of pride.  
• Directions: Identify a time in your life in which you showed hubris or excessive pride. You may use one of the examples from the handout. What effect did it have on yourself and others? How would you act more humbly in the same situation? How can you avoid the temptation to be prideful in the future? How can you make humility a habit?  

Extend

Sources & Further Reading  

• Explore the following list for additional sources and further reading on Douglas MacArthur.  
  • Borneman, Walter. MacArthur at War: World War II in the Pacific. New York: Little, Brown, 2016.  
  • Brands, H.W. The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War. New York: Doubleday, 2016.  
  • Dallek, Robert. Harry S. Truman. New York: Times Books, 2008.  
  • Hamby, Alonzo L. Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.  
  • Herman, Arthur. Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior. New York: Random House, 2016.  
  • Manchester, William. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964. New York: Back Bay, 2008.  
  • McCullough, David. Truman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.  
  • Perrett, Geoffrey. Old Soldiers Never Die: The Life and Legend of Douglas MacArthur. New York: Random House, 1996.  
  • Perry, Mark. The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur. New York: Basic Books, 2014.  

Virtue Across the Curriculum  

• Below are corresponding literature suggestions to help you teach civic virtues across the curriculum.  Sample prompts are provided for the key corresponding works. For the other suggested works, or others that are already part of your curriculum, create your own similar prompts.    
• The Tortoise and the Hare, Aesops’s Fables 
  • How does the hare demonstrate hubris before and after his race with the tortoise? What are the consequences of the hare’s actions? 
• The Iliad by Homer  
  • This classic epic poem of war is set in the Trojan War. Achilles is the greatest hero of the Greeks but he refuses to fight. Why does Achilles let his pride and vanity stand in the way of winning the war? 
• Iron Man 2 (2010), directed by Jon Favreau  
  • In Iron Man 2, Iron Man Tony Stark makes a grand entrance to a wildly cheering crowd at the industrial Stark Expo. When he addresses the crowd, Stark is rightfully proud of his contributions to ending threats to world peace, but how does his arrogance set him up for a tragic fall? 
• OTHER WORKS  
  • Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe  
  • Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley  
  • Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare  
  • Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles  
  • Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe  
  • Paradise Lost, by John Milton