OBTAIN: to get, acquire or secure (something).
EXAMPLES:
All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
Aspiring actress Eve Harrington inserts herself into the lives of a successful theatre clique and claws her way to the top of the ladder.
Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987)
A young stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top.
This scenario relates to the need to get something, implying that there is an obstacle that must be surmounted. Therefore, special means are required to achieve this. The obstacle is not an enigma but something tangible. It is probably out of the range of the protagonist, and in order to ‘obtain’ it, unconventional methods may have to be used. In this sense it is very different from AMBITION (30).
(1) It may be bought, but first the money must be found, which, in turn, may involve:
Therefore, delicate decisions and valuations need to be made.
EXAMPLE:
Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
A man attempts to rob a bank to pay for a sex change for his lover. When things go wrong, a hostage situation results.
(2) It can be obtained by trickery, by conning someone with false claims. Eloquence and smooth talking are required.
(3) Obtaining it using superior force.
(4) Arbitration. Other parties intervene to arrive at an impartial solution that both parties have to agree on. Art looted by the Nazis is discovered in a gallery. The children of the original owners want it back, so a court has to intervene and make a decision about legal ownership.
(5) Feigned madness. If the objective is to be released from a situation (military service, an undesirable relationship, etc.), the protagonist pretends to be insane or extremely extrovert.
If the ‘thing’ that needs to be obtained is more abstract – power, wealth or the need to pass an exam – then the protagonist will need to make more long-term decisions that will affect them in the future.
(6) Sex: seduction as a career move or to obtain money or information.
(7) Marriage to someone of power or wealth in order to move to a higher social group. Arguably this is common to all relationships; we only notice it when the difference between the two parties is extreme.
(8) A student from a poor environment may take years to climb the ladder of success, and during that time will observe others succeeding more quickly and become disheartened. Temptations present themselves: shortcut cheating, sexual favours that would speed the process. Moral decisions need to be made, there are pressures from family, etc. A story of struggle and resolve.
(9) The physical struggle, after an illness or accident, to obtain the levels of fitness that existed before.