Bargh proposed the auto-motive model of nonconscious goal pursuit,and assumed that goals are mental representations that can be activated by features of the contexts in which those goals have been pursued often and consistently in the past.

By making the analysis of The Old Man and Sea written by Ernest Hemingway on the basis of the tragedy model of "too much ambition ",the paper points out that "too much ambition " is to result in a tragedy because of the limitation of human being s cognitive ability and fortune.