How to figuratively express something that has been lost/disappeared as in "where did (something) go"?

Question

I think this is quite common in English but I wouldn't know about Japanese. For example, suppose you're asking yourself (or someone) "where did (something) go"? In the sense of "what happened to (something)?" as such something has been lost or disappeared and where "something" is generally abstract. A concrete random example:

"Where did all your ambition go?"

Can simply 行く be used in this sense and have a figurative meaning to indicate that something (the ambition here) has been lost or we don't know what happened to it?

Does something like "あなたの野心は何処へ行ったか/行っただろう” make any sense? If not what could be used for a figurative speech like this?

Answer 1

For objects you can use 行く

どっか行っちゃった

靴とかあったんだけど、どこ行ったんだろう

To some extent this also works for abstract concepts:

夫婦の絆はどこに行った

親子ゲンカはどこ行ったんだろ

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A similar expression is 〜はどうした "what happened to"

靴はどうした？
What happened to your shoes? (lit. What did you do to your shoes?)

いつもの冷静な判断はどうした？

(Example sentences taken from BCCWJ.)

Answer 2

Does something like "あなたの野心は何処へ行ったか/行っただろう” make any sense?

Yes. Absolutely!

I would say,

あなたの野心は何処へ行ってしまったのか？　あなたの野心は何処へ行ってしまったのだろう？ are alternatives which seem more rhetoric and natural.

Anyway, we're happy to know that the rhetorical expression is common both in English and Japanese. :)