Essay:
In both “Non-Stop” and “That Would Be Enough,” Lin-Manuel Miranda portrays success as an idea that can control the actions of people. He shows that some people compare their success to their self-worth and value. To rise to the top, success generates problems that they have to deal with; it can create strained relationships and differing views to rise within a group of people. These songs show that success can cause contention and can motivate people and that it is neither a wholly positive or a wholly negative feature; on the rise to success, people may experience both of these reactions, potentially becoming problematic.
One way that success is conveyed is through the use of phrases that show how some people are motivated by success, such as when Miranda says, “History has its eyes.../ on.../ you!” (page 84, line 120-122, “Non-Stop”). He uses personification to show that the steps they do now will grant them a legacy and, with it, fame. Also, he directs the message to one individual person when saying this, causing it to be more personal by saying “you”. Together, this shows that success can both harm and benefit a person since the person will always be looked down by higher, more powerful people to evaluate their fame and success; and that some people want to become more successful.
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Unlike the motivational aspect of success and fame, it can also be a source of contention for people, when he says, ¨We don't need a legacy. / We don't need money. / If I could grant you peace of mind¨ (page 63, line 41-45, ¨That Would Be Enough). This begins with two similarly structured and worded sentences; they both begin with ¨We don't need...¨ with the last words correlating with the idea of success. The third sentence starts with ¨If I could,¨ showing uncertainty within the other character, but also shows that the character wants to do this but, perhaps, is unable. All in all, this shows that success can cause disagreement for people and that it defines who someone is now, and in the future. Even though success can be a disputable aspect of people, some people work harder and can gain success faster than others, when he says, “Even though we started at the very same time, / Alexander Hamilton began to climb. / How to account for his rise to the top? / Maaaaan, the man is / non-stop!” (page 76, line 5-9, “Non-Stop”). The use of “Maaaaaan, the man…” is a un-formal way of referring to someone high up in the social status, and it shows astonishment and shock. The rhyme between “top” and “stop” connect the question and answer to join them together. Together, this shows how some people work harder and can gain success faster, or easier, than others. Furthermore, success can be shown as a source that can lead some people to keep striving to continue going higher and higher, when Eliza says, “Look at where you are. / Look at where you started. / The fact that you’re alive is a miracle. / Just stay alive, that would be enough” (page 63, line 25-29, “That Would Be Enough”). The first two sentences begin similarly with “Look at where you started,” and the use of “you” shows it is referring to one person causing it to be more personal to the character. The first part of the final sentence is easily structured and has a tone that is pleading with the person she is talking to. Together, this shows that success causes problems and disputes between relationships and that it causes people to think success defines who they are. Success can cause conflicts when dealing with how they think that it defines who they are, and, in turn, can cause relationship issues, when he says, “Will you relish being a poor man’s wife, / unable to provide for your life?” (page 62, line 21-22, “That Would Be Enough”) The use of “your life” forms an emotional appeal to the one he is talking to, and the use of “your” causes it to be more personal, possessive of “life.”. The rhyme between “wife” and “life” shows the connection between the two words. Together, this shows how success can cause discontentment by thinking that success defines who someone is as a person. On the other hand, success can be a motivator, not a deterrent, when he says, “...
John Jay got sick after writing five. James Madison wrote twenty-nine. Hamilton / wrote the other fifty-one!” (page 87, line 90-91, “Non-Stop”). The sentence structure is fairly the same, causing it to sound consistent, and towards the beginning, have an almost dull tone. In the final sentence, the line break after “Hamilton” causes suspense and a more powerful, more dramatic, way of conveying the material, and ends in an exclamation instead of a period shown in the previous two sentences. These elements together show that success can also cause someone to have the motivation to keep
going. In Hamilton, Miranda shows success, both in “Non-Stop” and “That Would Be Enough,” as an idea that forces people do certain actions to achieve it. Many people feel that it defines who people are, and it can cause conflicts between people. It can also be both a source of contention and motivation. Together, these songs show how success is neither totally a good or a poor characteristic. Source: Miranda, Lin-Manuel, et al. The Hamilton Mixtape. "That Would Be Enough" and "Non-Stop"
In conclusion, both Greene and Lorde discuss how disappointments as child have had positive affects on his/her lives as adults. Greene’s essay applied to me more than Lorde’s because I have never been judged by my appearance. I can’t relate to the fact of being cut from a team, but I can relate to the fact being successful with hard work.
The American college dictionary defines success as 1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, 2. The gaining of wealth, possessions, or the like. This has been the general seances for the past hundred years or more. But in more modern days the prospective of success has changed slightly. It has shifted to having a good education, going to collage, getting a carrier getting married & having children. Having your own home and eventually dying and passing it all on to a child or children. Success is no longer satisfaction or personal goals. It has been supplemented by the goals society has preset for the populous that have been drilled into the minds of the young from the very beginning. To a man named Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea by: Earnest Hemingway, success was to conquer the Marlin Santiago had fought for so long. But as a cruel twist of fate his success is taken away in an instant when the prize he had fought so hard for was eaten by sharks, leaving Santiago with no spoils left to show for his hard fight. He was even so crushed by of the loss of the Marlin that he cried out to the sea "I am beaten.....hear stands a broken man" (234). Santiago still experienced success in the fashion that when he returned to port the little boy named Manolin that he had taught how to fish earlier in the novel was allowed to come back to fish with him. This was the ultimate form of success that was perceived for Santiago by Hemingway. To Jean Valjean in Les Misreables By: Victor Hugo , Valjean's success was represented in the form of going from convict to loving father of a daughter. The little girl named Cosette may not have been his true daughter, but after he had had dinner with a bishop that had seen the possibility of good in he started the transformation of his life. he met Cosettes mother and vowed to save her daughter from the place where she was being kept. The success Valjean experienced was what made his character the man that he was. But to Willa Cather in My
Success is the chance to go out there and use the resources available to take advantage of opportunities that most people do not. Usually, things happen in life and it can prevent the process of obtaining success. In the readings, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Horatio Alger” by Harlon L. Dalton conveys the message that success is not always an everyday thing and it takes opportunities for it to become part of life. In “The Lesson”, an angered girl named Sylvia is taken on a field trip to a toy store with Miss Moore to learn a valuable lesson. The lesson is to become successful in society because it is the only way to make it to the top. On the other hand, “Horatio Alger” shows more of a realistic viewpoint where success is not as easy
We all understand what success is, but what allows for a person to become successful? Malcolm Gladwell wrote his book Outliers to study this topic and settle once and for all why some people are more successful than others. Gladwell uses the success stories of people throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to discover just exactly what it is that allows for one to be successful. He explains that there is much more to becoming successful than just natural talent and skill. Gladwell states in Outliers that success is the product of the time we were born, our dedication, and most of all where we come from.
Throughout the book the author implies that through persevering through adversity, following omens, and overcoming one's fears, everyone has a chance to achieve their dreams.
Nearly everyone has the desire to be successful in their lives, whether it be measured in the amount of wealth a man owns or the accomplishments he has made in his life. Therein lies the most common, the success in a man's profession. There are multiple approaches to this connotation of success where a wide range of techniques can be applied. One might think that the only way to reach a particular level of success is to take on a competitive nature and achieve that coveted position of number 1. However, being competitive does not necessarily insure that a person is ‘successful.’ They must be competent in their field to reach the top spot. An example of these two sides can be found within Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman using the characters Willy and Bernard.
If everyone thinks that without struggle, it is easy to obtain their goals that is entirely false. Struggle comes from the progress of our success and achievement. It is an indication that we poured all of our time and patience into the things we pursue. Jeannette Walls, the author of The Glass Castle, explain her struggles. She survives by finding foods from the trash can and earns money by babysitting, exchanging scrap metal, finding jobs, and from her parents. As a graduating student from high school, receiving my diploma is an indication that I ...
Success means to live a life in alignment with what brings us real joy. In my case, “success-joy” comes in many guises. At times, in being persistent with my current dreams, others, investing time and energy in what makes my life shine, and that is, without a doubt, when my life is at service of humanity and when I cultivate happy and healthy close relationships. I tend to define success as a state of being, a constant process of unfolding rather than a place to arrive. It is the journey of getting to know ourselves, in order to fully occupy every aspect of what we are; a forever changing aspiration, a state of being in which we realize that life’s greatest rewards spring from our capacity to relate to adversity in innovative ways. I have also discovered that real success shows up again when we debunk and deconstruct every single stereotype and assumption we have about ourselves. In this way, we feel capable to challenge what is commonly accepted as wisdom and then we have the opportunity to change and integrate our values with greater ones. There is an enormous joy when we feel free to play with the possible new scenarios that our imagination and creativity compelled us to try. A successful state of being is alert and grounded within us with the certainty, that the choices we embark on are in resonance with what we consider is the truth of what we are in that precise
Success is, in many ways, a branch of perspective, and yet societal norms seem to dictate what many view as success. Through my personal experience, and through the reading of Frederick Douglas I believe that the idea of personal success, in correlation with perspective, is a subject worthy of debate. Dissecting the difference of what many view as success and what may actually be success is essential for growth personally, and for people collectively. For example; currently many in our society view triumph as the acquisition of a copious monetary status, usually preceded, or followed by recognition for actions, ideas, etc… whether or not one views these actions or ideas worthy of widespread recognition. Nevertheless I myself believe that
In America today, the standard way of calculating success is in terms of material gain. Wealth and acquisition of bigger and better possessions are the driving force behind our culture as well as our capitalist economy. “Keeping up with the Jones’s” is a familiar cliché that accurately describes the goals of the average American for the latest and greatest and the biggest and the best. This is how most people believe we are measured in society. 19th Century American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson had a different concept of success, however. Emerson says “To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better…to know one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” ("Ralph Waldo Emerson")
As people go throughout their life, they strive to make dreams they believe are unachievable, come true. The iconic American Dream is a symbol of success within the United States that many people aim to secure throughout their lifetime at any cost, even compromising their true identity. In Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun, both authors work to display how Jay Gatsby and Walter Younger work towards obtaining their dream, but fall short due to society and timing. By attempting to reinvent themselves through money, gaining power within their personal life, and their image, Jay Gatsby and Walter Younger aim to complete their American Dream to become successful in their lives.
Hemingway’s piece clearly shows how trivial life can be in regards to what is thought to be needed to be successful. The reasons are that people put too much time into achieving unrealistic goals, people get too involved in obtaining their goals and do not appreciate what they have, and people have the wrong idea about success and can not obtain true success with the wrong vision of what it is. Harry clearly illustrates all of those points and the reader can learn from his “mistakes”. One should have a clear, realistic image of success before they waste their time and effort to obtain it. Success can only be obtain and kept in this world, it can not go with someone when they die.
To most of us, they say they can spot success at first glance. Generally by the car one drives or how one is dressed. Some might see it by how healthy or how happy one feels. Merriam Webster's Dictionary states that success is “the fact of getting wealth, respect, or fame.” If one where to adopt this definition of success, one might go on to living a life of materialism. This mindset is deceitful and will only reward you with short term happiness, like a drug addict searching for a quick fix. For one to be ultimately successful, one must be able to overcome hardships and possess qualities like integrity, pride and patience which no amount of money in the world could buy. These qualities will make anyone strive in most, if not all the difficult obstacles one must face in life.
People often acquire and achieve success as a result of many factors. Hard work is among them. However, one needs hard work and luck as Gladwell’s expresses in his work, Outliers. The over all theme in the book is the fact that success for people is often a result of the society contributing from all possible ends (Gladwell, 2012). It is important that as an American aspiring success, one does not only focus on working hard but also takes the chances that come with them. This is in addition to the people having acquired the right levels of education and having the abilities to succeed. Yet, success has no formula. Gladwell argues that successful people cannot attribute their rates and levels of success to personal effort as opposed to the old age narrative by people that success is self-made. Success in life has no ultimate path, one can only succeed by mixing hard work with the right amount of wit and recognition of opportunities for success.
The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” As you watch mainstream media you notice that the rich and successful are always joyful and confident. This eludes you from the hard work it takes for someone to become successful. Main stream media has falsely popularized the true definition of being successful. Many people start to believe that you’re only successful if you own an enormous house with multiple rooms that you can sleep in a new room each night, or having luxurious cars, owning expensive items, traveling anywhere you want at any given time, but in fact the true meaning of success is far from that. In