Pop Culture Success

909 Words2 Pages

Aileen Lee
Mr. Heller
American Studies - AP English
01-02-2017

In a material world, many are obsessed with the idea of success. Pop culture constantly informs the public on the lives of the successful, offering details of their glamorous lives and insight on how to achieve success as well. These successful people mainly consist of the super rich who seem to live carefree and simple lives. In order to achieve this success, people tend to set goals for themselves. Instead of living in the present, those with this goal-driven attitude spend their time working hard whilst looking towards the future. Once the goal is reached so is success. No matter how small and insignificant to larger ones that require great ambition, these goals are the key …show more content…

It is quite obvious what current society associates with success: material wealth and high status. This perspective is seemingly obvious since having lots of money simply makes it easier to live. Rather than spending time worrying over missed payments and meeting deadlines for jobs, having money readily available makes it easier to enjoy oneself in times of leisure. Although high status has no monetary price tag, being of high status opens many doors. Along with this, high status, usually attained with money, also plays a part in making life a lot more easier and enjoyable. Rather than working to please others in order to earn money, those with high status are catered to. This kind of success, monetary success, through money and status, is one of the most common goals for individuals, seen within the most prominent points of the American Dream. Those who wish to achieve the dream, aspire to reach for a certain job that will guarantee a good salary or to rise through promotions to reach a higher …show more content…

As Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self Reliance dictates, numerous people who strive for material goods and status will consistently be met with feelings of inadequacy due to constant comparisons to others who have more. By setting goals pertaining to improvements in income or status, you set yourself up to comparisons to others. Setting a goal to earn more money or reach a higher status depends on constantly comparing yourself to others in order to monitor progress and to determine accomplishment of the goal. While reaching for these goals of money and high status, they spend their time working, wasting their lives for the sake of the future rather than enjoying the present. Even if they achieve this success of attaining admiration and riches, these people aren't guaranteed satisfaction due to others always being ahead, having more money or being of a higher social status. Instead of having the individual set an end goal themselves, they have to depend on others to create a finish line for them. Much like the titular character, Willy Loman, from The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, who goes insane from the illusion of the American Dream, these individuals cannot be fulfilled until they reach the top, which is simply impossible. Since material success doesn't lead to fulfillment, it makes us question why so many strive for money or material goods rather than happiness itself. As we

Open Document