Theme Of Success In The Hotel New Hampshire

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What is success? According to the dictionary, it is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, but theres much more to the word than just this simple phrase. As Eric Thomas—the American motivational speaker, author, and minister—once said “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful”. The idea of what success can bring, has motivated people throughout history to take risks and follow their dreams, no matter what the consequence is. Although achieving a long term goal or accomplishing an idea can be great, sometimes a person can lose themselves or hurt others around them during the process. As John Irving concocts his fascinating characters with their outrageous lives in The Hotel New Hampshire and The …show more content…

Early on in the novel, Win Berry already displays himself as a passionate entrepreneur who desires to make it in the business world. While trying to think in the future of success, the family got lost and things always seemed to go wrong. From a young age, Win wanted to run hotels with his wife, Mary, and he made it his life journey to fulfill this dream. He would not let anything get in the way or stop him, which unfortunately did not go well for his family. As the Berry family continuously “hope for a fairy-tale existence, these forces shatter their dreams” (Reilly 98). Win, and the rest of the (household?) Throughout the entire novel, the Berry family wishes and hopes for more. With creative ideas in mind, they often move from place to place, to keep up with the competitive hotel business. As the years go by, they all begin to deteriorate and dreadful incidents constantly occur. While jumping from hotel to hotel, Egg and Mother die, the dog Sorrow dies, Franny is raped, and the love between Franny and John becomes more dangerous. As hard as it is to believe, two of the siblings have romantic feelings for one another, which as the novel persits, increasing becomes an immense problem. After the horrific rape of Franny, the beloved family dog, Sorrow, passed away. Franny adored Sorrow, so as a gift, the eldest son, Frank, decided to stuff Sorrow and “make him nice again” (Irving 163). Frank makes it his mission to make Sorrow look acceptable. After working on it for several months day in and day out, the dog is finally finished. Frank had successfully stuffed him, and once Sorrow made his first appearance to the family, the grandfather dropped dead in fear. As time passes and the family moves around the world, stuffed Sorrow follows along and seems to carry a dangerous (mojo). Walking through the streets, Franny shouted “here comes the rest of our lives”

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