Effectiveness Of Redefining Failure By Julia Baird

Everyone has failed at something in their life. You might think that failure doesn't strengthen you at all, but it does. The three main reasons why failure strengthens you are that failure gives you room to improve, it helps you learn, and it helps you later in life.

The play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, takes issue with those in America who place too much stress upon material gain, at the expense of other, more admirable human values. Miller uses flashbacks to provide exposition, to foreshadow the upcoming tragedy, and most importantly to reveal character traits. An analysis of the main character, Willy Loman, illustrates the underlying theme that the concern over material success breaks down the bonds between men that form the basis of a smooth-functioning society.

Well, this is the message that Horatio Alger gives to his readers that some people feel as though it’s a myth as oppose to others thinking it’s great guidelines or a great blueprint to success. In a selection of the money and success chapter in “Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing”, a professor

Perhaps the definition of failure has changed as in the last century capitalism has created wealth like nothing done previously in human history. At the same time, socialism has spent the last century subjecting millions of innocent people to tyranny and poverty. But somehow, its tenets live on in the millennial of the world’s richest countries. And what has followed is an arbitrary connection between the free enterprise system and declining rates of economic and social phenomena. So with the charges against capitalism more severe than ever before, we may as well present the facts.

How does an individual’s perspective of, and response to, a crisis define him or her?

The story ‘Death of a Salesman’ written by Miller focuses on a man doing all he can to allow him and his family to live the American dream. Throughout the story it is shown how the Loman’s struggle with finding happiness and also with becoming successful. Throughout their entire lives many problems come their way resulting in a devastating death caused by foolishness and the drive to be successful. Ever since he and his wife, Linda, met she has been living a sad and miserable life, because she has been trying support his unachievable goals. Also by him being naïve put his children’s lives in jeopardy and also made them lose sight of who they really were. Miller uses the Loman family to show how feeling the need to appear a certain way to the public and trying to live a life that is not really yours can turn into an American nightmare.

Though Gladwell is correct in telling us that opportunity is a key component to success, his emphasis on the importance of opportunity and less on a person’s own individuality and character traits, is absurd.

Jessica Statsky wrote an essay where she expressed her thoughts on young kids competitive in sports. Statsky made it very clear in her essay that she was completely against kids participating in competitive sports. Personally, I disagree with Starsky's statement, I believe that being in a competitive sport has many more advantages rather than disadvantages. Being on a sports team since a young age can teach kids how to cope with failure as well as the empowering feeling of winning. Teams teach kids to be able to work with others despite the differences that might exist between teammates, it teaches them teamwork and how to grow up and get better in working in teams because teams are everywhere; work, school, church, meeting and in many other places.

The Great Depression broke down security and belief in American society during the early 20th century and brought out hidden prejudices. The once optimistic mood during the Roaring 20’s turned to pain. The dire economic situation caused Americans to return to past social stigmas where certain groups of people were seen as inferior; as a result, the American Dream, where everyone could seek their ideal of success, was reduced to merely a dream. John Steinbeck observed these changes in social behavior and witnessed the plight of many Americans during the Great Depression. Like in his later work, The Grapes of Wrath, he was inspired by his environment to expose the lives of people during the Great Depression using Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck observed these changes in social behavior and witnessed the plight of many Americans during the Great Depression. Steinbeck demonstrates in Of Mice and Men through the characters that the American Dream was naturally discriminatory towards certain groups of people because of common perceptions held during that period.

All throughout America, competition flows through the people’s blood like an epidemic there’s no cure for. From the age Americans are infants, it is bred into them. They are taught that there are winners and there are losers, and not to be a loser. Although some believe this kind of competition can lead to success and happiness, the outcomes are quite the opposite. This is shown in Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman when the main character, Willy Loman, not only lives his life by the myth of competition but also drives this myth into the minds of his family. This causes one of Willy’s sons to be led down a path of misguided aspirations, leads Willy to have very low self-esteem, and evokes poor relationships with others. Through this, Miller shows that competition is just a widely believed American myth which doesn’t lead to a fulfilling life.

I failed a major exam in 2010, and it still haunts in me and blocks my academic path. I am suffering from depression since then. The concentration difficulties, low memory, low self esteem, low body energy, and fear of losing are hindering my performance. Please help me to get out of this mental block completely, and achieve more in life.

“Miller sees many people’s lives being poisoned by their desire to be successful. People like the Lomans are doomed to try for success but fail, with all the resulting guilt that such failure brings. Others like Ben and Howard display an ability to make money that deems them successful but at the cost of their own moral integrity.” (Abbotson, 317)

Failure often times leads a person to feel helpless, disappointed and depressed. However,one should not allow this to set them back in trying to achieve the ultimate aim one has set out to do. Failure in the beginning can often be a powerful incentive to reassess one’s position in wanting to achieve the particular aims; to analyse whether the purpose is worth the trouble the person has to undergo and the whether the obstacles are surmountable.

In 2008, author J.K. Rowling wrote and gave a commencement speech to the graduating class of Harvard University. Rowling aptly named the speech “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”. In this speech Rowling tries to convey the message that failing can be beneficial or an individual and that people should not be afraid to use their imagination. Rowling begins the speech with a reflection on what went through her mind while writing the speech and how the process affected her. During this time Rowling asked herself what she wished she had known at her graduation and came up with the two main ideas of this speech; the merits of failure and significance of imagination. Rowling explains the benefits of failure by using her own personal failure of living in poverty with her daughter and what that failure taught her. For the significance of imagination, Rowling describes it not in terms of how it helped her out of poverty, but of how it opens up people to the world and other individuals around them.

As my first semester of college is coming to an end, I would like to reflect on my experience here within the Honors 120 and 121 class on Failure and the Question Wheel. I chose this class on failure because I have always held myself to such high standards that I hoped to be able to find a way to accept failure in some instances. Within our first week in class, we made claims about failure. My favorite claim was that every failure is in some way a success. Although this claim was not very debatable and incredibly generic, I was able to really let my mind explore what it was trying to say. Throughout the semester I experienced failure after failure, but that allowed me to see that success can still be achieved within failures.