The Shift By Laura Hillenbrand

Success is a concept that is constantly altered and has a different meaning from person to person. The stereotypical definition of success would be someone who has a high-paying job or is in the upper-class. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers: The Story of Success, approaches the concept of success in a different and unique way. Gladwell discusses how opportunities, cultural legacy, and hard work all coincide with each other to produce real success. He uses mostly logic and multiple unrelated anecdotes to support and provide evidence for his statements. Gladwell's main argument is that although hard work and talent are essential for success, one’s given opportunities and cultural legacy is what really

“Success is the accomplishment of aim or purpose”, ”Success is something everbody want but don’t have the opporunitty of getting.” If you tell people where to go but not how to get there, you will be amazed at the results. Success requires you to put in work; it never comes to you. Freedom could be looked at as success. “ Freedom is never volunitary given by the oppressed. -Martin Luther King Jr. The cost of freedom is always high but could be paid in various ways. Paul Laurence Dunbar and Emily Dickinson show different techniques of success throughout the poems.

Success: a word that is defined as being good at what you do and how you do it. There are many elements of success. Some key elements are grit, a support system and commitment. Grit is having the strength to never give up when things get tough, no matter how tough situations get. Having a support system is having people by your side helping you get through anything and everything in the best way they can! Commitment is keeping up with something and sticking with it every step of the way until the job is done. Kewauna, from “Kewauna's Ambition”, a portion from “How Children Succeed”, written by Paul Tough, showed those three elements: grit by never giving up, having a support system that included a tutor, family and classmates, and determination while she tried her hardest to do her best every day while attempting to escape her former lifestyle and being enrolled in a program. While Marita, from “Marita’s Bargain”, an excerpt from “Outliers: The Story of Success” written by Malcolm Gladwell, showed grit also by never giving up, had a support system in her teachers and

I experience success when I have finally succeeded in overcoming the hardship that is holding me back from the achievement for which I am striving. My family and people who struggle just like I do are the only ones that are helping me through my struggles. My family supports me when I am in trouble and in the times that I need them the most. People who struggle just like I do help each other to overcome their struggles. We can celebrate together when we overcome

The act of crossing a metaphorical threshold is one that is oftentimes difficult and daunting. Although it may require courage, the reward of gaining knowledge is worth the process of crossing whatever threshold life chooses to place in front of you. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel the protagonist, Sarah Grimké, knows all about crossing thresholds. She lives by her own personal slogan to “err… on the side of audacity.” I have come to learn so much about myself and the world around me by doing just that.

By definition, success is a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity. How an individual reaches the point of success is “not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky- but all critical to making them who they are” (285). Throughout the book, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, the pieces of the secret to success are put together. Three parts of success include pure luck, the amount of time and effort put into working to achieve your goal and where you come from.

Leaving the comforts of the first world, Jessica Alexander abandons her job, fiancé, family, and home to venture into the misleading volunteer work of Humanitarian aid. Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid by Jessica Alexander is a conglomeration of stories that are written from Jessica’s memory. “It is a true account based on [Jessica’s] best recollections of the events and [her] experiences.”.

A shiny, crisp red fruit hangs enticingly off a lush verdant branch; a sly, seductive serpent and a woman in the nude converse under the sacred tree, and then Eve tentatively reaches up and plucks the juicy crimson fruit, a look of panic only reflected on her face once she realizes the gravity of her decision. She picks the forbidden fruit and her ignorance is ripped away from her like a newspaper on a windy day, and this single act started a trend of succumbing to temptations throughout human history. Even in the novels The Hours and The Awakening, the characters are tempted by someone else or a different idea; however, some of these characters exhibit strong self control and avoid their demise. The fine line between success and failure when it comes to avoiding temptation is most obviously demonstrated by Edna Pontellier and Laura Brown, and these two women showcase the destructive power of seduction and the strength of will it takes to deny the enticement. The allure of the unknown is not exclusive to the female sex either, many men in the novel also suffer from it, namely Robert Lebrun. The secret snare of temptation is interwoven throughout the stories, and the sliver of thread can be glimpsed between the inky words.

Literature is defined as written works published on a particular subject. Literature can also be viewed as witness, because it can be a source of proof based on the events it was written on. Literature as witness allows readers to get a deeper understanding of the issues that have happened based off of what the books are about. Those who read literary texts such as historical novels, memoirs and novels are witness to historical events. These texts can be viewed as witness because the events mentioned are based off of true life events. Some may argue historical fiction is not real and therefore could not be viewed as a reliable source. Even though historical fiction is made up of fictional characters, the conflicts that are mentioned are based

Success is such a strong word for me, but after reading the novel, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates”, by Westley Moore, I came to the conclusion what success really means to me. “The Other Wes Moore” is about the lives of two men with similar neighborhoods, names and growing up in the wrong direction. Westley struggle with academics and behavior; so he was sent to Valley Forge Military School. He ends up as an army officer, a graduate of John Hopkins University, and a White House fellow. Wes struggle financially, which led him to sell drugs, a thief, and a convicted killer. The choice that they make determines the encounters that they deal with. The important factors that caused Westley to become successful in life while

Success is an effective word that society uses to define what set of achievements an individual creates for themselves. Based on society, success is one’s ability, intelligence, and how gifted an individual is. However, In “Outliers The Story of Success” Malcolm Gladwell argues that it does not matter if an individual is talented, smart, or driven, it does not mean that they will achieve up to their full abilities. Gladwell believes that the way to success is by an endless amount of practice, timing, and opportunity one is given and whether or not the individual sees and takes advantage of that opportunity.

¨For these men, nothing was ever going to be the same¨ (Hillenbrand 251). War impacts everyone, from POWs to normal citizens. In the novel, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini was made invisible in POW camps. He was tortured, starved, beaten, and stripped of his dignity. Opposite of Louie, Miné Okubo was an American citizen that was put in an internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor because of her Japanese ancestry. Both Miné Okubo and Louie Zamperini experienced isolation and dehumanization in their situations. Even though Japanese-American internees and American POWs were tried to be made invisible in World War II, both groups resisted and made efforts to regain their dignity.

“War does horrible things to human beings, to societies. It brings out the best, but most often the worst, in our human nature” (Engel). Louie Zamperini, the main character in Hillenbrand's Unbroken, grew up as a young boy always up to trouble. Despite his problematic youth he grew up to become a successful Olympian runner and a high ranking officer during WWII. When during WWII, when he became a prisoner of war the lessons he learned growing up helped him prevail though the most unfavorable of others display of character, including his own. In her book, Laura Hillenbrand uses character to show the theme, war is an extreme event that can sometimes bring out the worst in individuals.

One article with a story was “Boor Poor and Smart.” The author is Angela Locke, a writer for a journal that fights for feminism, off our backs [sic]. In most of the article, the author tells about how she was born into poverty and how her mother fought to get out of it. Her mother was not successful, but the author believes it is possible to get out of poverty and is very optimistic about her future. After that, the author tells us what her mother did right and what she did wrong. Thus, why she didn’t become successful. A quote from the article is, “Success is not only living by the values that you believe in, but being in some was recognized in the world for those values. Success is not is not only discovering your talents and your interests, but being able to make a living using them”

We all have different definitions of success. Most people allow their definition of “success” to de driven by someone or something else (status quo), for in Ragged Dick by Haratio Alger written in 1868, the protagonist Dick also last known as Richard Hunter looked at what someone else thought of a success and tried to attain it. This book tells about a poor boy struggles to become a success. Although Haratio Alger emphasizes the importance of pluck, luck and virtue, in attaining success, it is clear that success also depends on who you know, how you look, and what you are willing to change. Even though Fosdick had courage, what really mattered is how and who got him there. I think that as far as achieving success and happiness, it should be