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Kevin Chung
Mrs. Mckenzie
English 10 Honors
17 November 2015
Live to Succeed
Success can mean various things to many people with different thoughts. It can mean
raising a child, money, job, grade, and etc. depending on what the person does, where they are,
and when they are born. Due to the difference in environment, people have different way of
approaching their own goal, or success. Although the path may differ, some of the
literatures/media have the same interpretation of the word Success and what it leads to be. The
authors of the books The Great Gatsby, Bodega Dreams, Christmas Carol, and Please Look After
Mom, Scott F. Fitzgerald, Emesto Quinonez, Charles Dickens, and Kyung-sook Shin, displays
these ideas with dialogue, analogy, metaphor, first person point of view, narration, and repetition.
Besides, medias such as Nightcrawler, and The Internship, which has been directed by Dan
Gilroy and Shawn Levy, also illustrates these ideas with dialogues. Difference in how people
think is clearly there as time passes, but the general idea of how most people think are known to
be similar, regardless of the time period.
Messages given from different time periods match when it comes to the meaning of
success. Since the 1920's, people would decipher the word "success" as the word wealth. All the
successful people whom are known fairly well attain the wealth of a millionaire or even bigger,
which tricks people that success is always how much money people obtain or possess. These
ideas are not just presented in literatures back in the 1920s, but ideas that are presented today do
have the same mindset that shares the same definition of success. Many do realize the alternate

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meaning of the word success, however literatures from the past to today has been affecting the
minds of people that the meaning of success refers to the level of wealth.
The famous literatures The Great Gatsby, Bodega Dreams had shown the people from the
1920's till present day that success is wealth. The book Bodega Dreams portray the desperate
mind of reaching the successful point. In particular, the author of Bodega Dreams Quinonez
states, And Bodega might talk all this shit about helping the community and shit like that but
what it all comes down to is making money (Quinonez 18). The use of the authors narration
effectively gives the reader an image to what success is, which is money. By stating that money
is everything, it indicates that Quinonez during the 1920s thought money portrayed success.
Furthermore, The Great Gatsby gives the reader a taste of success as well. The author of The
Great Gatsby Fitzgerald mentions Tom as a successful person, thus Fitzgerald states, His
speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There
was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he likedand there were men at New
Haven who had hated his guts (Fitzgerald 9). Fitzgerald uses imagery and narration to illustrate
the power behind Toms wealth. The author wants the audience to decode his true meaning of
success with a little common sense. Back in the 1920s power meant money and money meant
success, thus by Tom possessing power Fitzgerald indirectly introduces to the audience that Tom
is a wealthy man, as well as a successful man. Likewise, in 2014, a movie called the
Nightcrawler was presented to the public, illustrating the same definition of success as the
literatures written back in the 1920's. The main character Lou is derived by the money and fame
gained from being the president of a video production company for the news. In one of the movie
scene Lou spits out, "Not anymore, Rick, we're professionals, he's a sale now" (Nightcrawler).
The movie director, Dan Gilroy, illustrates Lou as a character whom has been derived severely

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by the money and fame gained through selling films to the news broadcasting station. As soon as
Lou gains enormous amount of money, he presents himself to the public that he is wealthy by
driving a luxurious car, also to display himself as a successful man. In fact, a literature way back
in the 1840's, Christmas Carol, illustrates success as wealth as well through the character
Ebenezer Scrooge. The author Charles Dickens creates Mr. Scroog as a person who relates
everything as a source of money. For instance, Dickens states, "Mankind was my business. The
common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my
business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my
business!" (Dickens 14). Dickens uses repetition to emphasize that Mr. Scroog only relies on his
money for everything. According to his theory whenever money decreases, his level of success
and pride decreases, thus he stays greedy. From analyzing the four different artworks, it can be
said that people do still think alike whether they are from the 1840s, 1920s, or the 2000s.
Although the definition of success might have been similar throughout the time period,
the way people achieve these difficult goals differs due to the events that occurred during the
time period. During the World War I, it was hard for laborers to work for big money, while the
jobs offered in the streets such as bootlegging were known to be successful, if done right. The
Great Gatsby mentions bootlegging because Gatsby became successful by bootlegging at that
time period. The author Fitzgerald states in his book, I found out what your drug stores
were. He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago
and sold grain alcohol over the counter. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him
and I wasnt far wrong (Fitzgerald 143). Fitzgerald uses dialogue to illustrate the work Gatsby
does to be successful. Now, these acts are indeed seen today, however, it is not as common as it
was back then because of the scarce of job opportunities with big profit. In addition, Quinonez

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illustrates the business Nazario and Bodega are involved in. Quinonez states, That's right. But
in the beginning, you have to do certain things. What do you think, it comes from nothing?
America is a great nation, I have no doubts about that, but in its early days it had to take some
shady steps to get there. Manifest Destiny, that was just another word for genocide (Quinonez
160). Quinonez uses dialogue and analogy in order for readers to clearly comprehend the
meaning behind Nazarios quote. By using these literary devices, Quinonez illustrates the
significance of Nazario and Bodegas way of achieving their successful life. In comparison, a
movie The Internship that is presented in 2013 portrays a different way of success than the path
Bodega and Gatsby takes to be successful. From The Internship the main characters Billy and
Nick states the following, You got us a job at Google? It is an interview for an internship that
can lead to a job This is how people do it now, Nicky. They have their interviews on the
Internet (The Internship). The director, Shawn Levy, portrays what opportunities society offers
today as well as the advancement of technology where Nick and Billy experiences interview
through Internet. Now, both The Great Gatsby and Bodega Dreams, and The Internship shares
the same goal, which is making money, however the path they take splits them into different
roads. Thus, it clearly emphasizes the difference between time periods. Lastly, a book called
Please Look After Mom is presented in Korea which takes place in the late 1980s. During that
time in Korea, most families were experiencing poverty, struggling to obtain food for the family
each day. The author Kyung-sook Shin illustrates what a successful life of a mother looks like
during this time, and what every mother would do being a mother of a child or children. Near the
end Shin states, Even though nobody knew that you were in my life, you were the person who
brought a raft at every rapid current and helped me cross that water safely. I was happy that you
were there. I came to tell you I was able to travel through my life because I could come to you

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when I was anxious, not when I was happy (Shin 96). Shin uses metaphor and first point of
view to send an indirect message to the readers about how Mom helped Chi-hon to achieve what
she wanted. Shin indicates that a mothers success in her life is to raise her child the right way,
thus by helping a child to cross a river, metaphorically, illustrates the path the mother takes to
be successful. Hence, depending on where, when, and what is going on determines the path
people take in reaching their successful life.
Number of years may seem far apart from the 1920s or the 1800s to present day,
however, it has not affected majority of people in their way of interpreting success as wealth. It
can be said through the books The Great Gatsby, Bodega Dreams, and Christmas Carol. Also
through a movie called Nightcrawler. Though the interpretation may be similar, the path each
person takes to get there is different due to the environment and situation he/she is put in. This
can be proven by the various artworks such as The Great Gatsby, Bodega Dreams, The
Internship, and Please Look After Mom. All of authors of these books have used numerous
literary devices that helped the authors to send the messages to the audience. Authors have
greatly signified the message by using dialogue, metaphor, narration, analogy, first point of view,
and repetition. Each time period provides benefits, yet it always has its disadvantages. Thus,
success can only be earned with hard work; no matter what it is or what path a person has to
take, it just needs determination and persistence to own it.