Critical analysis of
“The Sweet Smell of Success Isn’t All That Sweet”
By: Maggie Yi
A00631572
Instructor: Karyn Huenemann
Use a serif font (the same font) for the entire paper
Oct. 15, 2012
Critical Analysis of “The Sweet Smell of Success Isn’t All That Sweet”
In “The Sweet of Success Isn’t All That Sweet,” writer Laurence Shames emphasizes that people should accept failure as a having positive instead of purely negative attributes [is this really his point? Simplifying it thus changes his meaning]. Shames’s purpose is to clarify the true meaning of success and what people can learn from the process of becoming a successful person, rather than what it looks like when a person ends up with what society may label success. Shames adopts an ironic tone and uses an organic arrangement to define what the true meaning of success is [his statements are intended to apply to all of Western or at least North American society, not just his readers].
Success can be interpreted from different perspectives and shown in different ways [yes, but Shames is explicitly stating that MOST (not “some”) people view it one way: the wrong way.]. The current social definition of success involves high-paying jobs, gorgeous houses, and expensive meals in fancy restaurants; Shames, however, argues against this particular idea of success and claims that each person should create his or her own individual goals and definition of success [partially, but mainly that “the journey not the arrival matters” to quote Leonard Woolf].
To begin the essay, Shames presents[“to begin” and “starts” are redundant] three examples of failure—according to their contemporary social standards—to express how one can face and deal with a failure, develop one’s own strength, and put personal attitude into one’s work[is this what he is doing? Rather, he is presenting three individuals who are now considered famous and successful, but at the time were considered failures… so