Success is the chance to use the resources available and take advantage of opportunities that most people do not. Usually, things can happen where advantage of opportunities cannot always be taken, but it was quite different around this time. In the stories, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Horatio Alger” by Harlon L. Dalton conveys the message that success is not always the easiest to grasp, but taking advantage of opportunities is hard especially as African-Americans. In “The Lesson”, an angered girl named Sylvia is taken on a field trip to a toy store, F.A.O Schwarz with Ms. Moore to learn a valuable lesson. The lesson was to become someone in society who is successful because that is how everything was judged.…
Sylvia’s initiation in the short story The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, is striking because Miss Moore gives the opportunity to the children to evaluate the difference between the fifth avenue and their poor neighborhood. However, one of the story’s main themes is that innocence is a handicap and the political and moral innocence that are represented from the beginning to the end of the story brings the main character to many reflections. This idea is revealed as Sylvia’s ignorance towards the different social classes, Sylvia’s questions on the purpose of wealth and the hard realization of the true facts of inequality. Due to the children’s lack of political and moral knowledge,…
Children always have dreams that they want to achieve when they get older. However, when they get older they start to think that to achieve their dream is something impossible; therefore, they change their dream or give up on it. Randy Pausch wrote The Last Lecture to explain how he did not give up on his dream though. He wrote about his childhood dreams and even though he had cancer and knew he was going to die, he kept striving to achieve his childhood dreams. He managed to get through life achieving most of his childhood dreams. In The Last Lecture, Pausch uses pathos, ethos, and logos to persuade readers that they can achieve their childhood dreams no matter what.…
That the wealthy did not have to work off debt but the poor did, a solution to getting the debt off their backs was to send their children to cotton farms, Mills, coal mines, etc, to work off their debt. Those poor kids experienced physical pain like illnesses/disease, cuts/bruises and maybe even death. They also experienced emotional pain like loneliness, stress, depression, etc. But remember kids that were privileged enough to not work were very lucky. And some of them didn’t even know…
One cannot disregard the fact that the underprivileged and the homeless do not attain that special opportunity to discover their talents. They have experienced misfortune, financial hardship, danger, much more and yet they are still stuck in a rut in this society. This situation is similar to Lennie’s and George’s from Of Mice and Men; a novel written by John Steinbeck. Lennie is man with a mental disability who relies on his close and caring friend, George. George takes upon the responsibility and leads Lennie to their dream. Though they had strong ambitions of starting their own farm and achieving the American Dream, in the end, the goal that they have been searching for was shattered because of Lennie’s murder by his best friend George. In both cases, none of them fully found their talents and in both they experienced financial issues as well as suffering. This explains the reasoning why many do not accept the belief of Horace’s aphorism. Furthermore, others may also believe that talent comes from within you and not everyone is blessed with this naturally gifted persona. They believe that talent is a natural gift that is born…
Throughout history, it is seen that the white race has always been inferior, which entitles them to different advantages. These advantages have become customary to everyday life. Peggy McIntosh’s essay White Privileges: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack explores the ideas of the white privilege and the need to abate it.…
Peggy McIntosh says that white privilege is an indivisible knapsack. She tries to imply that these privileges are not equally distributed among people of different race…
Boundless is the sea for fish to dive at will, unlimited is the sky for birds to fly at ease. Though may not be as sublime as Martin Luther King’s, everyone carries a dream of their own. Perhaps, it’s the grand ambitions; perhaps, it’s the adolescent confusion and impulsive; maybe just a plain desire, desire applause, eager for success. Countless "may," innumerable "hope" because of our youthful full of miracles, large…
Flying Kites On A Pond (Essay #1 to Jerome Stern's What They Learn In School) Jerome Stern's What They Learned In School challenges the phrase "the sky is the limit" in the case of today's methods of school education. While we are taught that education further develops human characteristics and the understanding of life, Stern points out the ironies. Instead of the intention to expand, to explore, and to inspire, he feels today's education is hypocritical of what it preaches.…
Book's goal is to reveal the key to unlocking the high achiever within, by what Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner call "encouraging the heart."…
"Privilege is the greatest enemy of equality." This quote from a noted Austrian novelist, Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach, perhaps describes the harm of "white privilege" on American society. By its very definition privilege is a grace bestowed on one over another (Webster, 2006). In that sense, privilege is in and of itself an opposition to equality. In racial terms, if one group has been historically privileged over another, there will never be equality between the groups until a catastrophic new beginning can occur removing all trace of the bestowed privilege.…
"Poverty." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010.Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 11 Dec. 2012.…
In my opinion, I felt that once the young realized that they can earn plenty sums of money by working at McDonald’s. It is hard for them to get rid of this belief “no education can earn money”. Even once, he/she thought in this way, they will never value their education again. They may think that if they can earn money, they can live in the society. In other words, they are able to be independent in the society. But this makes easily one to be compliant. Under this belief, he/she cannot live effectively.…
The text refers to this set of privilege and acts as a “The invisible Knapsack”, which is the best analogy that I have heard in my life. It makes completely sense, the white privilege is exactly as an invisible knapsack, white people and male do not feel it, but they are always wearing and using the tools that are inside of this knapsack, most of the time unconsciously.…
In my opinion, the underprivileged have a sense of respect for things, they things in their life are valuable and don’t take it for granted. In Horatio Alger, Jr.’s novel, Ragged Dick, the main…