The Usual Suspects, Whats the Real Definition Of Success?

            Success takes on many definitions for many different people and what ever road your on in life Success has a different meaning. I believe success is a feeling that cant be measured. Like love, one truly cant put words together to define it, but you know when your part of it that it's something really special. Success is something personal for an individual not whats viewed as good from the society.  In my own life I'll have to say success for me is that my family is happy and being able to do what they choose. I have a huge family and learned through time that no achieved goal can be celebrated if your not happy with the end result granted from it. I want my nieces and nephews to be leaders, not followers. Leaders get to do what they want, they set the standards, their the bestower of moral values and that's what is most important for me. They'll be able to do what they want not what their told or ushered into by society or their family. In Into The Wild it shows a contrast between Chris and his sister Carine.

"I was always getting on Mom and Dad's case because they worked all the time and were never around, Now look at me: I'm doing the same thing"(P.129).

Carine said this because she followed the path of her family by accepting and adopting the family value's. While her brother was away doing what he wanted to do, setting his own standards, living how he wanted to live. If his life ended "early" so what, who's to say that he even had a premature life, compared to who's value on what time one should die. Luckily Chris was lead by his own values therefore he was always right and who cares if he died. He at least died doing what he loved and what he wanted to do, most people cant say that. They both were successful in what they did and it shows that success has many meanings to different people.

            I can say today that I'm successful person. Although society will tell me I am not. We as a society judge others with a common goal and definition of success. Society views a married man with two kids in a middle class neighborhood with a managerial job that he's held for 12 years as successful. If that is success, I dont want no part of it. If exploiting, dehumanizing, and believing in trickle down economics while being CEO of a Fortune 500 company is success, I dont want no part of it. We find in time that society sets the standards of success not the individual. The only true way to be successful is for the individual to make the decision that the life their living is right. Chris in Into The Wild was tremendously successful. He didn't let societies definition of success define him, he defined his own life. Chris said to Ron Franz

"people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind"(P.56).  

             The thought process of conformity is that people should all do the same thing. This logic doesn't take in to account there are many people with many personalities. Some people even have multiple personalities. The blueprint of conformity can't cope with millions of people. Someone out of the masses have to stand up and say I'm not conforming and we find those people are viewed as outcasts, just the way people viewed him. Chris didn't feel part of this society and he put himself in exile by going to Alaska. Although he probably was pushed that way, he felt at ease knowing society was wrong. His attitude were unmatched at home and he didn't want to follow the norm, so conformity he wasn't going to be apart of. I believe if he felt a certain way he is smart to act on it and that's what he was telling Ron.

            What prevents me from success in my community, is my community. The fact is if I do something out of the ordinary I will be ostracized. It seems as if one has to almost choose between the view of success from the family and the view of success from society. Usually when it's deep ingrained beliefs the family is following society and most times it is set by laws. For example, in Saudi Arabia women aren't even allowed to drive cars it's written law therefore it's punishable. So how can a mother with pressure of breaking conformity support her daughter. The community is holding her back. If a young girl can't think outside the box, how can she be different? We as people feel there is a emotion of having to fulfill your family dreams and what they expect out of you, while trying to balance out personal dreams. It's very hard to do. Most times family dreams prevail and people collapse because they feel it's so hard to be successful and go against the grain. In a dysfunctional family most people conform because it's easier to do wrong and it's a struggle to do right when everyone else is in a state of dysfunction one will settle for almost anything that's normal. In Bread Givers, Sara was the only child who made it out of dysfunction. Noticing how her other sisters fell into their lives Sara wanted to be different she said

"I've got to live my own life. It's enough that mother and the others lived for you. Thank God, I'm living in America! You made the lives of the other children! I'm going to make my own life!"(P.138). 

            Sara being the youngest saw how her sisters were forced to be indentured servants for the family. She decided that will not be her fate and took action into her own hands. Just how Chris had the will of not to conform, Sara did as well. Family will prevent people from doing what they want to do individually. If being different is viewed as being weird in this society, I want to be a weird Mother Fuc*#!. I Want to be the neighborhood weirdo and the worlds kook. We should encourage differences because we're crushing passion by not letting kids be successful and in being successful one are able to do what they want by following their passion. Therefore crushing ones dreams by trying to make everyone in the family conform to what society wants them to do not what they want to do individually.