Success is defined as achieving your goals. This is the most basic meaning of success, or the definition that everyone knows. When goals are reached usually that would mean that you are successful, that you have put meaning into your life. For example, a goal for many is just to get through college and have a job that they want. This means that they are successful. They have done what they wanted to do and now they are doing what they please. They can mark this goal off of their list and move on the next one. In another instance, Chris is able to reach Alaska and feels successful, "He was elated to be there. Inside the bus, on a sheet of weathered plywood spanning a broken window, McCandless scrawled an exultant declaration of independence" (112). Chris achieves his goals, making him very successful. He is now free and feels independent. He also achieves happiness from it which is tied into another definition of success.
Another definition that ties with success is happiness. The feeling of being happy once a goal is completed is inevitable. It is like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders. If anyone told you that you cannot do a certain thing it is like you just proved them wrong and made yourself realize that you can do it. Having success makes one feel happy and accomplished in life. For one, in the "Passion Project" not following your passion makes you unhappy. This is very true, and I believe it as well. I would not consider myself successful if I was not happy. Following your passion has a real impact on this. I would not be happy unless I was doing what I wanted to do because it would be fun for me. I could care less about the money involved. In a similar situation, Chris's parents worked very hard to earn a lot of money spending countless hours at work, "They ran a real good business together and eventually started making bunches of money, but they worked all the time” (75). While Chris's parents could be considered successful because they had monetary and superficial things they were not happy. They worked all the time and had hardly any time to spend with their children. All they would do it work which does not mean success. They do not get to do anything with what they have earned so it is kind of pointless. By working all the time the relationship formed with their kids was weak, which leads to another definition of success.
The relationships made with others also define success. If you are happy with your life because you are successful, you should be able to make strong bonds with your children and others around you. You can share your knowledge of what you love and try your best to touch other peoples' hearts. First, Carine mentions that the relationship with her parents was not strong, but it was with Chris, "I think it was one of the reasons Chris and I were so close. We learned to count on each other when Mom and Dad weren’t getting along" (75). Their parents were not happy although they were making money. They did not spend a lot of time with their children, making the relationships with them poor. Their family is not successful because they do not have a strong bond with one another. As for Chris, there are many relationships and bonds that he formed along the way to Alaska he was even offered to be adopted by Franz, "So I asked Alex if I could adopt him, if he would be my grandson." Chris touched other people's hearts and made them care about him and what he wanted to do. He was able to be successful and maintain relationships with everyone who helped him on his way to Alaska. He was very successful and made strong relationships because of that.
2) What helps you succeed in your community? What prevents your success?
One thing that helps me succeed in community are the relationships I have. This is related to being successful. You cannot be successful unless you have good relationships to help you achieve your goals. Goals cannot be achieved single-handedly. There is always something that you did or something that you have that is because of someone else's doing. Like for Chris, it was the relationships he made along the way and he even mentions in this journal, "It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here" (49). Without the help of others Chris would not have made it to Alaska alone. He needed help along the way in order to succeed. Even though he might not have had the support of his family, he had the support of others which made him more confident in what he was doing. Another instance shows how strong one of his relationships formed was with a letter to Ronald Franz saying, "Ron, I really enjoy all the help you have given me and the times that we spent together. I hope that you will not be too depressed by our parting. [...] You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience" (40-41). Chris gains the courage to tell an eighty year old to live his life to the fullest. He makes a strong relationship and even offers life advice to a person that he meets on the quest to achieve his passion in life. By succeeding in his own endeavors Chris tries to pay it forward to help others achieve a goal as well.
Culture also helps to succeed in endeavors. The way someone is brought up shapes them for what's to come. It can greatly help achieve goals and succeed in an unknown environment. How a community chooses to support those within the community forms a basis for a person's life. For example, in the "Roses in Concrete" video by Jeff Andrade, he explains the significance and importance of forming a community centered around the school and younger children within it. This helps them form caring characteristics towards their education, making them want to find a passion and succeed in it. Not only that, but these students who go on to pursue their life's dreams often come back to help the community who helped them. In turn, can become a never ending cycle of people who succeed because they were brought up in a good, supporting community. Another example involves Chris, Chris was especially close to his mother's dad, and this formed a certain kind of personality within Chris, "The old man’s backwoods savvy, his affinity for the wilderness, left a deep impression on the boy" (75). Chris's influence in nature came from his grandfather. He learned of the wilderness and wanted to live in it. He wanted to be able to thrive and have the feeling of living alone and knowing that he is able to do it. His grandfather plays a large role in sparking that interest in him and making him want to pursue living in the wilderness isolated from humanity.
Money is always a problem that gets in the way of success. Even though people say money is not needed to make your dreams come true, that is completely wrong. Money is always needed to start something. It is what gives people a start. Without money it is truly difficult to get to where you want to go in life. As for Chris, this shows as a problem as he is growing up as well with the explanation of his position on money, "Her son, the teenage Tolstoyan, believed that wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil—which is ironic because Chris was a natural-born capitalist with an uncanny knack for making a buck" (80). Chris believed that money was not needed, but several times he has to get a job within the novel to be able to buy the supplies he needs to survive. It is quite a conundrum to me as to why he burns money then all of a sudden feels the need to get more money. I do not understand why he could not have just saved the money he burned for the supplies he needed. Because he did not have money he had difficulty at times in getting the things he needed to reach his passion. In another instance, he advises Ron Franz to live more freely and pick up his life even saying, "And you must do it economy style, no motels, do your own cooking, as a general rule spend as little as possible and you will enjoy it much more immensely" (41). While Chris makes the point on living on as little as possible will make you enjoy life more, it does not prove well for him. Chris later on starves because he does not have a sufficient amount of food. With money, this could have easily been fixed. He could have bought more food to survive through Alaska in case of an emergency, like what happened to him. He could have had a backup source of food just for the sake of living if conditions become too harsh.
Something that prevents success can be the personality of a person. People get in their own way and it inhibits how their habits can be fixed. Not accepting help or being stubborn stops someone from fixing their ways and getting help to do what they want. For example, Chris was a very good horn player but quits after limits are put upon him, "A gifted French-horn player, as a teen he was a member of the American University Symphony but quit, according to Walt, after objecting to rules imposed by a high school band leader" (76). He does not want to follow the rules, so one of his talents is wasted. He could have become a great player. He even enjoyed what he did, but having a limitation that he did not life automatically stopped him from pursuing something that he was quite good at. In addition, as Chris's father explains his personality you can tell that it was inhibiting for him when his dad says, "'Chris had so much natural talent,' Walt continues, 'but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up. He resisted instruction of any kind'" (77). Chris automatically stopped himself from achieving some things in life because of the way he acts. He does not like to be criticized and instead just does what he wants to do. If he does not like the way someone is telling him to do something, he will ignore it and just eventually have a weakness and plateau.
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