Question

Consider this sentence from “The Fallacy of Success”: To begin with, of course, there is no such thing as Success. Based on your reading of the essay, what does Chesterton mean?

Answer 1

In this sentence and its supporting paragraph, Chesterton is challenging the opinion held by some people, illustrated by self-help books. This belief is that one can distinguish success from non-success, and that success is the same thing for all people.Chesterton’s examples of success are taken from ordinary people. He argues that any person who is alive has succeeded in living [a donkey is successful because it is what it is supposed to be. He also rejects the idea that success is only financial or defined by wealth. Instead of teaching how to be successful, Chesterton says these books "teach people to be snobbish; they... spread a sort of evil poetry of worldliness." He suggests a more reasonable goal for a poor man is to do good work, which "may make him a good workman."Chesterton concludes that books about success set up a false and harmful goal that isn’t good or realistic for all to follow, partly because it ignores basic ideas of what success means.i just did this in edmentum

Answer 2

There could be numerous different responses to this one, but I would suggest you structure an answer around the following premise:

Success has a different definition for each and every person.

In this sense, the author could be saying that you cannot pin success down to one simple definition. 

To help, you could think about what your definition of success is. What are your dreams and your goals and how do they correspond with those of your friends and family?

You could also state that success has no final destination. For many people, as soon as they achieve one goal, they want to move onto the next one. This means that one will never actually reach a point of feeling successful.

Have a think, reference the essay, and be creative with your answer!