Essay about "Success" in I Am Charlotte Simmons

« Essay: “Success” in I am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe. "I care for myself.

The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre Tom Wolfe, Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr.

was born the 2nd of March 1930 in Richmond, Virginia.

He was an American novelist, journalist, and also a social commentator leading critic of contemporary life.

He was part of the New Journalism literary movement.

He has written 4 novels The Bonfire of the Vanities in 1987, A Man in Full in 1998, I Am Charlotte Simmons in 2004 and Back to Blood in 2013.

Tom Wolfe died on the 14 of May 2018, aged 88 in New York City, New York. I Am Charlotte Simmons, Wolfe’s third novel, is dedicated to his two children, Alexandra and Thomas Kernnerly III.

It portrayed modern-day student life at fictional Dupont University through the eyes of small-town protagonist Charlotte Simmons.

Notwithstanding Dupont's elite status, in the minds of his students there is no place for knowledge but mostly for things like sex, alcohol, and social status.

Being Dupont's most popular student is the number one priority at all costs.

Even if this means making every sacrifice possible, success is the most important thing at Dupont.

But what is success, and what is sacrifice? In the novel I Am Charlotte Simmons, many people associate success with wealth, power or fame.

Sacrifice is the voluntary loss of something that is ours in the desire to obtain something that is not ours. Should success be deserving of all the sacrifices ? In the first part, I will show that Success is a social actor who puts forward the celebrity and the influence by explaining the need of belonging, estime and accomplishment.

In a second part, I will demonstrate the discrepancies between the discourse and the real life of the characters, especially on the values and the split personalities.

Finally, in the third part I will highlight how success is possible otherwise. At Dupont University and more generally at school, becoming "popular" is one of the biggest goals of a large majority of students.

To be known is to be recognized by anyone and especially by those you don't know.

More specifically, people like to be recognized for what they are, while others feel the need to be recognized.

We find several types of needs: the need to belong to a group, the need for esteem through the respect of others and finally the need for accomplishment, which includes social recognition.

In other words, no success if you are alone: you must be known and recognized. The first need we will talk about is the need to belong, the one without which we cannot hope to become known by anyone.

A need to live in community, to find a group of people with whom we understand and get along, with whom we share things. Let’s consider, firstly, the question of Charlotte who is alone, but who finally becomes a member of the "sexiled" group without her knowing.

We quickly learn that she doesn't know anyone there.

Even worse, the mission turns out to be more complicated than expected when she meets her roommate Beverly, who seems to be the exact opposite of her.

However, it is thanks to Beverly that Charlotte, in spite of herself, will meet people.

Indeed, one evening Beverly decides to bring a boy. »