Mervin Smucker (2015). Recognizing one’s own underlying story.

In Western culture we are schooled for achievement, ranking, and competition as a path to success. The American Dream articulates the idea entertained by millions of immigrants and working class people that hard work and opportunity for all will lead to happiness in the form of life, liberty, and a house with a yard and white picket fence. Of course, American literature is full of critiques of this dream, too. For instance, in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby achieves great wealth in pursuit of winning Daisy, the symbol of the class barrier he is unable to cross. The narrator, Nick Carraway, who witnesses Gatsby’s rise and fall, revises his own story as a result of what he’s witnessed. Recognizing one’s own underlying story is the first step in becoming aware of how such stories can unconsciously influence virtually every choice one makes.

Mervin Smucker