Self-Made Man Myth Analysis

The Self Made Man Myth
Evolution is necessary- not only in groups of people but in individuals as well. Throughout the course of their lifetime they change and form who they are, and experiment on what personality they have or what activities they like to do. It is a constant change. Especially with the myth of the self made man. Many people use Abraham Lincoln to describe this myth since he was born into a lowborn family, and he slowly started to grow from a menial worker to a mental worker. Lincoln broke his relationship with both of his parents, and went on to become debatably one of the most educated men of his time. His progression of life was analyzed by both Appleby, who believes that Lincoln was a self-made man, and Winkle who does …show more content…
He went to college and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in biology and a minor chemistry, and worked as an environmental biologist doing environmental studies for private and government clients that ranged from testing of animal tissues to water and vegetation studies. He climbed his way up to program manager for environmental decision managing environmental biologists all over the world. He was always travelling and experiencing different cultures. He was in this profession for over 15 years. Then the company started to lay people off of their jobs to save funds for future research, my Dad was one of them. He had a mid life crisis and had no idea what he wanted to do. He didn’t know if he wanted a career like the one he had his entire life, or if he wanted to go into a different field entirely. He felt like his work was “physically hard and culturally unrewarding” like Lincoln did. He knew that he did not want to travel as much, and instead wanted to have more of a social job that didn’t require a lot of travelling now that he had kids. He also knew that he did not want to have a desk job, he could not sit still waiting for people to go to him with problems. Through many conversations with my mom, she suggested he look in the business field since there are so many job opportunities there. He agreed and decided that his strengths and wants closely lined up with those skills needed to be …show more content…
Obviously, he sought help from his superiors and people who had been in the industry longer than he had been, so he was able to learn the tricks of the trade. Unlike Lincoln he did not separate from his family, it was actually his family that brought him to this career change which is one of Winkle’s thoughts as well. All in all my dad and Lincoln are alike because they both became successful by their own efforts and their