Biography, a well-known essay type, is a detailed account or narrative of a person’s whole life, like famous historical figures, political leaders, scientists, well-known individuals who have made significant contributions in a specific field. It covers a wide range of different aspects about what he did in their lifetime, including early life, education, family, career, relationships, accomplishments, achievements, marriages, struggles, challenges, and sometimes their thoughts and reflections. The purpose of a biography is to present readers a comprehensive description of a person and it is often chronologically organized. The biography, “Madam C. J. Walker”, written by Jim Haskings talks about the life of Sarah Breedlove, famously known as Madame C. J. Walker, the first African-American woman to become a self-made millionaire by creating and selling hair-care products for Black women. The biography “Eleanor Roosevelt”, written by William Jay Jacobs recounts the life of a remarkable woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, about advocating Human Rights as the role of first lady. The news report, “Gentleman of the Pool” written by Alice Park, highlights the extraordinary journey of the determined American swimmer, Michael Phelps who competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics, aiming to break the record of seven gold medals held by Mark Spitz. Reading the biographies of Madame C. J. Walker, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Micheal Phelps, readers gain some insights in terms of the achievements they have made, the difficulties they have experienced, and their path to succeed.
Achievements represent the successful completion of a task or a goal that was challenging or significant through effort, skill, or courage. Achievements could vary in form, from small personal victories to major advancements or milestones in a person’s life or career, even contributions of human rights toward the whole society. Madame C. J. Walker had helped the African American women to go into business and also created a good business for herself. Walker developed a specialized hair care and founded the company. Beyond business, Walker was an outspoken advocate for the economic independence and empowerment of African American women. She is remembered for using her influence to fight for social change for African women. People should make their goals big and try to achieve them. Once they do that, they will know that they can achieve many things. Her legacy encourages people that don’t be afraid to take the first step. Eleanor Roosevelt advocated rights for human and women. After the death of the president, she actively promoted world peace. Eleanor changed the role of First Lady by actively engaging in political issues and advocating for equality and social justice. Eleanor held press conferences and used her voice to address issues like poverty, unemployment, and education. She truly cared about the welfare of the citizens. She took whatever she could to achieve her goal and made a big difference for her people. Her legacy continues to give some insights to people for promoting social justice advocates all over the world. Micheal Phelps achieved remarkable success by winning 8 gold medals in one Olympic game and breaking the world record numerous times. Those achievements all demonstrated Michael is an extraordinary talent and dedication in swimming. Michael’s achievements not only bring him a sense of fulfillment, pride, and satisfaction, but also earn himself the recognition, love, and respect of people all over the world. People should have an achievement of their own sometime in their life no matter when they are young or old. But with such achievements people need to put a lot of effort into making the dream come true. Achievements provide people a sense of satisfaction and pride, something people could be remembered and recognized by others as a demonstration of one’s capabilities.
Life sometimes could be extremely difficult for a variety of reasons and the difficulty could vary widely from person to person. However, acknowledging the difficulties, embracing them, learning to adapt, and seeking support could help a person to navigate his life and grow. Difficulties are coming Madame C. J. Walker’s way when she was working like her family had problems. Discrimination and racism are also problems for her. As a black woman in the late 19th century, Walker faced significant societal barriers related to both race and gender, like discrimination and limited economic opportunities. When difficulties were coming her way, Madame C. J. Walker didn’t stop. Walker thinks outside of the box. She learned to adapt to the environment around her and saw the opportunity in African American’s hair. Eleanor had many difficulties like her being an orphan because her parents died and her husband's health and death. Her appearance was also a problem to her when she was a child. Eleanor grew up while struggling with feelings of insecurity because of her mom’s criticism of her appearance. Eleanor’s early experiences also likely shaped her empathy and commitment to helping others because she knows that no one should endure emotional rejection or teasing. She recognized the difficulties and embraced them. Later she used those difficulties as motives to propelled world peace and advocate human rights. Micheal's difficulties were his family. He had single parenting when he was a child. He was also diagnosed with ADHD. His mom sought help from ADHD professionals and had him swim. Swimming then became a way for helping him focus, providing him structure and discipline, and managing the symptoms of ADHD. Although his parents got divorced when he was 9, an emotional challenge during his childhood, Michael had strong unconditional support and love from his mom and two older sisters to encourage him during tough times. Micheal’s experiences explains how people could go through hard things to achieve their goal. Maintaining a positive mindset could help people see challenges clearly and take those challenges as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles.
The path to success is marked by grit, perseverance, hard lessons learned, and the transformative power of putting new ideas into the world. Some key steps on the journey to success are seeing opportunity, setting clear goals, developing plans, staying committed, working hard, adapting to the environment, being reflective, and building networks. Madame C. J. Walker worked very hard and she had perseverance to make the company keep going at pace. Walker saw a need for hair care products specifically designed for African American women because she experienced hair loss. She then developed an innovative formula to help hair grow back. She used door-to-door sales to directly demonstrate the products to potential customers. She built a network of sales agents by training African American how to sell hair products. People should work hard with perseverance and the hard work will pay off later. Eleanor was contributive and hardworking so that made her a successful First Lady. Eleanor’s early childhood made her set a goal of advocating social justice. As a first lady, Eleanor redefined the role of First Lady. She found every way she could to promote civil rights, women’s rights, and labor rights. She used her political influence to challenge racial discrimination and equality. Eleanor was committed to social justice and social change. Michael was very determined at finishing the Olympics relay and he was very competitive so he won many gold medals. Miachel sets goals for himself to achieve. He knows what level he is right now so he sets the right goals he can achieve.He also goes to challenges. In addition, Michael continues pursuing excellence in swimming. He works tirelessly to achieve his goals of breaking Mark Spitz’ records. He makes changes in his swimming techniques and pushes his limit. He is determined to win. When people are able to embrace the challenging and unexpected journey, thinking new ideas, visualizing future success, and building strong communities, they are on the path to succeed.
Biography is a detailed description of what a person did and experienced. Usually, a biography is a way to record well-known individuals who have made significant contributions in a specific field. Through reading biography, readers get to know the early childhood experiences, achievements, challenges or struggles, and path to success of well-known historical figures. The more biographies the readers study, the more insights the raiders would gain and reflect. Studying biographies of Madam C. J. Walker, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Michael Phelps, readers could draw some conclusions about achievement, difficulties in life, and path to success. Achievements are successful accomplishments that are made from a series of non-stop hard work with skills and courage while facing challenging and significant tasks. Moreover, everyone, without questions, would encounter some difficulties in life. But individuals need to recognize these challenges, accept them, learn to adjust themselves to fit the situations, and seek support if there is a need. Try to use those difficulties as a motive to grow. Last but not least, essential steps on the path to success include identifying the opportunity, setting clear goals, making plans, working hard, being committed, being reflective, and building networks.
Comentários