Tattoos In The Heart Analysis

The desire to own a car, house and have money is everyone’s ideas of success; however, is not a true definition of success. An individual who has overcome an obstacle achieves a measure of success. Being successful can come from failure as well. Thus, various definitions of success are seen in the book Tattoos in the Heart by Fr. Gregory Boyle and in the film Life of a King directed by Jake Goldberger. Success can mean to overcome storms of life. Being dedicated to something will play one of the most important roles in reaching success, and who could understand the meaning of success if they did not experience disappointment. Overall, success is not solely based on the attainment of material goods, but rather, tied to broader concepts.
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In the book Tattoos on the Heart the chapter Success is mostly about how death can be a success. Father Boyle gives different personal and touching stories about gang members who sadly lost their lives The story that stands out the most is about a women named Soledad, a mother of four. Sadly, two of her kids were killed by gang members. She was emotionally broken, but still remains faithful for her other kids. One day, Soledad is sent to the hospital because of an irregular heartbeat and chest pain. She sees a young teenager next to her that who was a gang member; he was wounded by several gunshots. She then recognizes him as one of the boys who shot and killed her sons. Soledad said, “I just kept on thinking of what my friends might say if they were here with me. They’ll say, “pray that he dies”.... and I begin to cry as I have never cried before and started to pray the hardest I’ve ever prayed. Please don’t let him die. I don’t want his mom to go through what I have.” (Boyle 186). This teaches us that revenge is not always the answer. She forgives him so she can have some peace in her life. In order, to move on from the tragedy that she went through forgiving her son’s murderer will allow her to live a happier life. Also, she does not want another mother to suffer as she did. This is reflective in mothers Teresa’s quote when she says “ we’ve just forgotten that we belong to each other” (Boyle 187). Soledad, did not forget

If there are no goals, there is nothing in life to be proud of. Therefore, there is no success. If someone values themselves they will not put themselves in any risk of losing themselves. Instead it is better to continue to push forward and succeed. Success is mostly define as being rich, but in reality it does not matter if someone is rich or poor. Everyone starts on the bottom of something, like Eugene Brown who started as a janitor to become someone else’s role model. Also, Soledad that lost her two sons and was still able to forgive the killer of her son. Lastly, the personal story of an ex gang member who did not give up after being sent to jail instead changed his way around and started to work his way up to success. Despite all the material goods, an overall broader concept of success is if it comes from the