Definition Essay: What Is Luck?

Throughout the course of our lives, we, inevitably, find ourselves making life changing decisions. We may or may not always be fully aware of how detrimentally life-altering a decision may be. However, we can acknowledge when we may be “pushing our luck”. “Pushing your luck” could mean you find yourself in a situation where there are two options. One option could be safe and have more of a predictable outcome. Whereas, the second option could be risky, unpredictable, and the outcome may not be favorable. When you choose the latter option, you are “pushing your luck.” Unfortunately, Liana from the fictional writing “Kilifi Creek” by Lionel Shriver and Ariel Levy, who was the main focus in the autobiography she wrote called “Thanksgiving in Mongolia”

By preparing you are creating your own “luck” but there are still people living in this day and age that believe you shouldn’t be humble towards your self so they will give luck the credit instead of taking the credit they deserve because they worked for there situations. Going back to the example of a paycheck, when you look at your bank and you see a direct deposit of a thousand dollars was added to your account do you say, “yes I got lucky and got a thousand dollar pay check,” probably not you think in your head, “I worked hard for that thousand dollars.”

Many people today are very superstitious and prejudice, there are many ways to eliminate these things but nobody wants to fix the problem. Being superstitious and prejudice is where you believe something but you really don’t know about it, and there are no facts to prove it. In The Crucible there were a lot of examples of people being superstitious and prejudice. Some steps to stop this problem would be getting to know things that you are superstitious and prejudice about, ask questions, and don’t believe everything you hear. Some examples would be a black cat crossing in front of you would be bad luck, although nobody has an actual answer to if that is true or not it would be considered a superstition.

The story of “ The Lottery ” by Shirley Jackson is a very surprising story especially towards the end. It causes great consternation and shock when we learn that the winner of the lottery - Tessie Hutchinson, does not win an award, rather finds herself stoned to death. This somewhat shows the role that superstition played years ago. It was widely prevalent and as we progressed in terms of science and technology, we have come to break apart from such harmful traditions. It is precisely due to these superstitions, often many an innocent life has been taken without just cause. This is what we encounter in this tragic story. From the beginning of the story, the author presents a lively outlook of the village life and the different people who are

Many aspects of people’s lives are governed by what they believe to be fate. In reality, timing and random accidents really determine what occurs. Especially in the play Romeo and Juliet, so many important events just happen to arise. It seems that in every scene, something of great significance happened just by luck. People meet perchance, a decision is made at just the right (or wrong) time, and something of substance is not moved around the way it should be. In Romeo and Juliet, timing and coincidences establish irony and suspense, especially during the incorrect conveyance of information, which creates catastrophic

1. In the prologue, the alchemist reads a version if the story of the death of Narcissus that has

The True Meaning of Luck The article "Why the right hides from its kind of fairly own actually good luck" by Meghan Daum discusses the opinions of luck in a subtle way. This will all essentially kind of be about why luck particularly is crucial in a subtle way. The article on the topic of luck, entitled Why the right hides from its generally very own really good luck by Meghan Daum affirms about the personal views of luck: being fortunate really for the most part is vital in life, not recognizing fortune would kind of lead to struggles, and being from the United States when every refrigerator and vaccine exists, or so they essentially thought. Being very fortune definitely is vital in life, pretty contrary to popular belief. Frank says, "Denying

Vladek was a real person who survived the Holocaust, a terrible war in that many people died. Vladek survived by pretending to be a Pole soldier who escaped the camps(pg.64). He then told the conductor if he could hide him and take him home. He got lucky the conductor helped him, but he still used his knowledge to pretend to be a Pole. Vladek also survived by making bunkers for him and his family to hide in (pg.110). He used his knowledge to survive, but later he got turned in and captured. In another part of the book, he also spoke in German when a Nazi asked why he fired his gun which saved his life (pg.49). He got lucky because he could still have got beaten even if he spoke german but the officer decided not to kill him. These events show that the reason Vladek survived the Holocaust was because he was resourceful and because of that sometimes created his luck.

Have you ever tried to find fortune? If you have then look no further, Hello, I am Tyche the Greek goddess of good luck and fortune. I am the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, but sometimes people say I am the daughter of Zeus, and I have one offspring named Ploutos. My Roman name is Fortuna, and I am usually found walking around holding a cornucopia and an orb.

Luck is a phenomenon present in our lives in very different ways, so much so that it is not easy to imagine a world without it. But, even so, it seems that when it comes to making moral judgments about the actions or beliefs of other people we want to find ways to neutralize it. Our main guide is the purpose of being fair to those we judge and, therefore, we want to set aside what does not strictly depend on them, aspiring to eliminate any possible distortion of this goal. However, the nature of luck is such that it makes it difficult to neutralize it in any sphere of human life. In order to grasp the philosophy of luck in our existence we must analyze the philosophy of Thomas Nagle’s article, “Moral Luck”. Nagle dispute the Kantianism ideology in which states that we must submit our actions to certain universal moral laws, such as "do not kill". At the same time is important to analyze the concept that they are other factors to take in consideration. This philosophy can be applied in a specific case such as the judicial system or as an opportunity to analyze our behaviors. At the end it can be concluded that the major issue with the analysis of Moral Luck is the ethical aspect.

In the book “Freak the Mighty” there are lots of events that involve Fate. Including when Kevin and Max are reunited. That was not luck in my opinion that was fate. Also when freak dies, it was bound to happen eventually and he was going to die no matter what anyone thought. Another scene where fate is shown is when killer kane came after max, Grim and Gram and everyone else knew it was going to happen. That is why I chose the theme fate.

Michelle Lee, a published writer and Shakespeare critic, states that “The enigmatic influence of fate, fortune, and the heavens on the lives of human beings forms a compelling theme in Shakespearean dramas and comedies” (Lee, 2004, para. 1). Lee is essentially saying the theme of chance and pure luck is an essential theme in Shakespearean dramas and comedies. This is certainly evident in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She goes on to say “Critics suggest that Shakespeare's depiction of fortune in the comedies relies in large part on medieval and Renaissance perceptions of this obscure force. Fortune is generally a deceiver in the comic plays, set to test the virtue of those seeking favor or gain, and stands in contrast with the providential designs of God….. this is apparent in comedies such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Lee, 2004, para. 2). At first, she explains briefly about why fortune was used, as well as the motivation behind it, but then she goes on to talk about what fortune truly means. She states fortune stands in contradiction with the plans of God, and more specifically goes against what is actually expected. This is huge in many of Shakespeare's comedies and dramas, and Lee even says this is conspicuous in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not only is the theme of chance and pure luck expressed in the written play, but it is also indicated in various recorded versions of A Midsummer Night’s

One of the main themes of the book is randomness. Taleb states that the flows and the twists of a financial market and of life itself, are all largely random. Which in turn, implies that success and failure are determined mainly by random events. This theory puts Taleb in a position where he is supposedly saying that education, training and skill count for nothing and that randomness decides whether a person is successful or not. So, a trader who is more successful could be said by Taleb to simply be more lucky, rather than more skilful or

A curse is a solemn utterance intended to invoke a supernatural power to inflict harm or

Do I believe in luck or fate? That is a great question and the answer is no. The reason I don’t believe is because i’ve seen what happens to people who do. Plus most of these things that you can do for bad luck and good luck are things you can do in your everyday life. For fate I think it’s stupid because believing that something small like losing a dollar will result in something big like winning a million dollars.