Wolf of Wall Street

I have seen the movie the Wolf of Wall Street multiple times since it was released to theatres, and on demand. The movie follows a banker who starts off in small firm who works his way up to being one of the most successful stock brokers in New York. It also portrays the theme of the abuse of power. The main character is continuously unfaithful to both of his wives and becomes a drug addict. Before fame money and power Jordan Belford had a loving caring wife who would do anything for him, until she finds him doing cocaine off of his soon to be future wife/ mistresses chest in the back of a taxi. After losing a good job as a stock salesman in a big corporation after the crash of the stock market Jordan has trouble finding a new job until one day he sees an add in the newspaper for a stock salesman, Jordan goes to a small business in a shopping center and learns quickly that he can make a much larger commission selling penny stocks. Unfortunately most rich people don't bother purchasing penny stocks because they usually don't make any money what so ever. Jordan is a very good salesman and finds it very easy to sell thousands of penny stocks to people like bus drivers, plumbers and garbage men. It is sad because the people Jordan sells to trust him and believe that he will make them money but Jordan is only interested in himself, just like he is throughout the entire movie. Before long Jordan is running his own investment company making millions of dollars living the dream. He even takes Steve Madden to the stock market, which makes him even more rich.  He drives the nicest cars, buys his wife a yacht for her honeymoon gift and can buy anything he wants. Jordan and his group of best friends/ co workers use drugs daily care nothing about themselves and making money. The FBI begins to look into Jordan after he is named "The Wolf of Wall street" by Forbes magazine. Jordan knows that he is in trouble. He has been doing insider trading and a countless number of other illegal activities. The FBI agent who first approaches Jordan is embarrassed when Jordan asks him how much he makes and makes a fool out of him in front of his co worker. In the end the FBI agent busts Jordan after some of Jordan's business partners are arrested in the middle of a large money transaction that brings a huge spot light on Jordan and his business. Jordan decides to cooperate with the FBI and puts a lot of his workers away. Due to his cooperation he does two years in a resort like prison in the middle of nowhere. The Wolf of Wall Street is no doubt one of my favorite movies because of the comedy, and non stop entertaining scenes, I would recommend the movie to any of my friends and may look into reading the book to see if there are any big differences between the novel and the movie.

Prey Theme

A constant theme throughout the novel Prey, is the desire to succeed. The two main characters Julia and Jack, her husband strive to do well and be successful in the workplace and at home. The husband, after losing his high ranking job in a technology based company is given a new task, to take care of his family. He has three children to take care of, one of which is a baby. The new "stay at home mom" takes care of all of his responsibilities and takes good care of the children while the mother works in order to pay the bills. It is clear that he really wants to succeed in both his career and family life because he is constantly looking for jobs. The thing is, many jobs come up, but he cant find one close to home. He knows that Julia will not move especially with the job opportunity she has now being given a government contract. He keeps both his career, and family in mind while trying to find a new job, this shows his desire for success in his professional and family life. Though Julia is infected with a swarm when she offers the explanation of wanting to succeed to explain her behavior to her husband Jack, it seems likely that it is the truth. Jack seems to believe that it's true, especially based on the emails he recovered from Julia's computer. Julia says that funding for their project was going to be taken away in a short period of time. While she's busy trying to get funding for a commercial aspect - the medical technology program - she's only seeking to gain some financial input to save the company. She seems still to be intent on the need to successfully complete the project. Unfortunately the husband and wife do not have a balance of wanting both family and professional or work success. Julia is clearly more concerned about her work project than she is her family and it shows when her family life starts to crumble. It gets to a point where Jack considers hiring an attorney and discussing different routes to go on the divorce topic. Even Jacks sister advises him to speak with an attorney after Jack tells her how Julia has been acting lately. Although it is very important to have a desire to succeed, it is also important to find a balance in the things you succeed in. For example, student athletes can't just succeed on the field or the court, they need to be successful in the classroom too because this is what allows them to continue to play the sport they love.  Learning about successful balances was not something that I thought that I would gain by reading the book Prey by Michael Crichton but I did and I am glad I could learn such a good life lesson in one book.