For the Money & the Fame Or For the Love & the Pain

The protagonist of The Devil Wears Prada, Andy begins her journey as famed Runway editor Miranda Pristley's assistant as the underdog. She has no interest in fashion and no knowledge of the magazine, yet she tries her best to fit in. She finds herself having to complete these rigorous, almost impossible tasks to please her boss. Soon enough she learns she must take  her job more seriously; for example, dressing how her colleagues dress, slimming down, basically altering her appearance. In an effort to take her job more seriously, Andy loses everything that has any importance to her. She puts aside her dreams of becoming a journalist, she loses her closest friends and her fiancee.She notices her life is in shambles and seeks guidance from colleague/ friend Nigel who explains to her that her social life falling apart is only due to success in her job or as he says it "it's time for a promotion."

Taking a deeper look in to this situation we see that ultimately Andy's success in her job at Runway was due solely to the fact that she changed her appearance and her social life began to deteriorate. What does this say about the viewers who try to achieve the dream of becoming successful in the fashion industry or any of their jobs for that matter? It shows that we must change ourselves! We must be who our jobs require us to and disregard our social lives to have success in our area of work. Also we find in order to succeed in our jobs we lose our sense of sanity and happiness, but that doesn't matter because we would be doing well at work and exceeding above all others.

Pointing this out we must now ask ourselves is our ultimate goal to fulfill our obligations of work or keep ourselves happy? We must find which is most important to us. In the movie, we see that Andy at first makes her job have more value than her social life i.e her friends, family and fiancee. But then as the movie progresses more towards the end Andy is exposed to the "reality" of Runway and decides that she had it all wrong. She finds that what was most important was her social life and right before it all slips through her hands she caught it. She took her life back because she realized that it was all more important than fame and glamour.

Here we find that it is a part of the American dream to be successful in your field of work, even if it isn't what you initially wanted it to be. But in that you must decide if you want your life or success in your job.