Man Behind the Hershey Bar

Hershey Spirit of Perseverance Michael D'Antonio's Hershey is the biography of the man behind the famous Hershey's chocolate bar. It is also the story of how one can overcome obstacles and truly make a difference in the world and in other people's lives. Hershey faced great adversity in his young life, coming from a broken home in a poor community, but that did not stop him from becoming one of the most successful and giving businessmen in American history.

D'Antonio's book describes Hershey's rise from humble beginnings to his height as king of chocolate. It shows Hershey as a man rather than as an icon. It looks on his missteps as much as on his successes and shows how every step of the way he took the good with the bad. The lesson that D'Antonio's book teaches is that perseverance is a virtue that can take one to the top. This paper will show the Hershey teaches those lessons.

Hershey grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania but because his father was never around, Hershey had to act like the man of the house. So even though he couldn't go to school, Hershey learned the value of what it meant to work hard. Without a good work ethic, the family farm would have fallen into ruins, since the father was not there. And in spite of the fact that he never made it past 4th grade, Hershey learned what it meant to be a man.

Thus, Hershey worked through these early trials and learned that perseverance was needed in order to survive. When Hershey set out to start his own candy business, he had to fail twice before finally succeeding on his third try. First he attempted a shop in Chicago. Then he travelled around to other big cities before attempting again in New York. These attempts were good ones, but Hershey was out of his element and it was not until he returned to Pennsylvania that things began to click for him.

He had to learn that "there's no place like home" and because he never gave up he made himself open to learning this lesson. When times were tough in the Great Depression, Hershey had to take extra measures to ensure that his Hershey company kept its employees and that his employees had food in their homes. For this reason he used to his own money to pay their salaries.

He could have given up and closed the business, but his sense of community and the need to hold together helped him persevere through this difficult time too. As D'Antonio says, "Hershey was defying the Great Depression," which is something only a man who has the virtue of perseverance can do (203). He stood up to one of the greatest challenges of the first half of the 20th century. But he faced other challenges as well.

When the union tried to get Hershey's plant shut down, Hershey did not lose his composure and attack the union in public or fire any of his top men or criticize them. He tactfully declared just a handful of men had been led astray by the union leaders and went about business as usual. What everyone didn't realize was that Hershey was actually engaged in a farm more important dealing -- the futures contracts regarding cocoa beans.

The point is that Hershey was in another bind, paying a "premium" for contracts in a market that was about to bust (222) yet he kept his cool and persevered as.