1 Can you think of persons in the public eye that personify Merton’s different types of strain? As for the innovation part an individual by the name of Sean John Combs also known Puff Daddy. Puff Daddy was born in New York City also known as Harlem where there were lots of drugs around yet he seem to bring himself out of that life. Puffy Daddy over time made himself a multi-million dollar business. The music business made him so rich. “This was the path of persons who accepted the dominant cultural goal of success, but whose experience in a stratified society led them to reject legitimate avenues of goal attainment” (Pfohl, 2009, p.263).

2 Innovation-Organized crime in America, mainly the mafia is an example of innovation. These were immigrants that came to America and realized that they were never going to get a fair shake in society because they were immigrants. They turned to crime and recruited others that were in similar situations. So they accepted the goal of success in society and realized that there was little to no legitimate route to achieving this success which led them to a life of crime and success, earning them tons of money (Pfohl, 2009. p.263-264).