Everyone enjoys stories where the hero overcomes all odds and achieves some great goal. Heros such as Hercules completing his 12 labors, Bernini redeeming himself with The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, and even Rocky Balboa jogging up the staircase of Philadelphia Museum of Art forge inspiration. Vincent van Gogh fought to be one of those heroes. Unfortunately van Gogh's many obstacles in his path proved to be too much. Temporal Lobe Epilepsies, Bipolar disorder, Thujone poisoning and Lead poisoning from his diet, Hypergraphia, and frequent Sunstrokes were a few of his obstacles. van Gogh also failed miserably in careers before to becoming an artist. 

First at the an early age van Gogh worked as an art dealer for the Goupil and Co. firm. Shortly after receiving the position van Gogh was fired due to his attempts to assure customers why certain paintings on display were poor quality. After this blunder van Gogh tried out several different professions. Teacher, bookseller, and missionary, none of these held any more success. Even van Gogh's love life crumbled before his own eyes. The two women van Gogh fixated himself upon both felt differently. Eugenia, his first love, regarded van Gogh with disgust when he approached her, and Kee, van Gogh's first cousin, also rejected him for obvious reasons. This love for his cousin also destroyed what little respect van Gogh's father Minister Theodorus van Gogh. 

Vincent van Gogh's painting Shoes is one of van Gogh's only works displaying his struggle. Van Gogh's shoes lay in the street. They are worn down and broken just like him. His shoes have felt all of his pain. Vincent van Gogh killed himself on July 29, 1890. Van Gogh made it to the top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art stairs only for a moment, and now all that can be found is his Shoes.