This qualitative study examines how six Adult Basic Education (ABE) students perceived success in their personal and academic lives. Policy discourses concerning ABE learners offer perspectives on success, and these discourses influence, correspond with, and contradict learners' discourses on success in various ways. However, the organizational discourse often differs from the ways adult learners described success in their lives. This study centers adult learners' voices as they discuss success and compares their discourses to prevalent organizational discourses. To understand students' definitions of success for this study, I drew on a framework of discourses of success in ABE, on scholarship in New Literacy Studies (NLS), and on critical discourse analysis (CDA). Using narrative inquiry and CDA provided a lens to analyze and interpret the participants' narratives and program documents. The findings indicate that participants primarily viewed success as relating to the themes of "emotional fulfillment," "finances," "academic accomplishment," "recognition," and "persistence and hard work." This study also found that participants largely reported deficit literacy identities when considering formal schooling and the accompanying literacy practices but positive literacy identities when discussing their independent literacy practices viewed obtaining their ABE classes as a step to pursuing longer-term goals. CDA of federal policy (the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, WIOA) and related documents found a narrative about success that partially corresponds (e.g., financial aspects) but differs in many ways from the adult learners' multi-faceted discourses. This study adds to the understanding of success from adult learners' perspectives and promotes the creation of new narrative that better incorporates learners' perspectives of success. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]