In the chapter “July: Buy Some Happiness” from The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, sets out to find out how money affects a person’s happiness. She first introduces the reader as to why she is interested in finding out how money affects happiness and what money actually is. Throughout the chapter, the author gives the reader some background to what she had been doing throughout her year and why money was her focus on the month of July. Through her argument she presents her audience with the reasons as to why she believes that money can be used to buy happiness. With her attempts at making the reader reflect upon their own happiness, providing the purpose behind her research, and using relatable experiences she makes her argument very strong and comes to the…
Following the idea of predestination is the idea that, “once a thing is set to happen, all you can do is hope it won’t. Or will – depending. As long as you life, there’s always something waiting, and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do (92)?” This section from the text truly conveys fatalism though the ideas of predestination, that everything that will happen has been predetermined, and lack of optimism based on past sufferings. Adding to the overall bleak tone of the text is the question, “How was it possible that such effort, such plain virtue, could overnight be reduced to this – smoke, thinning as it rose and was received by the big, annihilating sky (79)?”…
The novel highlights the fact that the decisions we make will not only determine our future but also the futures of the people around us, whether we intend to or not. This, to me, is why our choices…
The book Stumbling on Happiness looks at how one’s imagination about the future and illusions of foresight cause misconception in what makes us happy, what tomorrow will bring and what we want in actuality. Daniel Gilbert is Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, therefore is able to go into the in depth of human nature and accurately describe the human ability to imagine the future and the capacity to like it when it happens. Daniel Gilbert uses the latest scientific research in psychology , cognitive neuroscience, behavioral economics and philosophy to explain this phenomenon and tries to capture all aspects of human capabilities. The book is divided into six parts, Prospection, Subjectivity, Realism, Presentism, Rationalization and Corrigibility.…
Commonly recognized milestones in human life are birth, growth, reproduction, and death. In reality, life is much more incredibly complex than this. There are so many minute nuances that make the human experience what it is. Each individual’s life is a delicate combination of many experiences: accomplishments along with failures, friends turning to enemies, and love ending with heartbreak. Since the beginning of civilization, using art as a medium, people constantly seek to express their perspective on this phenomena while trying to understand it.…
People deal and cope with experiences differently. People also have some opportunities that other people may not have. This book has made me really think about all of my life experiences and how I personally coped with these different experiences. Every person is unique and someone may completely take the same experience into a different direction. For example a person who might have not had great fatherly influence in their life may turn around and decide to never be like their father and be the best father that they could ever be someday.…
Happiness is something that everyone can experience but, in the novel Brave New World the only emotion that the citizens can feel is happiness. The characters take a drug called Soma, something to prevent the people from being unhappy. Soma was created for the citizens to be under control and live the “ideal” life, which is to be happy forever and instead of working people would just have sex or take drugs. However, the people are unaware of the fact that the government has taught them “being happy is good, everyone should be happy” this was engraved into their minds because if the citizens were happy, they would be oblivious to the crimes the government is committing. The author specifically depicts the effects of the drugs have on the people, “Swallowing half an hour before closing time, that second dose of soma had raised a quite impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their minds.”…
What is “happiness” and how is it obtained? The word “happiness” is defined as ‘a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy’. The decisions people make on a day-to-day basis are to reach the ultimate goal of being happy. While everyone strives to obtain happiness, not everyone succeeds. In today’s society, happiness seems to be directly correlated with factors such as wealth or status.…
In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, one of the central ideas is the idea of eternal happiness. This is shown many times throughout the novel, and as the story progresses the idea goes from one that seems inherent to those inhabiting the world of the novel, to one that is clearly strictly enforced and required to keep. One time in which this requirement of happiness is shown is during John’s protest of the modern world and, particularly, of soma. When he begins throwing soma out of an open window into a congregation of Deltas, a small-scale riot forms, with Bernard agitating this through his panicked reaction. The police arrive to quell the riot, and do so through soma vapor and a Synthetic Music Box.…
The poem I chose, “Happiness” by Jane Kenyon, describes what happiness truly is. It tells a story of who it comes to, and how happiness comes to everyone no matter what the situation is. The poem says in the beginning 2 paragraphs how happiness is always there and that it “saved its most extreme form for you alone”. I believe what the Kenyon is trying to say at that moment is that you have the power to be happy, even when you are alone. The poem also has very specific examples of who happiness comes to.…
“In the end, it`s not the years in your life that count. It`s the life in your years” (Thompson 15). In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays memories and the past in several different manners. History is full of tales of woe and of glory. It allows us to enjoy our triumphs and learn from our sorrows.…
In, “The New Science of Happiness,” Claudia Wells discusses 3 great ways to become more happy. By getting more pleasure out of life, becoming more engaged in what you’re doing, and finding ways to make your life more meaningful, Wells explains these actions can greatly influence your happiness levels. Savoring each and every sensory drop from any given moment will increase your gratitude towards life's seemingly mundane interactions. Which brings us to the large topic of gratitude which Wells, in conjunction with studies by psychologist Robert Emmons, explains that “Gratitude exercises can do more than life one’s mood… they improve physical health, raise energy levels, and, for patients with neuromuscular disease, relieve pain and fatigue.”…
The first reading in chapter one of our text Pursuing Happiness, edited by Mathew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, presents material translated from The TaoTeChing. I studied multiple sources to find more about this ancient text, and in the paragraphs below I will discuss the meaning of Tao its self, the author behind the work, and how Taoism has grown and changed through the centuries up to present time. Taoism is a religion that originated in china approximately 2,400 years ago. The main principles of Taoism come from the Tao Te Ching which was written by a man named Lao Tzu. He was the keeper of the imperial library and he was famous across the land for his wisdom.…
De Botton, Alain. The Architecture Of Happiness. New York: Pantheon Books, 2006. Print.…
As stated by Yuuki Asuna, “Life isn’t just doing things for yourself. It’s possible to live in such a way that other people’s happiness, makes you happy too.” Doing something for oneself is selfish and pointless. Happiness has been pursued by the people who come to America, wanting the American dream, to be happy and get what they want. Not being happy even have a negative connotation to it.…