Apollo By Leo Tolstoy

Throughout the short stories, “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and “The two brothers” by Leo Tolstoy, the authors reveal that happiness is achieved by doing what you love. One example of this concept is in the short story Apollo. The narrator is talking about what he loves to do. He says “What I loved was kung fu. I watched “Enter the Dragon” so often that I knew all the lines, and I longed to wake up and be Bruce Lee. I would kick and strike at the air, at imaginary enemies who had killed my imaginary family” (Adichie, p.3). This shows the narrator was most happy practicing Kung fu. It was his passion and he liked it more than anything. He achieved happiness, by doing what he loves. In the short story “The two brothers”, the brothers have been traveling
There he will find a she-bear and her cubs. Let him take the cubs from her and run up the mountain with them, without once looking back. On the top of the mountain he will see a house, and in that house he will find happiness.” After the brothers read this passage they begin to argue weather they should go and find happiness. After the elder brother gives reason why he is not going to try and find happiness the younger brother says “In my opinion, you are wrong. What is written on the stone could not have been put there without reason. And it is all perfectly clear. In the first place, no harm will come to us if we try.” (Tolstoy p.1) This quote clearly shows the true meaning of happiness, the elder brother states that there is no happiness because that is not what he would have loved doing. The elder brother did not like adventure. The younger brother believes he will definitely find happiness, he knows this because even if the things written on the stone were false, he will still go through an adventure of a lifetime. The younger brother loved adventures and he knew he could find happiness by doing exactly what the stone