Happiness And The Good Life Alexis De Tocqueville Analysis
Theme 2: Happiness and the Good Life
Work 4: “Why the Americans show themselves so restive in the midst of their well-being” By: Alexis de Tocqueville
1. The theme of this article is how Americans are the freest and most enlightened men but they are never happy with what they have.
2. This was written in 1805 by Tocqueville who thought while he was writing Democracy in America that no American would ever see what he said about our way of life and our government.
3. I don’t know who this was written for because he never meant it for America, it might have been just for him because he traveled in America for the purpose of seeing what a “great republic” was and then wrote Democracy in America on his findings.
4. While
I was reading this I was thinking how cool it was that Tocqueville thought we were the most enlightened people. Someone who came to America, wasn’t a citizen, didn’t say this about himself. He observed this about us. He also observed that we have so much, but we can’t find what we want. “He grasps them all without clutching them, and soon he allows them to escape from his hands so as to run after new enjoyments” Tocqueville pg. 973. We are the freest most enlightened people and we have so much but, we have so many wants we are worried we won’t be able to experience it all so we rush through experiences and we rush through life so we will never really be able to grasp things that are actually good and things that fill our souls not just our hands.
Work 4: “Why the Americans show themselves so restive in the midst of their well-being” By: Alexis de Tocqueville
1. The theme of this article is how Americans are the freest and most enlightened men but they are never happy with what they have.
2. This was written in 1805 by Tocqueville who thought while he was writing Democracy in America that no American would ever see what he said about our way of life and our government.
3. I don’t know who this was written for because he never meant it for America, it might have been just for him because he traveled in America for the purpose of seeing what a “great republic” was and then wrote Democracy in America on his findings.
4. While
I was reading this I was thinking how cool it was that Tocqueville thought we were the most enlightened people. Someone who came to America, wasn’t a citizen, didn’t say this about himself. He observed this about us. He also observed that we have so much, but we can’t find what we want. “He grasps them all without clutching them, and soon he allows them to escape from his hands so as to run after new enjoyments” Tocqueville pg. 973. We are the freest most enlightened people and we have so much but, we have so many wants we are worried we won’t be able to experience it all so we rush through experiences and we rush through life so we will never really be able to grasp things that are actually good and things that fill our souls not just our hands.