For centuries, society has shaped these abstract ideas of what happiness means and how one could achieve happiness in their lives. However, in order to even understand what actions could lead to one’s happiness, one must be able to understand the definition of happiness itself. Having read Charles Dicken’s book Great Expectations, happiness persists as a pleasure or sense of a meaningful and rich psychosocial integration in a person’s understanding of himself or herself.…
Happiness can come from little things that people don’t really think about that could've made an impact in their life emotionally. People all the time don’t ever think about what people had to do to give us…
Sharon Begley in “Happiness: Enough Already” argues that being extremely happy may be a goal of anybody but it also can be “the end of the drive for ever-greater heights of happiness” (455). Begley claims that “being happier is not always better” (455) and an excessive happiness may affect badly to people’s life. She points out that people who reach the highest level of happiness don’t feel motivated to move forward since they are already satisfied. The author goes on insists that happiness does not last long because “negative emotion evolved for a reason” (456). She presents many cases of famous people who experienced negative emotions to create their well-known works showing the need of sadness in every lifetime. Furthermore, people desire to gain more and more happiness causing them the fear to experience sadness. Therefore, what they once considered normal sadness is regarded as a psychiatric illness now. The author then concludes that everything would be much better if “the single-minded pursuit of happiness as an end in itself” (458).…
Happiness, I believe, isn’t just something that happens or comes. Roko Belic controversially argues in his documentary film Happy that poorer countries like India are easily surpassing the U.S. on a list of the happiest nations in the world. Happy begins with a poverty-stricken rickshaw puller in an Indian slum who claims to be happy, very happy, in fact. Director Belic takes us to various countries, examining different people in various economic situations, and with the help of some “happiness science,” evaluating their level of happiness. Throughout the movie, Director Roko Belic illustrates that it isn’t what we do that makes us happy, but it is the people and the relationships in our lives that brings us happiness and everlasting joy.…
In planning her Happiness Project, Rubin turned to the wisdom of the ages, scientific knowledge, and lessons from pop culture all aimed at creating happiness. She uses this book to set down her adventures and discoveries along the way. She learned a number of things, including that novelty and challenge are important sources of happiness, that while perhaps money can’t completely buy happiness it can help in its purchase when it is spent with fore thought, that ordering and organizing her external environment contributed to a sense of inner peace, that treating herself could make her feel worse, that venting negative emotions didn’t get rid of them, and that sometimes it was the smallest of changes that could make the largest differences in her world and her happiness.…
The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner and Quincy Troupe entails the life story of Christopher Gardner. Like other books that movies are made from, The Pursuit of Happyness movie was very different than the book. In the movie, Gardner starts out in his late twenties; he lives with his wife, Linda, and his son Chris Gardner Jr., who was five-years-old at the beginning of the movie. The book starts out very differently; Gardner is just three-years-old and living in a foster home (Gardner and Troupe 15-16). By the end of the book, Gardner Jr. is barely four-years-old. The major difference between the book and the movie is that Gardner experiences physical, mental, and sexual abuse.…
In “A license to be Happy” Nicholas Roes believes that there is hope for addicts to live a happier life after many years of substance abuse. He admits that “More and more research is supporting the idea that people can learn to be happy.”(41) Roes acknowledges that if clients can focus on more of the positive things that brings out the outcome of happiness, the client will achieve their goal of being happy. He agrees that his clients have the power to control their own life once they understand the true meaning of happiness.…
Everyone's goal in life is to be “happy”, they go out of their way to fulfill temporary pleasures. But what is very ironic is that striving for this possession filled happiness, many become sad, weary and give up on their dream of so called “happiness”. The article written by Darrin McMahon “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” , goes over this issue in great detail. Achieving true happiness is nearly impossible in the way we try to maintain it.…
Chris Gardener is a man of whom is pushed into the face of adversity in San Francisco 1981. At this point, Chris is officially homeless with a 5 year old son, Christopher Gardener. Prior to this, Chris had invested all his savings into Osteo National bone-density scanners, portable devices for giving only slightly better imaging quality than X-rays. Linda Gardener, his wife, wanted to separate because of financial difficulties and moves to New York after agreeing that Christopher Jr. is better off with Chris.…
The Pursuit of Happyness stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner and shows his struggle as a single father facing homelessness yet striving to create a better life for his family. While it could be described as a Black man’s struggle, the movie manages to leave that as a secondary factor rather than the main source of conflict. Both the generosity and the discrimination he experiences at the hands of whites around him are portrayed, as well as, the reality that poverty has no color boundaries. People of all ethnicities are shown in impoverished scenes: in homeless shelters and food kitchens. His cultural interaction includes Asian Americans as well and depicts the cultural misunderstandings and language barriers experienced between them.…
Happiness cannot be explained in a simple definition; however Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, explains how to achieve happiness. “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (192). The only way Janie was going to find happiness was to go out and find it on her own. One would think that finding happiness is a simple thing to do. However, Janie shows us otherwise. After looking in several wrong places for happiness, Janie finally finds it through Tea Cake. Tea Cake’s differing views on money and freedom make Janie very happy. His ability to care and love her would make any woman of this time ecstatic, but many would say that Janie was the most deserving. Tea Cake’s genuine, care free, and hopeful attitude made her happiness possible.…
ABC News 20/20 documentary, “Happiness, how to find it, understand it, and achieve it” by Bill Weir. Happiness is what we most want in life. Happiness cannot be bought, paid for, or found. It must be created. Happiness is a choice. Create your own happiness. Many people aim for happiness. Some through money, marriage or department stores. Our goal in life is to achieve happiness. Bill Weir reports on how to get happy, how we are hard wired for unhappiness and the extremes people will go to achieve happiness. Abraham Lincoln says” Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” Weir also visits the happiest places on earth, and these countries might surprise anyone. America is so far down…
Being homeless, separated, and forced to raise a five year old isn’t exactly the ideal state for most people, but this is where Chris Gardner (Will Smith) finds himself. The year is 1981, and Chris has completely gambled away all of his money into buying bone marrow scanners to sell. Once his nagging wife Linda (Thandie Newton) leaves Chris and their son Christopher (Jaden Smith, Will’s own son), Chris realizes he has to make a change in their lives. While doing his mundane task of walking the streets of San Francisco, California to sell his machines, Chris happens upon a very nice sports car. Just as the owner is getting out, Chris jokingly asks him what he does to drive such a nice car. The owner tells Chris that he is a stock broker. Chris has a revelation- he wants to make that type of money. This is where Chris’s journey begins as he competes in an unpaid internship where only one hopeful intern is chosen to become a part of the firm. He does all of this while trying to keep he and his son from becoming completely impoverished. Laced with captivating characters, a high level of entertainment, and an overall capability of leaving a permanent effect on the audience, The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) is an amazingly true story of an underdog rising to the top despite his ups and downs to get there.…
Christopher Paul Gardner (born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and philanthropist who, during the early 1980s, struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son, Christopher, Jr. Gardner's book of memoirs, The Pursuit of Happyness, was published in May 2006.…
The Pursuit of Happyness Movie is a real life story based on Chris Gardner (role play by Will Smith) who used to work as a bone-density scanners salesman. A bone-density scanner works like X-rays but is portable and of course, more expensive. Gardner spends all his life selling these scanners and although he has made it, the time lag between his sales is long and slowly erodes his relationship with his wife who eventually leaves him as he could not afford to pay for bills. Their son, Christopher (role play by Jaden Smith), however, stays with Gardner after he insists. Gardner sees an opportunity knocking at his door when he is offered a chance to work as a stockbroker internship. During his unpaid internship, Gardner and his son goes through a lot of adversity such as finding out that the government has taken away his $600 for taxes, causing him to not be able to pay rent thus he and his son become homeless. They have once slept in a restroom in the BART station. Other times if Gardner is early, he can get a room in the homeless shelter. This means he has to quickly finish his job so he can come out on time to queue for a room. At the end of his internship, Gardner is called to the office. Gardner thinks it will be his last day of work in here so he dresses up for his last day. The heads of Dean Witter then tell him that he shall dress like this for the rest of the days, which also means that he is employed as a stockbroker in Dean Witters! Gardner is very happy and tries to fight back his tears. Then, he runs to his son’s daycare and hugs his son knowing that everything will turn out fine from now on. The final scene shows Gardner and son walking down the street and a man passes by. Gardner turns to look at him. That man is who this true story is based on, the real Chris Gardner. (AlAzhar, 2014)…