In the article “Happiness: Enough Already” the author Sharon Begley draws up the argument that happiness may be the ultimate goal in life for many people, but too much happiness can also be as what she describes as “the end of the drive for ever-greater heights of happiness” (page number). Throughout the article Begley conveys that happiness is not always for the best, and that sometimes sadness and negativity brings out the best in a person. Begley proves her point by exploiting the negative views of happiness. Begley suggest that happiness is not instilled in a person for a long time because “negative emotion evolved for a reason” (page number). Begley then moves forward to better prove her explanation by emphasizing successful artists who…
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 will endlessly be bound by the pressure to choose. Having the choice to either compromise or pursue joy in our lives, is what makes being happy more fulfilling. For some, compromising their happiness is a way to please other people or the idea of their future. In his short story “Home Place”, Guy Vanderhaeghe explores this topic and more, as we go through a fathers responsibility in fostering happiness in his son. The short story examines Gil and his son Ronald, who rushes through marriage in order to inherit a massive family farm owned by Gil, and past generations of his family.…
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.…
Novelist Ayn Rand, in her book Anthem, wrote, “My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose”. Although happiness may seem like a simple concept to many, sometimes we don’t recognize it but we always take different paths, face many obstacles, and spend most of our lives trying to achieve happiness. Depending on the circumstances, every person has their own definition of what it means to attain happiness, whether through wealth, success, health, love etc. Happiness is a notion that be developed by focusing on the smaller things in life which are not given a great deal of thought to, but still can heavily impact us. One of these smaller yet significant ideas in life is individualism. Today…
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.…
We often encourage people to actively pursue their happiness and discourage them to escape from the reality. However, escaping is also a way of pursuing happiness, even though escaping will only provide temporary happiness and facing the reality will make true happiness possible. The short story “Horses of the Night” uses its character Chris to demonstrate the idea that individuals may escape from the miserable aspects of life to stay happy, however, individuals will compromise their ability to pursue true happiness if they escape.…
display than in the rites of the holiday season. With glad tidings and good cheer, we…
Striving towards the achievement of happiness is what most people do, they make it their one most admired goal in life. John Stuart Mill, in Chapter V “A Crisis in My Mental Health. One Stage Onward.” of his autobiography, claims that if we yearn for happiness and make it our ultimate goal, it will automatically become unachievable. If we divert our attention toward something other than our own happiness, achieving it will become effortless. The journey through the enjoyments of life are what gives us happiness, but if we make it our goal we have failed.…
Today’s society teaches people to be happy but in that, they focus on the material items to make them happy. Many people in the world define happiness as living a good life or exceeding the expectations of others. But happiness begins with finding what is within, what is one’s true desires in life. People focus more on the price of life than life itself, and they tend to make happiness out of material objects and then not being happy in the end.…
Andrea Isaacs December 2, 2014 English 102-BD Fall The Search for Happiness In today’s society we live in a world were the media has the opportunity to attract us into wanting more than what we already have. We always feed into our desire just to satisfy our happiness. Many of out interpretations of Success and beauty comes from the images we see everyday. One’s unhappiness is cause by the jealousy of others and discontent within our lives.…
What’s the purpose of life? What's the meaning of life? Is purpose of life to pursuit happiness throughout one's life? Happiness in life is directly related to having a specific purpose and interaction with others. the pursuit of happiness is a part of the american dream, every American and future citizens of America from other countries dream of it.…
The pursuit to happiness means different things to different individuals, such as the true key to one's pursuit to happiness. This can be a number of areas of life such as family, friends, and the true understanding of one's own self happiness. I believe that for some people material things can make them happy, but for only a short while. The true answer to an individuals happiness is knowing who you are and what really makes you happy deep down inside of your soul.…
According to Bentham, an English moral philosopher and legal reformer, the highest principle of morality is to maximize happiness, the overall balance of pleasure over pain. This principle explains the Utilitarianism doctrine that is mostly the solution of everyone in every century. Utilitarianism can bring the most benefit for people. In contrast, throughout the three stories “Justice” by John Stuart Mill, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and “The One who Walks Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guinn, it is easy to see that utilitarianism mostly requires sacrifice that indirectly leads to dehumanization and repression of the individual voice.…
Life has many obstacles and it is up to the individual to either give up or to exercise perseverance. Gardner asks himself why is the pursuit of happiness a right written by Thomas Jefferson and how did he know to put the “pursuit” part in there. He realises that happiness is not a given right, it is the right to pursue happiness for those who are persistent and determined to achieve success. Happiness is productivity, hard work, and personal wellness to conquer difficulties in a constant…