Muhammad Faisal \ Professor Ditch English 113A r 1 April 2018 io of 0 : sory ocr within ny elf \, ‘) ‘ Q Happiness lies within Uyself err) eeat is precisely one of the leading y Y /Ahemes portrayed to the audience in the novel "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie XN Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows through the life of its two prominent N \ K Protagonists Elizabeth Mckenna and Juliet Ashton who were happy characters, Further ><) 3 exemplifying) ‘the anthology from "Pursuing Happiness" by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn ‘Skorezewski consist of two articles "The Sources of Happiness" by His Holiness the Dalai Lai > }) and Howard Cutler, along with "The Alchemy of Suffering” by Matthieu Ricard conclude that \Jnc 0) true happiness lies within thyself, not in external factors. A quotation of The Dalai Lama fo in \ A Ny arate —- and gradually to free ourselves from them." (38). This statement is J ih sD 4 parallel with the teaching of the Ye stating we all possess the capability to ~ coN identify the problems that are a hin ‘n our way of achieving happiness and then eliminate ‘\ | that hindrance to reach our destination to achieve happiness successfully. These teachings are ee \e P \\ evident in the life of Astfon and McKertna, For instance, emotional connection in Astlon's life with the people of Guernsey Island is used to prove that ¥ can achieve happiness internally _\ \ io / ‘Wwe aE (\"ay. Faisal 2 \ rather than extemally. Becea Martin states in an article that "Happiness is determined by internal ( Al ) “ne factors but we put all of our hope into external factors to achieve it." Elaborating that for happiness internal factors are crucial, but then again human beings fail to realize ifand en y Eh A eu to seek for our happiness in meaningless and exterior circumstances. _/ : ew McKenna is happy because she does not give much importadce to adverse events \) x \ A, chcurring in her life and her surroundings instead she always followed her heart. Rvea when . a 2 Lt for instance, the annexation of het country and fellow \ NY negative externalities arise in her lif \" countrymen by the German occupation, war, chaos, and unrest. She is still happy, cheerful and \ possesses a happy-go-lucky nature as she gets into an affair with the German soldier who |, occupied her country even though the Islander did nt approve ot. Despite the objection and \ \'\. crticiom of Itanders against her; she didnot reffain from giving hope and courage to her people! $ 2 \\\ _ inbad times fulfilling her responsibilities towards her people, and nation. ; \ Y | Additionally, it seemed like that McKenna liked her freedom a lot from everything J \ ( \(\) explained above, we can reach up to conclusion that she is the kind of woman who will not come under any pressure from German occupants or even man in general. Especially in a man h is infamous for depriving women equal rights and freedom despite that dominated era whi McKenna would go with rude men and do as she please. This gentlewoman resembles the charact cs of a bald eagle which is known for its independence, bravery, strength, cunningness, and an alert eye. McKenna’s character faithfully symbolizes all these qualities as she made her life decisions free of her will be a woman in a conservative period of 1946. We can find that example on the page number: Pg: 59. "No household chores, no gloves, no shoes, no / \ stockings. Going out on fishing boats with rude men. Spying on decent people through her telescope. A disgrace". For instance, when the home of Mckenna which was Guernsey Island j oO o iN rYor. al hy Favi ( (° Faisal 3 invaded by German occupants, her level of happiness was still the same, She was not at all, affected by this atin ‘occupation, She was always happy, and even her personality remained the same“ The answer is because despite her external environments being bad, her ‘source of happiness was internal which lead to her being utterly unaffected. Ashtonjis one of the other main characters in the novel. Initially, she is not happy at all, ever ee has all the luxuries, comforts, her home, her city, prosperity, wealth, fame, career which is evident inthis quotation "I no longer want tote this book - my head...... 2 relieves my conscience over the debacle of my Anne Bronte biography. My thanks for C\ Severything and Love, Juliet’ (pg. 3 and a daLrrrs novel. N ry © life despite her external factors living in a developed city and urban area like London, achieving, Her decision of choosing what she feels right for her helped her achieve happiness in her \ great success and estal ment of her journalism career. Her love life was also progressing well a crooked smile and a as she received a marriage proposal from a rich "tall and handsome, \\*\ chiselled jaw” (p.117) American editor, named Markham Reynolds. Her relationship is ) = superficial, and internally she does not love Reynolds, but she is just with him for the strategic matgfialistic purpose is evident from her ironic joke to Reynolds "Are you certain you wouldn't \o fathes be married to someone more tractable?" (p.115). This statement indicates that Julict is \ 7 yon. obs ;Faisal 4 herself doubtful regarding her relationship with Reynolds. With her successful writing career as well, she felt something incomplete and a factor that was missing from her life which became a hindrance to her inner contentment. | ( FES Ashton also made a sacrifice all her achievements, all that she had, all her possessions | -\ just and chose happiness. In the end, she followed her heart and her happiness which her \ \ \ intuition told her that lies in the Guernsey island, with the potato peel society, and with the ak people of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Without even thinking for a minute) VW" « before sacrificing her prosperity that was achieved by her due to the Izzy Bickerstaff column. | () \\ | 4 She chose to take a risk by starting from zero without knowing the consequences. Unaware of || st | eat being able to obtain the same amount of success in a new career venture, leaving everything | “44 behind is not a hard decision, On the contrary, Ashton made efforts and took the decision to do| those things in her life that make her happy. As a result, she found her inner peace, and te ee happiness inher personal and profesional in the form of eal love with Mr: Dawsey Adams, a \ | * | sense of belonging to a community, friends, and society. aN From the article in pursuing happiness, and the life experience of Mckenna and Ashton in the novel of GI . I got an opportunity to learn how to be truly happy. I learned that 1 find contentment I was looking atthe wrong place. In fact, Iwas able to achieve satisfaction \ Within myself the entire time, I eared where Iwas wrong and realized my mistakes to seek happiness in materialistic. The Germans were able to capture and imprison McKenna's physical body, yet they failed to detain the free spirit possessed by her. Even in all worst scenarios she only did what she felt was right until her last drop. Similarly, Ashton had everything a person could ask for in the world, but she just found her inner-contentment when she did something that she wanted to do. In the end, they both found happiness in their life because they took action for —_/Faisal 5 - YJ it and did something to be happy instead of being depressed and not exerting any effort to live \ \ their life the way they wanted. / X . ‘Therefore, in my perspective happiness is self-attainable but we need to play our part to CAT \ reach up to that level of complacency by caring about the things we want to do in life that fulfills / our state of fulfillment as stated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi that "happiness takes a committed effort to be manifested. After the baseline set point, there is a percentage of happiness that every / individual has the responsibility to take control of, He believes that flow is crucial to creating | genuine happiness.", We all should not ignore the relevance of happiness and make some efforts \. | x to discover our inner concealment which is ready to come out of the shell but needs a litle push./ 6,Works Cited Martin, Becca. “Is Happiness Really Attainable Or Is It Just An Illusion?” Thought Catalog, Thought Catalog, 28 Apr. 2017, thoughtcatalog.com/becca-martin/2017/04is-happiness- truly-attainable-or-i _just-an-illusioni “Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: All About Flow & Positive Psychology ( PDF).” Positive Psychology Program - Your One-Stop PP Resource!, 13 Mar. 2017, positivepsychologyprogram.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow Lama, Dalai, and Howard Cutler. “The Sources of Happiness.” Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford Spotlight Reader, edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorezewski, Bedford/St, Martin’s, 2015, pp. 21-32. Ricard, Matthieu. “The Alchemy of Suffering.” Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford Spotlight Reader, edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorezewski, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015, pp. 34-41 Shaffer, M. and Barrows, A. (nd.). The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society[SSUN Aap Rubric ‘Suseot dis nat furminan essay. ‘sudent didnot jorganiztion: 16% The paperie tuminan essay Stee, Coherence, Un, om ea [Grammar & Mechanic: sx. [Sra speting, puncuabon