Gor Akopyan Professor Ditch ‘| \ ‘at Qh’ y} English 115 N) h ‘ 29 October 2018 , Happiness Compared in Selfish and Selfless Individuals \ \ Happiness is something that can be had and lost, maintained for a long time or take a while to find. Happiness is unique to an individual and the way they exist, which can be seen in ie novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, the character Elizabeth McKenna is happy while Markham Reynolds is not. The two are completely different characters and live completely different lives as Elizabeth is a ‘compassionate person who lives in Guernsey while Mark is a rich American who is incredibly selfish, The story in the novel goes on around the time of World War 2 where tensions were very high and the people of Guernsey originally made the potato peel society as an excuse for being up late while under strict surveillance. The potato peel society tums into a book club that the ! people in Guernsey come together to read and talk about books. Despite her untimely death, } Elizabeth is truly a happy character because of her ability to sacrifice temporary pleasure for a / greater happiness, while Mark is not a happy character because he manipulates others perception ar Ny of himself to think he is happy instead i ‘becoming a happy person. — / ont / Elizabeth McKenna goes through a lot of tough character-building moments throughout the novel which define who she is as a character. These events that take place all challenge her ability to stick to what she truly believes in regardless of what comes after. Housing an escaped slave is one of the many things she did that even though if caught would hurt her, she still did——SooeeO “enrot because she thought it was right. The reason these examples contribute the Elizabeth being a happy character is that these moments prove her being content with her life and how she chases her passions. None of the things she does are forced or withheld, Elizabeth does what makes her happy no matter what anyone else thinks. An example of this is when Elizabeth fell in love with 4 / one of the soldiers stationed at Guernsey, she had a kid with him despite the volatile situation they were in, This highlights how Elizabeth, although knowing the risks to having a kid with a soldier she may never see again, she realizes that it is what she wants and goes through with it. : Alllof the things she does do also affect the people around her. Elizabeth’s lasting effect on the people around her demonstrates how she sacrifices for her friends, which is what gives her true happiness. We see this when after she is gone her friend says “I have felt Elizabeth’s presence all along; she lingers in every room” (184 Shaffer). The things she does help and touch other people in some sort of way, which only shows how helpful she us to everyone around her. Her choice to follow her desires regardless of consequences seem to help others showing the true intent of her actions. Not only for her friends, but Elizabeth also helps out people she doesn’t know to well as long as she believes in it. We see this when Elizabeth puts herself in front of a new friends when they are being beat at the labor camp. She knew that she would be punished for it, which resulted in her death, but because she wanted to help she did anyway. ‘The type of happiness that Elizabeth possesses ties into the differences from short term pleasure and true happiness. Pleasure could be any temporary experiences that provides joy to the person, but that goes away quickly. With true happiness, it is a much longer lasting feeling | that provides a greater sense of being content with a person’s own actions. The Dalai Lama and ‘ Howard Cutler cover this topic in their article “The Source of Happiness” where the difference between the two is explained as “The ‘right choice’ is often the difficult one because it involvesee Akopyan 3 } some sacrifice of pleasure” (32 Dalai Lama and Cutler). When it comes to deciding between ‘hich action is correct, it can be hard to tell what is right. One of the choices might make a person feel better right after, but the other one would make them feel bad now and better lateron. —\ With Elizabeth, she mostly on ever chooses to sacrifice pleasure in order to feel more content with her choices. The time where she risked getting herself in trouble for the escaped slave is a clear example of this, Instantly after the choice she is more anxious and worried, but if she didn’t do it then it would forever plague her mind that she didn’t help someone she could've. Cutler and the Dalai Lama perfectly highlight the type of behavior that Elizabeth has when it comes to / tough choices that define her happiness. At the end of the day, Elizabeth can sleep feeling good about herself because of her choice to do what she believes in even if'she is uncomfortable for a little while. Elizabeth's case for happiness coming from her helping other people out is backed up by how self-reported happiness is higher in people who volunteer. Volunteering is taking the time out of the day to help other people out even though it uses up a person's own pleasure. This is what Elizabeth is doing across many of the decisions she makes throughout her life in the novel. ‘An article called “Doing well by doing good. The relationship between formal volunteering and self-reported health and happiness” by Francesca Borgonovi shows how “volunteers are equally likely to be happy whether they have high or low status”. These finding indicate that happiness can be achieved by people doing things that make them feel better about themselves. This comes back to how sacrificing pleasure for true happiness is an important way to actually be happy latter in life, Although Elizabeth does not directly volunteer, many of her actions actually end up_/ making up a similar situation as volunteering, She is always focusing on helping others first / which is what her primary focus is on when it comes to decisions in her life.