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Bruce Camacho

Professor Ditch

English 115

October 29, 2018

True Happiness

World War Two is a very rough time for the people living in the island of Guernsey

because they are caught in the middle of the war, stripped from their freedom. They were

harassed by the Germans being demoralized and still managed to overcome all the horror and

deaths they all had to experience. This is where and when the book “The Guernsey Literary and

Potato Peel Pie Society” by Marry Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, takes place. In this book two

characters, Juliet Ashton and Elizabeth Mckenna portray happy individuals throughout the book.

Juliet has a good lifestyle in London, but she doesn’t have true happiness. Juliet becomes

intrigued with how the Guernsey group is created during World War Two. This is when Juliet

finally goes down to meet the literary group and she falls in love with the group. This is when

she meets the creator of the group Elizabeth Mckenna. Elizabeth, despite the German occupation

at Guernsey continues to be happy and optimistic. Elizabeth is a virtuous person that is prepared

to sacrifice everything if she must and if that’s what it takes for her to do what she loves she will

do it. Although Juliet was successful in London, she is happier in Guernsey because she finds her

true happiness surrounded with authors/readers like herself. Despite Juliet’s actions of leaving

London, she continues to live a happy life knowing there are people just like her in the Literary

group.
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Throughout the book Juliet demonstrates happiness even pre-Guernsey but not truly up

until she goes to visit the Literary group and realizes what there is out in the world for her. Juliet

is happiest in Guernsey because she is surrounded by people that share the same interest.

Compared to in London Juliet isn’t the happiest person as she explains “Why am I so

melancholy?” “I should be delighted at the prospect of reading Izzy to an entranced audience”

(Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 7). Juliet is proud of her hard work but can’t understand

why she isn’t feeling happy like she would’ve thought because of her success thus far. Just as

stated in an example by The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler article, “I know I wouldn’t enjoy the

work as much as my job here, but that would be more compensated for by the pure pleasure of

living in that town” (Dalai lama and Cutler 30). This relates back to Juliet because in the

beginning of the book she makes a big decision for herself, either staying in London or traveling

to Guernsey to meet the members of the Literary Group. Juliet also this time around breaks up

with her Ex fiancé Rob Dartry for varies reasons, “He was sealing the last one up with gummed

tape and string. There were eight boxes-eight boxes of my books bound up and ready for the

basement!” (Marry Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 24). She realizes that there isn’t much in

London for her as she realizes despite the success that she’s gains from her book and nice life

style. Juliet realizes that the people she surrounds herself with is the where she will get the most

pleasure from which is temporary. While on the other hand at Guernsey Juliet finds true

happiness through the strong connection with the people she has met that share similar motives.

Despite the down grade of lifestyle from London to guernsey Juliet is not affected by it because

true happiness for her is there with her new family the Literary group. Which brings us back to a

choice that Juliet makes deciding whether to stay in Guernsey or to continue with her life back at

London. We learn as mentioned in the article, “Ways to tell if you’re happy” by Carrie
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Madormo “Overall, a happy lifestyle can be defined as a genuine feeling of peace and fulfillment

within yourself." (Madormo 1). This helps us get a better insight on how Juliet’s choice between

a lavish life in London or the Guernsey lifestyle and have less than she did before really helped

her realize the power having a sense of belonging and being accepted not just for who you are

but by the what you stand for. Juliet wasn’t completely happy in London and happiness struck

her in Guernsey because that is where she felt most at peace and had her sense of fulfillment

within herself. Because Juliet was fully at peace and had a sense of fulfillment she didn’t feel

like she lost anything by leaving London.

After Juliet had gone to Guernsey she could be argued as unhappy and not stable as she

use to be in London. The reason because Juliet knew what she wanted and understood that

London was not the best place for her because there was nothing of value there for her. Juliet

realized that there was a purpose for her to be in Guernsey, so she committed fully and stayed for

good. Just like Juliet stated “I once made a terrible mistake and almost married a man I hardly

knew…..(Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 131). In London she definitely had better

lifestyle, but the meaning of her life as a whole was captured by the group at Guernsey serving a

purpose with a sense of belonging.

Elizabeth and Juliet are similar in the aspects of having to come down to a decision

between a sense of fulfillment to take chances and live her life by the moment and doing what

she believes is the right thing to do no matter what. There’s nothing wrong in Elizabeth’s type of

life style because she does what her heart tells her to do and understands she puts a lot at risk.

She sacrifices a lot to be happy and at peace with herself despite all she does. In Elizabeth’s case

takes a big risk when they were caught after hours by the Germans and Elizabeth reacted quick

telling the officer in charge “How sorry she was that we had broken curfew” (Marry Ann Shaffer
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and Annie Barrows 29) after a meeting with the Guernsey Group for the first time. This life style

that Elizabeth chooses to live corresponds to the Graham Hill article “Living with less A Lot

Less” when he states that “Intuitively, we know that the best stuff in life isn’t stuff at all, and that

relationships, experiences, and meaningful work are the staples of a happy like” (Hill 311).

Elizbeth was in interesting character because she even fell for a German soldier at one point and

had a kid with him. This connects to the fact that Elizabeth in the book decided to at one point

put all things at risk even her freedom by deciding to secretly hide an escaped slave from the

Germans knowing that if she was to help and betray the rules she would be arrested and sent to a

concentration camp. According to Isola Pribby “Elizabeth was arrested by the Germans. They

caught her hiding one of those poor slave workers from Poland and they sent to prison in France”

(Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 53). She was indeed later caught and arrested and like

mentioned in the book and sent to a camp where she met Remy. Remy was also in the

concentration camp with Elizbeth. They both grew close while they spent time together and

became best friends. Remy, when asked about Elizabeth even says that she is good person and all

she wanted to do was help people even the ones she didn’t know because she wasn’t that type of

person to sit and watch people get mistreated. This eventually leads to Elizabeth being killed for

standing up to a woman being brutally beat by the German soldiers, just days before the rest of

the prisoners were freed by the allied soldiers after a glorious Victory. This shows us that no

matter what she was always doing the right thing and put her experiences and relationships that

she had with people before herself no matter what the possible outcome may be, as long as she

knew she was doing good for herself and what she believed in. she was happy helping anyone

she could. In addition, in the article “How to live a happy life” by Henri “I’ve always wondered

what it takes to be happy. As I pursued money, relationships, and success, I realized that
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happiness doesn’t come from the outside; it comes from within each of us.” (Henri 1). This

further shows how happiness is truly created and obtained through the aspect of it being yourself

in general and staying true to yourself. For Elizabeth to be happy with the choices she makes

along with the life she chose, no matter where or the actions she took to be happy because she

knew that it’s what she wanted. She had to be at peace and had a fulfilled life knowing that she

was doing exactly what she wanted to be doing without thinking of the consequences that could

and did take place. Elizabeth sacrificed her own life knowing that she still had a daughter home

but that still didn’t stop her from staying true to herself and. Happiness arose from pureness and

she uses her forty percent intentional activity to take action against things she didn’t stand for

one bit.

All in all Elizabeth can be depicted as a unhappy character for all she does throughout the

book. Elizabeth goes through all the trouble to stand for what she believes in and no one else.

She is the founder of the Guernsey Literary Potato peel pie society. That once again while being

questioned she kept calm and tried to explain to the soldiers that they are a group that meets after

hours and everyone was meeting for their group meeting, so the soldiers enjoyed their

occupations. Not only did she stand up for people, but she also cared for anyone and everyone

that was either in danger or needs someone to stand up for them in general. She died the happiest

she could be because she knows that there is high value consequence without it because she

doesn’t care as much as she is said to. This connects to the article “How Happy Are You and

Why?” by Lyubomirsky through the Pie Chart of happiness. Elizbeth’s circumstance was worse

throughout the book and she still did everything she wants to because her set point didn’t stop

her, and she used her forty percent of intentional activity to overcome barriers she may have

faced.
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Overall the two characters Juliet and Elizabeth were happy characters throughout their

time whether in London or as an individual standing up for those who could do so. Going from

London as Juliet starting as a successful book writer was happy but not truly because that was

just part of appreciation for a temporary amount of time. Juliet didn’t have anything wrong going

for her while in London but her attention as being captured by the Guernsey literary potato peel

pie society. This is where she felt a sense of belonging and a purpose due to the fact that she

found people that loved doing the same things as her. Elizabeth was also an overall happy

character because her actions were firm, and she never looked back upon doing something she

had already done. Elizabeth was spontaneous and always kept herself on her toes because if it

wasn’t the literary group she was with the German soldier or sticking up for people she knew

would appreciate it. Happiness is all about what your intentional actions to get you to where you

want to be permanently. A lot of the time happiness is temporary and not and doesn’t meet your

true potential. Follow your heart let it guide you to your true happiness no matter what it may be

there is always a way to accomplish it and become the happiest versions just like Juliet and

Elizabeth demonstrate in the book.

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Works Cited

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler “The Source of Happiness”

Pursuing Happiness, edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski Bedford/St.

Martin’s, 2016, pp. 21-33

Hill, Graham “Living With Less A Lot Less” Pursuing Happiness, edited by

Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 308-313

Lyubomirsky, Sonja “How Happy Are You and Why?” Pursuing Happiness, edited by

Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 179-196

Carrie Madormo “Ways to tell if you’re really happy” The list, 2018

Henri, “How to live a happy life” Wake up Cloud, September2, 2014

Shaffer, Mary Ann, and Annie Barrows. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

The Dial Press, 2018.