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Jeffrey Daquino

Professor Corri Ditch

English 113B

8 April 2020

What makes or keeps you happy?

During World War II, people were scared for their lives and felt as if it was the end for

them. Everyone during that horrific time all fought very hard for their lives. German soldiers

took and or gained complete control of Guernsey during the occupation of the Channel Islands

from 1940 to 1945, the islanders were held to a very hard, and rough curfew and severely

oppressed. They were not even allowed to eat their own livestock. Elizabeth Mckenna and

Remy Giraud are two characters I find most interesting from the novel, The Guernsey Literary

and Potato Peel Pie Society by Anne Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. I believe both of these

characters are happy in their special way with their own lives because they both keep a positive

mindset throughout the horrific events.

Even though Elizabeth McKenna is not living in the book, a lot of her friends express that

she found happiness through the children, she worked with. To help them from seeing their

parents getting taken away from them. As stated in the article, “The Source of Happiness” by His

Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, "It is great being able to travel and do the things

that I have always wanted to do" (His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Howard Cutler 15). This quote

from the book is relevant to the novel because Elizabeth became happy from helping children get

away from seeing their parents being taken away from them. During the occupation, she fell in

love with Christian Hellman, a German soldier. She gave birth to Kit not long after Christian was

sent away from Guernsey and died at sea. Elizabeth also invented the Guernsey Literary and
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Potato Peel Pie Society, which was just one of several instances in which Elizabeth's quick

thinking saved her friends from prosecution. She also conceived of John Booker's impersonation

of Lord Tobias and painted a portrait to complete the effect. Because of this, the entire island and

the society especially loved Elizabeth dearly.

Comparing to “What Suffering Does” by David Brooks suggests, “When people

remember the past, they do not only talk about happiness” (Brooks 226). One may say her

suffering has caused her to be unhappy, but she used her suffering as a benefit. Not allowing her

struggles and hardships to bring her down, she used her strength to help others and still be able to

find happiness rather than let her suffering take over. With Elizabeth’s boyfriend passing away,

being forced to leave her baby behind, and being put in prison. She still did not allow those

negative events to take over her life because she did feel there was more to life than all those

events before her death. Although some people could argue that she is unhappy because of things

that she has been through, helping other people brought her joy. She saved Todt knowing she

would be caught and also stayed with Jane but had the opportunity to leave.

Remy met Elizabeth in the concentration camp in which later on she found out her friend

was shot a killed from it. In the book “Pursuing Happiness” people benefit from suffering such

as heartbreak, bad experience, and losing a close person Brook asserts, “People shoot for

happiness but feel formed through suffering” (Brooks 226). This is relevant to Remy because,

Remy went through a lot with her being caught by Nazis and sent to a concentration camp.

Brooks connects with Remy because, in the book written by Brooks, he explains that people are

formed by suffering and through the sufferings they experience they can learn and change in the

search for happiness.

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Some readers might say that Remy was not happy because she suffered from PTSD.

Although she was only hiding her feelings from strangers that she had just met and or recently.

An example of Remy not being happy is when she went through a panic attack because she sees

a big dog without it is and or in general a leash on, and it made her gasp, and begin to throw up

and or regurgitate and have spasms. Defining that no matter what moment is a good moment she

makes, her past experiences in the concentration camp will break her and will not allow her to

become truly happy. At the end of the day, Remy was happy. As the bonds, she had created

made her grow as a person. Remy was great friends with Elizabeth and their connection helped

Remy and helped her become more of a helpful person.

An article called, “Does loyalty span domains? Examining the relationship between

consumer loyalty, other loyalties, and happiness.” In this article, the authors, Aksoy, Lerzan,

Keiningham, Timothy L, Buoye, Alexander; Larivière, Bart; Williams, Luke, Wilson, Ian, Journal of

Business Research, say, “Researchers hypothesize that loyalty is essentially isomorphic across

domains, and is positively linked to happiness.” This is important and or relates to my two main

characters Elizabeth Mckenna, and Remy Giraud because these two girls were very close friends

with each other and stayed very loyal. No matter what was going on during their time and or no

matter how bad it was, they would not let anything stop them from being happy and nothing

could break their friendship. As they both had hobbies they enjoyed doing that made them happy

and both had a positive mindsets. Living life in German occupation for many years was

horrifying and awful, but no matter what Elizabeth and Remy went through during WWII they

just would not give up on each other and or the lives of themselves and loved ones. Their

friendship was very strong because they had each other to stick through all the horrible events in

the holocaust on their friendship was very loyal. Their loyalty is important in this event because

it helped them stay happy throughout all the tragic events. Although Elizabeth was dead during
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the book all the other characters would never forget what an awesome, amazing, and supportive

person she was throughout all and everyone one of her troubles in general.

Elizabeth was happy even with all the suffering she has been through. Through

suffering, there are benefits and her benefits came from helping other people. Even with her

husband Christian passing away shortly after the birth of their daughter Kit, Elizabeth went on

and created the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. She loved playing with children

and was able to keep them from thinking about the removal of their parents. The simple things

are what made Elizabeth happy, with all the things going on at the moment she maintained a

positive mindset and lived her life helping others. Remy Giraud was also a happy person

because, even though she had horrible days and or times and experiences in the concentration

camp, she would be free along with her friend Elizabeth and that she will know Elizabeth’s

daughter and friends. At the end of the day, she did not end up meeting Elizabeth’s child and

friends, sadly without her friend Elizabeth, but Remy was happy that she could let Elizabeth’s’

friends know how brave and outgoing she was even in the worst moments of their lives. Both of

these characters managed to be happy no matter what they went through and or experienced in

the darkest times of their lives. The power structure of the world around us that we live in today

is much different from the old world that existed in the seventeenth century during Shakespeare’s

lifetime. The secret to happiness, love, and peace for everyone is just loyalty with one and other

and or personal confinement. Shakespeare understood this, and the sooner humans learn to only

empower those who are capable of bridling the worst of their impulses, the better off every

inhabitant of our planet will be. As our world has changed so much for the better since that day

of age things are much more controlled, safe, and acknowledged. The world is a much better
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place now than it ever has been because we have learned a lot from the mistakes or

unaccommodated actions from the past that we have improved on greatly and for the better.
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Works Cited

Aksoy, Lerzan, et al. “Does Loyalty Span Domains? Examining the Relationship between Consumer

Loyalty, Other Loyalties and Happiness.” Journal of Business Research, vol. 68, no. 12, 2015,

pp. 2464–2476.

Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does.” Pursuing Happiness, Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski,

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 226-29.

Lama, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. “The source of Happiness.” Pursuing

Happiness, Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 15-27.

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

House, Inc., 2009.