Oliva 1

David Oliva

Professor Ditch

English 113B

March 25, 2020

Markham Reynolds, Jr. and Sidney Stark: Are they happy or not?

Happiness is a feeling of positivity. This feeling of positivity can come from several

things, such as being in love, being successful, or simply doing what you love. In the novel, The

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, this

book takes place in the era of World War II,is about a female writer named Juliet Ashton who

receives letters from different people, including a founding member of the Guernsey Literary

Potato Peel Pie Society. The novel mainly takes place in this island in France called Guernsey

Island. The war isn’t really a time where a people can honestly claim that they were happy.

Many people were being persecuted from the Nazis if they were Jewish, gay, or etc. That is why

two characters from the novel will be analyzed to determine why they are happy or not.

Markham Reynolds, Jr. is a character from the novel in which I have determined for him to not

be happy, and Sidney Stark is another character from the same novel in which I have determined

for him to be happy. These two play important roles with the novel’s main character decisions.

Markham Reynolds, Jr. isn’t happy because of he pursues his own desires and keeps wanting

more and more, meanwhile Sidney Stark is happy because he enjoys the support and affection,
 Oliva 2

he gets from his friends and family, just as much as he gives to them. Let’s start by analyzing

Markham Reynolds, Jr. character.

Markham Reynolds, Jr. is the type of person that only a single woman can dream of.

Reynolds is a successful man with a lot of money and is kind to his workers for he is not a

horrible boss. Despite all that, he’s not happy. As I explained in the introductory paragraph, he

only pursues his desires and is used to getting what he wants. In the novel, he is found to be

interested with the main character, Juliet Ashton. They start forming a romantic relationship,

until it reaches to the point where Reynolds proposes to Juliet for marriage. She eventually

rejects Reynolds’ proposal and does it for a few reasons. In the novel, Reynolds writes a letter to

Juliet saying, “Your friends are suspicious lot, especially that fellow Stark; refused to bring you

to the cocktail party I threw at the View office.” (Shaffer and Annie Barrows 34) This says a lot

of about the type of person Reynolds can be in a relationship. He can be the extremely jealous

type. Since the beginning, what was thought to be relationship between Reynolds and Juliet was

only a desire by Reynolds for he even claims that Juliet is the only woman to have made him

laugh. Reynolds won’t even show interest or support in the writings of Juliet. That is why

Reynolds starts to become frustrated from the rejection of Juliet because he is used to having

what he desires. If Reynolds let’s himself be consumed by that frustration, he will be having

negative effects later in his life. In the novel, there is no explanation towards the aftermath of

Reynolds’ frustration after Juliet’s rejection. This can be argued that maybe Reynolds just moved

on.Let’s analyze Sidney Stark’s character and figure out why he is the opposite of Markham

Reynolds, Jr.
 Oliva 3

Sidney Stark is introduced in the novel as the editor of Juliet’s writings and is found to be

a very close friend to Juliet. Similar to as a sibling relationship. I claimed that Sidney’s character

is happy because he enjoys the support and affection he gives to his friends and family just as

much as they give to him. He’s very compassionate about the people close to him, for example,

with Juliet he gives her advice and support for her work and her personal life. Sidney

congratulates Juliet for her success in her writings and her tours that she is taking. (4-5). It’s not

just Juliet that Sidney cares about only but, there other characters such as Sophie, Elizabeth, Kit,

and Dominic that Sidney is happy and cares for. Another factor that ties in with the happiness of

Sidney is that he is gay. Given that the novel takes place in World War II, Sidney can get

persecuted and even killed if he was discovered to be gay by the Nazis. Even with that weight in

his shoulders, he never stops to show care and affection to the people important to him, but, it is

arguable that maybe Sidney was acting caring and happy around his friends and family in order

to cover his secret of being gay. He could be internally scared instead of being internally happy.

Now that we’ve analyzed Markham Reynolds, Jr. and Sidney Stark, there is more evidence that

supports my claim about Reynolds not being happy and Stark being happy.

There are two articles that support my claims and serve as more evidence. The article,

Living with Less. A lot Less., by Graham Hill, gets into the topic of happiness against pleasure,

which correlates with the type of person the Markham Reynolds, Jr. is. The article is explained

by the author on how he was being consumed by the materialistic objects he purchased, and that

didn’t allow him to enjoy life or even be happy. In correlation with Markham Reynolds, Jr.

character, Reynolds can’t be happy because of how consumed he is with his desires, such as

desiring to marry Juliet. He thought that Juliet would say yes to him, but the rejection soon led
 Oliva 4

him to frustration. The second article that correlates this time with Sidney Stark’s character is,

How Happy Are You and Why? by Sonja Lyubomirsky. This article is about discovering

happiness in the way a person thinks, acts, or sets their own objectives. Sonja Lyubomirsky

interviews three different people, with three different situations, but each of them have their own

way of solving it and moving on. In similarity with Sidney Stark, he’s struggling to hide who he

really is for the sake of his own safety, but all that doesn’t matter to Sidney Stark when he’s with

his friends and family, making him happy.

There are other sources that support my claim as well such as, “Babauta, Leo. “The

Incredible Power of Contentment.” Zen Habitats, Mar. 2008, www.zenhabitats.com/.”, talks

about feeling contentment with being happy with what you have, which is exactly how Sidney

Stark feels. Then, The first article, “Jensen, David G. “The Funny Thing about Wanting

Something Badly.” Science, 15 Jan. 2015, www.sciencemag.org/”, which is in relation with

Markham Reynolds, Jr. character. This article simply says that your desires are just like gasoline;

that they can burn up to hot and quickly, which is exactly what happens to Markham when he

gets rejected by Juliet. These two characters are important roles in the novel, as they shape some

of the important decisions Juliet has to make, as the main character of the novel. In conclusion,

Markham Reynolds, Jr. isn’t happy because of how easily his desires consume him, not allowing

him to even find happiness, meanwhile Sidney Stark is happy because of the care and affection

he gives to his friends and family which he gets back from them as well. As we recall, the

characters that were mentioned exist in the era of World War II, which can maybe add to how

Markham Reynolds, Jr. isn’t happy and Sidney Stark is happy.

 Oliva 5

Works Cited Page

“Babauta, Leo. “The Incredible Power of Contentment.” Zen Habitats, Mar. 2008,

www.zenhabitats.com/.”

Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A lot Less.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Mathew Parfitt and

Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St.Martin’s,2020,2016, pp.254-258

“Jensen, David G. “The Funny Thing about Wanting Something Badly.” Science, 15 Jan. 2015,

www.sciencemag.org/”

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

Bloomsbury, 2019.

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

Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St.Martin’s,2020,2016, pp.141-158