Happiness Essays

Happiness Essays Happiness Essay Happiness Essay William Min Lacy 3A AP Lang NOV. 14, 2013 The Fluid, Ambiguous Nature of Happiness Happiness is green and adorned with the faces of our nations fathers. Happiness is a good cigar and a strong margarita. Happiness is finishing your paper early so you can enjoy the rest of your weekend. Happiness is the sensation brought by victory or triumph. Happiness is having the picture-perfect family often seen on the screen of televisions. Happiness is large pizzas, a couple beers, and enjoying the Sunday Night prime time matchup with a group of fellow fans. Happiness can be represented by irtually anything, yet people give vague answers when asked What makes you happy? or Are you happy? We oft receive answers that leave us more unfulfilled than if we simply did not ask at all. Is everyone ashamed of what makes them happy or do they Just simply not know? Perhaps the best and only explanation for this befuddling situation is: Happiness is cannot be defined. We know what has made us happy before, but at any given time, what makes us happy is a mystery hiding in the depths of our hearts. As it is written in the constitution, every American is ntitled to the basic right: the pursuit of happiness. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck represents this concept perfectly, as Lennie and George are driven by their vision of eventually owning their own plot of land and a bunny patch on that land. However, Crooks, the black farmhand, delivers the reality of the situation: Just like heaven. Everbody wants a little piece of Ian. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. Its Just in their head. : Theyre all the time talkin about it, but its Jus in their head. (43) This emphasizes how it is only the ursuit, and not the goal, that we are entitled to. This Journey to find Joy often also ends tragically, sometimes more so than not even reaching the arbitrary line in the ground where we draw our happiness. Jay Gatsby experiences the heartbreak of this empty Journey in The Great Gatsby after the magic with him and Daisy fades had occurred to [Gatsby] that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the oon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one. (121) Fitzgerald describes, how after the initial honeymoon period, Gatsby realizes Daisy Buchanan is not the same woman from his dream. His whole life has been driven by the motivation of finishing the fairy tale between him and Daisy, yet once he is with her, Gatsby finds that the void in his heart is still left unfilled. Despite how much he believed it, Daisy was not a one-way ticket to euphoria and was imperfect Just like himself. The quest of happiness is rarely finished and hose who finish after many years of toiling find that what they wanted before is not what they want now. The fluctuating nature of human happiness has been well- initially respond with miou choose or l dont care, but right as we enter the car, we form our own opinion after the decision has been made. A new taco place Just opened up, maybe there was a special deal at the buffet, perhaps an overwhelming craving for chocolate cake at that one place suddenly developed. Then once we arrive at the restaurant that took arguing and manipulation to get to, the question of what o eat becomes even more difficult than the question of where. If we knew what made us happy, this classic, sticky dinner situation would not sound so familiar. What made us happy yesterday or what makes us happy right now likely will not be the same even a couple hours into the future. Just like our Christmas presents and dinner plans, to be truly happy, we ask for something different every time and what we say might not even be what we want. Speaking of dinner plans, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the fickle nature of human happiness in his TED talk, Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce. Referencing the progression of the food industry, he mentions the innovation that Howard Moskowitz brought to the table, literally. Prior to Moskowitz, food science was always based on studies where researchers would verbally ask people what they wanted out of a certain food. Moskowitz asked the same question, but to their taste buds, rather than their ears. He discovered people could not always express their desire and perhaps were oblivious to their own preferences. Extra-chunky spaghetti sauce was not a thing before the studies Moskowitz conducted. One-third of all Americans now prefer extra-chunky, but could ot express their deep longing for this type of spaghetti sauce until Moskowitz cooked it up and realized the widespread popularity of this variety that was yet to be produced. Gladwell also mentions coffee and how people claim they want a dark, rich, hearty blend, yet most people actually prefer a milky, weak coffee. (Gladwell) Humans may not know what they want at all, not until theyVe tried and established preferences for themselves. Calling happiness elusive or hard to find would be misleading, as virtually anybody can find a moment in their day where they are appy. Rather, it avoids those who aimlessly attempt to seek it. Impulses are wired into human mentality and it makes us impulsive beings by nature. The criteria happiness is contingent upon is everchanging and fluctuates with our urges. What you yourself find happiness in, others may find laughable. What made you happy when you were 10 years old is likely not going to make you happy now. What you thought would make you happy may very well not be what you wanted at all. Happiness will always exist, but will always do so in a capricious state. Ironic as it ay be, those who set out to define and find their personal happiness often end up finding the least. Too often do we try to define ourselves as someone who we want to be, rather than who we are, and forget that our happiness is not found in a fictitious image of ourselves, but in the essence of the person we actually are. Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print. Gladwell, Malcolm. Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce. TED Talks. Long Beach. 15 Feb. 2004. Lecture. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin, 1993. Print.