Great Expectations Research Paper

The works “Somnambulist”, “How not to get into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation”, and “Enjoying the so-called "Iced cream": Mr. Burns, Satan, and Happiness” imply that in today’s society, individuals are valuing extrinsic happiness to a greater scale compared to their value of intrinsic happiness. Authors Heron Jones, Alfie Kohn, and Daniel Barwick suggest that individuals need to place a greater value on intrinsic achievements rather than extrinsic achievements within their lives as extrinsic fulfilment leads to momentary happiness, compared to the positive long-term effects of intrinsic fulfillment. The problem begins with individuals focusing and making decisions based on extrinsic rewards such as: grades or a paycheck. Secondly,

Iyengar, S. S., Lepper, M. R. When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?

Home in today’s society can be described in many ways, but is ultimately expressed as more of a feeling of safety and love. Sonsyrea Tate claims "You can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you." In essence, the feeling of home is a part of the character and who he/she will become. In Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Pip examines the true meaning of home and how the subjective opinion of home can reflect who a person becomes. He illustrates this idea using recurring appearances of home-like symbols, the way Pip’s definition of home changes throughout the novel, and how he shows Pip’s acquired feelings after moving into higher society.

Dominique and his family were in a good mood when the QP met with them for a session.

"The Futile Pursuit of Happiness" was published in September of 2003 by a man name Jon Gertner. It is an essay that discusses the difference experiences of happiness based on what a person believes will make them happy and the out come of their true emotions once the event actually occurs. The essay is based on experiments by two professors, Daniel Gilbert and George Loewenstein. The experiments the two professors performed showed that the level of happiness will not be the outcome because of affective forecasting and miswanting cause disappointment and false excitement in our real search for happiness.

A part of the human condition is a strong desire to fulfill the best things in life; popularity, wealth, power, success, etc. Usually most people are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve all of these “fancy” things that life has to offer. We want to put it all on the line, take risks, and never look back in order to live THAT lifestyle. While some rarely accomplish this, there are consequences for sacrificing what you have for something that isn’t good for you. Humans view their lives as dull and boring and we are constantly searching for something that is going to give us our next high; our next adrenaline rushing, palm sweating, heart racing feeling. We crave for something more because we don’t realize what we have right in front of us and sometimes it takes an epic downfall to have that epiphany.

We as humans love to think of ideas and plans that we will never actually follow through with. Humans get bored of their ideas really quickly when things don’t work out right away. Creating and preparing for the new idea is the part that we enjoy the most. Imagining the success of something is almost all one needs to be content with the idea that they will probably never undertake. Some prepare completely and then never follow through with their work for fear of never finding the “right” time to start. Those who wish and only dream about achieving something remain ignorant and never understand the value of hard work. The only worthwhile gain is in actual experience and in just trying even if one fails. When the hard work starts, people give up and are

Psychologist, Walter Mischel has spent his life work on this topic and is considered the father of delayed gratification. His study The Marshmallow Experiment is arguably one of the most

From the good deeds of Aristotle to the Hedonist paradox right up to Oliver Burkeman’s contemporary philosophical interpretations, we discover the state of psychological and philosophical chaos surrounding human desperation to pursue happiness, and related tendencies for the goal to become damaged by any action taken within the intent of reaching and sustaining this state of being.

Human beings have a need for self-actualization that involves growing towards courage, kindness, knowledge, love, honesty, and unselfishness. When we fulfill this need, we feel serene, joyful, filled with zest, sometimes euphoric, and generally happy. When we act contrary to our need for self-actualization, we experience anxiety, despair, boredom, shame, emptiness and are generally unable to enjoy ourselves. (Singer 327-328).

In the Jesus among the Fishermen, when the fishermen had emptied the nets into the two boats they were filled so full that they began to sink. Many people are afraid of not having enough of what they need or want, and so they are always striving to get to a point when they would finally have enough. However, just as the saying goes: A discontented man knows not where to sit easy. Many people believe that they will be happy once they arrive at some specific goal they set for themselves. However, more often than not, once you arrive " there" you will still feel dissatisfied, and move your " there" vision to yet another point in the future. By always chasing after another "there," you are never really appreciating

In an ironic way, the optimism of the vast majority is the greatest inhibitor of satisfaction. Both the future and the past are born of the present mind; the now is interminable. For some reason, humanity seems to possess an unwavering insistence on running, so to speak, to an illusory end that is really nothing more than a product of momentary dissatisfaction.

Great Expectations’ main character, Phillip Pirrip- generally known as Pip- had a rough upbringing as a child. His sister, Mrs. Joe had “brought him up by hand”, after their parents and five brothers had all been laid to rest many years ago. Another character, Herbert Pocket experienced a bizarre childhood, though in a different manner. Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations develops through the novel following Pip, a young “common boy” who grew up in the countryside. As he matured so did his love for a girl of higher class, Estella. However, being a common boy, Pip was not good enough for his Estella, thus once he was given an opportunity to become a gentleman in London he seized it without much hesitation. Charles Dickens’ had his own

The desire to be successful and happy naturally exists in all people. Success is often associated with the acquisition of wealth and material goods. When an individual feels that money and goods will bring them happiness in their lives, they will become more and more determined to

In Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, the main character named Pip suffers through a conflict of confusing good and bad people. He repeatedly disregards the people that love and care for him and instead chooses to care for people who do not care for him. When making these choices, Pip senses that he is making the wrong decisions and therefore confuses good and bad and also confuses himself.