Happiness And Truth In Brave New World

As human beings we are naturally wired to seek happiness wherever we can find it. When we don’t, we may enter a stage of anger, anxiety, or distress. That’s why it is our personal goal to look for happiness and preserve it once we acquire it. Many have explored ways to find what triggers this feeling of “happiness” and what we can do to keep it; nonetheless, the evidence found is hardly sufficient to make a public statement on how to find happiness. For this reason, most of the time we speculate what might provoke this feeling of contentment. “Happiness is a glass half empty,” an essay written by Oliver Burkeman, highlights the importance of happiness and discloses how we can find delight through unorthodox methods. The prime objective of this piece of writing is to inform the audience about the effect of happiness on their lives and how their usual attempts of becoming happier can sabotage achieving this feeling. Furthermore, he wants to promote the benefits of pessimism and describe how it can help us in the long run. The author utilizes pronouns, logos, and pathos in order to prove his point and draw the audience into his essay, in an attempt of making them reconsider the way they live their lives and adopt this new pessimistic way that would greatly boost their level of happiness.

Attention Materials: Many times I have wondered what is true happiness. Is there such thing as true happiness? Can it even be attained if there is such a thing? Is it more of fulfilling desires, or satisfying psychological needs? Every person attempts to realize happiness in its fullest essence. It seems like today people are too busy trying to get rich. Nowadays it is believed that happiness lies in that new mansion, or a nice Ferrari. People are mistakingly assuming that wealth will bring to them a personal significance in which they will achieve happiness.

The true meaning of happiness is different for everyone. For most people, it is feeling satisfied with every aspect of their life. The society of Brave New World does not know the true meaning of happiness because they have never had any form of true conflict show up their lives. When trouble comes up in their life, they avoid fixing it by taking soma. By taking soma, they base their happiness off a fake reality, therefore, it creates no true relief. Not having any form of conflict in their life creates a problem within itself because then they never get to experience true joy.

One day, Equality 7-2521 who was filled with joy, sang during dinner and was told off by a Council Member. He tells the Council Member the reason that he sings is because he is happy. The Council Member then retaliates that the reason he should be happy is because he lives with his fellow brothers. After that occurrence, while in his tunnel, Equality 7-2521 meditates on the meaning of happiness and realizes that it is forbidden to be unhappy and that his brothers are unhappy because they are afraid. What makes Equality 7-2521 happy is when he is in his tunnel performing experiments and pursuing his study of light, but in order to do so, he must sneak away because to his and everyone else’s knowledge, the society in which they live in reject an individual’s freedom to pursue individual happiness because true happiness should come from living beside/with your fellow brothers. When one is only able to achieve happiness through a group of people in a society, it is to be expected that its citizens will feel as if life is meaningless and painful. From what Equality 7-2521 has witnessed, it is evident that the flame of independence inside him is growing.

Success is extremely coveted in the society, however on the path to success, obstacles will stand in the way. Failure is inevitable and the response of an individual towards these obstacles and the failures in their lives determines whether or not they will have success. Failure gives allowance to learn from mistakes and motivates to do better the next time. The Pursuit of Happyness uses lighting, music and camera angles to give viewers an insight into Chris’ journey through the film demonstrating his resiliency, optimism and loving personality. Filmmaker, Gabriele Muccino, uses the protagonist, Chris’ final triumph to illustrate the significance of failure in achieving success.

“How ironic --- he waged war against the English for ten long years and then died in his bed like anyone else” (Dumas 2). Dantes was speaking to Monsieur Morrel about Captain Leclere’s death. I took a particular liking to this quote because no matter who we are or what we do in life, we all end up in the same place. “Joy sometimes has a strange effect: it can oppress us almost as much as sorrow” (Dumas 18). Dantes said this to Danglars and Caderousse.

John Dupont grew up with an immeasurable amount of wealth. The story of his life justifies the fact that happiness doesn’t reside in fortune. After analyzing his behavior, the best way to explain it would be through the psychodynamic perspective. When John was very young his parents divorced and his father left, leaving him and his siblings to live with their mother. His father made it very known that he didn’t want to be apart of his son's life when he would require John to make appointments to see him. It is said that John never really had a childhood. He wasn’t good socially and ate his meals alone in his room until he was 13 years old, completely isolating himself from the world.

There are five social classes, Alphas are ranked the highest then the Epsilons are ranked the lowest. The Alphas are certain to become the most successful and outstanding. They worked in the same place since birth, and wrote false advertising phrases. They enjoyed all their advantages in their pursuits of life. The Epsilons, were very unfortunate, and were used to feeling less important than everyone else. Their job field included the friendly workers; such as coal miners, elevator operators, and steel workers. Every person from each different working field appreciated the work and found themselves indeed happy with their daily tasks. The key for happiness of the people in Brave New World was to try "creating people like their unavoidable destiny" (Huxley 37). “By brainwashing the people they saw happiness in their own attempts” (Huxley 34). John, who was naturally born, was astonished when he arrived to their community. He couldn’t comprehend how people could live under total control and not be aware of the fact that they never knew true happiness. He questioned how those individuals were so content doing the most simplistic tasks. They worked the jobs that the community assigned them. No questions asked, being under control, therefore they couldn’t discover happiness in their society.

An individual’s Pursuit of Happiness can be achieved in many ways. Throughout the year we have read a good amount of literature that contains either characters pursuing happiness or the authors themselves showing their own ways of pursuing their dreams. There are always ups and downs, but the end result is people will follow what they believe will make them happy. Whether it is Gatsby following Daisy, becoming rich for her and following her to New York, or it is George trying to find a better life for him and Lennie, the end goal is the same. Even in The Crucible, John Proctor is searching for happiness when he tries to save his family from being accused of witchcraft, even if it ultimately fails. All of these pieces of literature are similar

In Brave New World, the author suggests that we should seek something else in life other than our happiness by using characters that believe they are happy, and characters who do not. Some characters are happy because they rule over others with dominance and authority. While other characters struggle with internal and external happiness because they are put in a life not suited for natural human functionability. Happiness is defined by the leaders and model citizens of World State by crossing a terror with a false happiness. For example, Mustapha Mond states that “You all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford’s:

In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the main goal of the world state is to keep everyone happy. The author portrays happiness as this powerful drug that influences people to be happy and have sex. I believe that this book suggests that we as a society need to find other forms of happiness for ourselves other than taking drugs and following others.

The story of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness directed by Gabriele Muccino portrays a family who struggles with finding enough money to pay taxes and afford living expenses. The movie takes a place in San Francisco during the 80s. The two main characters are the father Chris Gardner and his son Christopher, Will Smith and Jaden Smith respectively. Gardner tries to support his family. But every time he attempts to make things better, they always end up worse. Gardner in the story wonders on "how to be happy?" He earns his money by selling the bone density

The world seems to be a dark and unforgiving place, but happiness is hidden within. It is found in a beautiful view, an uplifting song, or a compliment from a friend. According to the Ted Talk video, The Habits of Happiness, Matthieu Ricard claims that everyone “has a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness”(Ricard 2:39). Ricard uses the three techniques of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to captivate and move his audience. With the use of metaphors, personal experiences, and even graphs Matthieu explained to his audience the full force and perception of the bendable word that is happiness. This Ted Talk dove into philosophical meaning on just how to achieve well-being, without having everything in the world.

The everlasting question of "What is Happiness?" has been inquired since the creation of men. Unfortunately, the only agreed answer that humanity came up with is that all the creatures seek happiness, but no one has the concrete directions for achieving it. Our libraries are overwhelmed with books about happiness, but no dictionary definition explains which path men must take to be happy. No mathematician gave us the axiom which we could use to solve the problem of living in bliss. No scientist brought up the formula of fusing certain ingredients to produce the "drink of happiness". Still almost all the people consider that their ultimate purport in

It is common sense that all the human beings would like to live a happy life and they will spare no efforts in order to realize the purpose of really living a happy life in the end. However, different people have different definitions toward what a happy life is and they tend to have different standards as for how a life is that can be regarded as a happy life. There is no doubt that people will then try different means in order to pursue a happy life based on their definition toward what a happy life is. Therefore, the following will talk about the pursuit of a happy life from the perspectives of both Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness and Viktor E. Frankl in Man’s Searching for Meaning, during which the experiences of some characters from the film Forrest Gump will be applied as evidence. Generally speaking, the pursuit of a happy life in the minds of Dalai Lama and Viktor E. Frankl can be achieved via experiencing sufferings and adversity. It is hoped that this analysis can help people understand what a happy is from a different point of view.