In the novel Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, the reader learns about the light that mankind can find in the darkness of life, this notion is further shown through the characters in this story, as they learn to express their light with gratitude in times of distress which showed the reader that in times of great conflict mankind must create happiness to maintain optimism. This is pointed out when Misha overcame conflict with acceptance into a new community, or acceptance into a family. Janina also conveys happiness when being allowed human relationships, allowing her to overcome problematic issues in her life. Overcoming conflict and opening up to happiness in this story was similar to the freeness and joy of a souring milkweed. Well into the novel, during …show more content…
This request allowed Misha to overcome conflict caused by loneliness and abandonment, and be happily embedded into the Milgrom family, and their culture. This becomes clear when Mr. Milgrom says to Misha “This year you will celebrate with us,” (157) this was shocking to Misha because he was used to being denied of celebrating a Jewish holiday with the Milgroms. This change allowed Misha to fully become a Milgrom, and transform into a Jew, which for Misha was an outlet from all the distress caused by war. Being part of the Milgrom family, a Jewish family, allowed Misha to have a safe place where he can be part of a whole. A place where he can be happy. To further press this idea, at the end of the novel, it is clear that Misha has found a new way to be
In the article “In Pursuit Of Unhappiness” by Darrin McMahon (2005) he informs the reader that you don't have to make it a happy new year you could make someone else's year happy. McMahon supports his claim with using quotes from a lot of different people.His purpose is to tell the reader that you don't need to have a happy you could make someone else's year happy. McMahon supports his claim by using quotes from many different people. His purpose is to educate the reader that you don't need to be happy in order to make your year happy.McMahon uses a didactic relationship with his audience of middle aged americans. I agree with McMahon and how don't alwasy have to have a happy new year instead you could make some one elses year happy.In my
In the novel The Secret Life of Bees (2001), Sue Kidd creates a character, Terrence Ray Owens, that serves as the epitome of internal conflict. Kidd is able to show Terrence’s internal conflict through through a flashback from Lily’s friend August, and a series of violent actions inflicted on his daughter Lily. Kidd’s purpose in this novel is to display the ramifications of a broken home dynamic, in order to show how forgiveness to oneself and others is truly the first step to finding happiness.
In the story "Marigolds", a story by Eugenia Collier, the author uses the literary techniques of juxtaposition and symbolism to show the overall message that during the coming of age and maturity in a world full of poverty and darkness, people always look for a light of happiness. The author uses juxtaposition of the conversation of the mother and father to show how the darkness, which is represented by the father, is trying to destroy the lightness, which is represented by the mother. In rage and pain of his poverty bent life, Lizabeth’s father is clouded with darkness and fear, but Lizabeth’s mother a still hopeful and looking for something to bring joy to the family. Lizabeth's dad explains to Lizabeth’s mother, “Twenty-two years, Maybelle, twenty-two years, and I
Sacrificed the truth, beauty and the right to think, happiness and comfort is just indulgent, it is the discomfort brought by the misery, responsibility and the bonding give us the weight of life. The world is full of people who try hard to gain happiness, and we all have at least one time the idea of living in a perfect world, a world without pain, without misery, without getting old and without cancers. We always ignored the importance and the beauty of uncomfortableness, just as a quote in this book said, “Stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand”. After read this book, I started to be more objective at those bad things I used to hate, to understand the significance of art and to be grateful to this imperfect world we are
“Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier is a personal narrative of the challenges that adolescents face with coming of age. The author is able to accurately capture the voice of her younger self-using literary devices such as imagery, juxtaposition, and diction. The author uses these literary devices to give the reader a precise representation of the struggles she surpassed, which pushed her towards adulthood.
In Junot Diaz’s short story “Wildwood,” many may argue that Lola’s mother Belicia deserved admiration for her subconscious overprotection and love for Lola that she portrays in an uncaring, despicable manner and especially because of her strong, independent fight against breast cancer. However, I think that Lola’s mother was unadmirable due to her lack of support, her weak role as a mother, and primarily because of her constant verbal and physical abuse that she bestowed upon her children.
In society there are still differences in classes such as higher class, middle class, and lower class. In sociology, we observed a film called The Pursuit Happyness, where we witnessed the struggles a father went through to succeed. Chris Gardner, who was played by Will Smith, is living in his apartment with his wife and his son. Due to their struggles, the mother walks out on and leaves Chris struggling alone with his son. In the film Chris Gardner applies for an unpaid internship for a competitive stockbroker company where out of twenty men, only one gets the job. While he is on his internship, we see the hardships of getting kicked out of his apartment to staying at a shelter home to then sleeping in a subway bathroom with his son. Viewing the movie through a sociological lens, The Pursuit of Happyness will be analyzed according to the major three sociological paradigms: structural functionalism, social conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism.
The philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” This famous quote compels people to question the significance of their joy, and whether it truly represents purposeful lives they want to live. Ray Bradbury, a contemporary author, also tackles this question in his book, Fahrenheit 451, which deals heavily with society's view of happiness in the future. Through several main characters, Bradbury portrays the two branches of happiness: one as a lifeless path, heading nowhere, seeking no worry, while the other embraces pure human experience intertwined together to reveal truth and knowledge.
Milk and Honey is a book that is as beautiful as it is heart-wrenching. It is in the form of many placid yet potent poems (Alliteration), split into four sections, or chapters, of her life. Throughout the work, Rupi documents both how the people in her life hurt her and how she grows from that pain. Anybody can pick up this book and relate in some way to how she is feeling at different stages in her life, which is remarkable. Rupi learns that she is worth more than she thinks, how to recognize true love, and the importance of kindness.
The most universal goal every human has in common is the pursuit of happiness or “creation or construction of happiness” (Achor, 78). To be able to fulfill this wish of becoming happy, people often think the key to achieving happiness is success. In the book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, he debunks this theory of success leading to happiness by illustrating the reverse theory of success. Through dozens of studies and experiments as forms of evidence, the author argues that an individual needs to achieve happiness in order to be truly successful. Achor 's argument is valid in that happiness should come before success because there is a clear advantage to being successful in an individual’s work life, personal sphere, and liveliness if they are happy first and foremost.
Have you ever noticed the way people talk about happy, positive things, however they are really meant to sound negative? The same thing happens in short stories, novels, poems, and other forms of writing. Positive objects, such as nature, are personified, in poems, to create a negative context. Throughout poems in East Asian Literature, positive aspects of nature are personified to convey incommensurable negative feelings.
Misha and his group of friends roam the streets of Warsaw and the ghetto, scavenging for food and places to sleep. Misha is hopeful that they will all eventually get out of the ghetto. When he and Janina, his sister, find milkweed for the first time, they have trouble figuring out what it is. Although Misha has few memories of his past, he recognizes the milkweed plant: “And suddenly the word for it was on my tongue, a word I didn’t even know I knew. ‘Milkweed,’ I said” (142). This shows how Milkweed is a source of hope. When Janina and Misha first find the plant, everything in the ghetto seems as if it will turn out alright.
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.
A powerful quote said by pre-socratic philosopher named Democritus says “Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul”. In other words, happiness does not come from materialism but instead from the things money can’t buy. In the article The Secret of Happiness the author David Myers writes directly to Americans about how he believes we need to obtain a new “American Dream” that emphasizes personal happiness instead of materialistic happiness. Myers also believes happiness resides in the soul and he says people that think money is the key to happiness are actually less content with themselves and he uses various ways to prove this point. With that being said materialistic happiness vs personal happiness is an important issue, and Myers made a strong use of Logos by showing surveys and studies, Ethos by showing credibility in his argument but he could have used more Pathos by using more emotion and enthusiasm in his argument.
The short story, “The Happy Man” by Naguib Mahfouz, discusses the human condition, presenting existentialism as its central theme. Specifically, the story seeks to illustrate unhappiness of the common man and the effect it has on his life. It is an allegorical piece, in which the unnamed protagonist showcases the state of the human as unhappy; only scarcely finding joy. Indeed, the euphoric feeling the protagonist feels is contrary to what he usually feels and has adverse effects on his lifestyle. Mahfouz uses happiness to show that people are intrinsically unhappy as the protagonist ultimately seeks to remove his euphoria. He