Zooey Story Analysis

“Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself,” says essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. I believe this quote means that contagious happiness spreads through everyone, including yourself. For example, whenever I watch movies with my family, not only do I receive the benefit of watching a new movie, but I also spend time with my family. For one of my friend’s birthday, we volunteered at the Oregon Food Bank, and I have never experienced volunteering at a food bank before knowing I shared my time to care for the other people in my community. If someone volunteers to do special deeds for their community, such as asking a friend or a neighbor if they need help with their groceries, or even volunteering

When I think about what makes me happiest in life, I put my family and friends at the top of the list. I know that there is no way I would be who I am today without them. My family loves me and has taught me most of what I know about how to live. Friends have taught me so much more about myself than I could ever have imagined; how to laugh at myself, how to love myself, how to learn from my mistakes, etc. All these people in my life have given me so much and I have in return offered what I have to give. Secondly, I would probably put my knowledge. It is what I need to be able to understand how the world works today and voice my opinion in the community; to benefit myself and teach others. Next on my list, I would put art.

Dan Gilbert, the author of Stumbling on Happiness, has a super popular Ted Talk, The Surprising Science of Happiness.

Lyubomirsky defines happiness as the “experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile” (184). She challenges the myths that people can find happiness by changing their circumstances and that people either are “born happy or unhappy” (186). Happiness is not something that can be found or something that not everyone can have. People make their own happiness, despite the difficulties they may face. Happiness comes by “choosing to change and manage your state of mind” (185). Lyubomirsky gives cases of people who are happy even though they suffer from losses and setbacks. These are the people whose circumstances should make them unhappy, but their intentional actions bring them joy. She also gives cases of people who have not suffered any major losses but are still unhappy because they may see events negatively and feel helpless before them. Lyubomirsky asserts that “changes in our circumstances, no matter how positive and stunning, actually have little bearing on our well-being” (186). Even though a person’s circumstances may be positive, those circumstances do not make them happy. Lyubomirsky uses a Subjective Happiness Scale to measure happiness, which takes the average of numerical answers to four questions. She argues that in order to become happier, “you need to determine your present personal happiness level, which will provide your first estimate of your happiness

In the story “The White Heron” by Sarah Jewett, a young girl named Sylvia gives up a lot of money to save a rare bird called a white heron from being killed. The lesson I learned from this story is that you should never let greed keep you from doing what’s right. I really liked ready “The White Heron” because it was very descriptive of things like Sylvia and her surroundings. As I kept reading the story I felt like I connected with her. I also understood why she gave up the money to save the white heron. The reason for that is, I have always hated when people were trying to kill endangered animals. If I was in that kind of situation as Sylvia, I would have done the same thing she had done.

To be told one cannot do something because they are the wrong gender or race should not be an issue in today’s world. However, this rather unfortunate problem is very prevalent in modern society, so much in fact, that Disney created an animated film based on the subject. In their 2016 film, Zootopia, Disney addressed this issue in the form of an allegory of a rabbit pursuing her dream career: becoming a police officer. The issue with the main character, Judy Hopps’s, dream, is she not considered the right species to be a police officer. Sharing a world with other, way larger mammals, such as bears, wolves, elephants and buffalos, many people repeatedly tell Judy she is too small or cute to become an officer. The film also offers a second character, Nick Wilde, a fox, whose story shows the difficulty of growing up under negative labels based on his species, just as many people grow up under labels based on their race.

This is similar to what Chris McCandless realized in Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer: “HAPPINESS [is] ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”(Krakauer 189). I’ve used this ideology in my own life since that day, and I’ve had better experiences because I spend more time with my friends instead of being too independent. Along with this, I do my best to live by various basic principles. First of all, the golden rule: treat others how you’d like to be treated. Secondly, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

One person’s happiness is completely different than that of the person next to them. In Fahrenheit 451, society is given the idea that happiness is found in the fast life. Students crash cars, crack windows, and drive recklessly for fun. Schooling in this society isn’t even in the realm of learning. Instead, it is filled with sports, electronics, and everything but learning. Death is a quick cremation instead of funerals and mourning. Adults not only have poor relationships with their spouses, but their children. Yet, this to them, is happiness. Even to Montag, this was happiness; until he discovered it wasn’t. He was one of the lucky few that was able to escape the vacuum of this new society, like Ted in The Lorax. In a world of people that don’t care about the wellbeing of the animals, the trees, or the rest of the world, Ted took a step out of the norm. This

Before diving into the analysis, two things that I really liked about this chapter were the constant use of blog material and quotes that complemented the text nicely, such as the C.S. Lewis quote when speaking about the children’s book club. I really liked the addition of these two factors to this chapter because it helped support her claims with actual facts and also gave insight into what other people were doing in their own happiness projects and also demonstrating the impact that Rubin’s actions have had on other people across the country as well as internationally. One thing that came to mind while reading this chapter was her idea of happy people have more fun; at first, I was one of the people who doubted this quote and felt that it wasn’t necessarily true until I though back on my own life. Early in February, I attended the Philadelphia Auto Show and remembered how much fun I had looking at all of the exotic cars and how I couldn’t wait to call my Dad and tell him all about my day. As I reflected, I realized that I’m usually gloomy and bored on days when I just sit in my dorm and don’t do much.

In the article “Creating Our Own Happiness” Wayne Coyne argues that we all have the power to create happiness within our circumstances, and to be happy no matter what. Wayne Coyne raises the question on how different people can relate to happiness. I think that happiness is among Coyne showed examples and stories from his life to show how anyone, even in a poor or bad situation, can find at least a little bit of happiness. For example, the people he sees through his window are unhappy because they are out in the cold, and when he realizes they are happy he is initially confused. He was thinking to himself how happy he was inside his nice warm car, glancing out his window, he noticed the couple huddled in the cold.

To begin, the existence of social media platforms, and the subsequent opportunities they create refutes Lyubomirsky by demonstrating the importance that societal circumstances have on happiness. For example, when describing the Happiness Twins study from the University of Minnesota, Lyubomirsky claims this study concludes that “…the average happiness of your identical twins is a much more powerful clue to your happiness than all the facts and events of your life! (Lyubomirsky 188). Lyubomirsky also later advises the readers that “we are also unlikely to find lasting happiness by changing our life circumstances” (195). Lyubomirsky’s portrayal of the complexities of happiness favor a deterministic view that implies that humans have limited control over their happiness. However, research from Robert E. Kraut finds that regular

At this point in my life, i would like to say that i value my happiness most in life. In my mind, I mean happiness can mean a lot of different things, and the definition may vary from one person to another.As for me, I mean this happiness means different things for me, such as, i hope my parents have good health, i hope my friends happy everyday and so many things around me. I honestly wish that were the case. Over the past year, i have had a significant amount of time to think about why i feel the way i do about the components of my life, i always ask myself what do i want through my life. In doing so i believe that my family is my most valuable entity.

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 second part of the novel takes us through Zooey’s life as a young twenty-five year old actor. He still lives with his parents and has a crude personality. As described by his mother, “He’s so bitter about things” (Salinger 189). Zooey continued with his childhood career of fame to become an actor. “As an actor he has freed himself to play any roles he likes. It is his way of coping with the family’s high expectations”

While Anna Akbari author of the essay “A Personal Guide to Digital Happiness” affirms, “One question I keep coming back to: How does technology affect our happiness? As Albert Einstein remarked, "Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it." (2) So how do we make sense of this technology and can it make us happier people? Akbari expounds, that she started this quest to find happiness in the digital age with online dating. One of her dates was with an anorexic emo guy with pink hair and full of angst. On their first date, he informed her that he was “kind of a depressive guy”, so she tried to empathized, stating that she had people close to her who have suffered as well and that she understood. “He then looked at me and stated firmly, with disdain, "No. You cannot understand. I've met people like you. You're one of those happy people." I've never forgotten that scathing accusation -- that I had the nerve to be happy. I'd never thought of people in those terms: "happy" or "not." Since that date I've grown increasingly obsessed with the concept of happiness, and judging from the abundance of literature being published on the topic, I'm not the only one: there are books to tell you how to be happier at work, how to