With this he has a greater appreciation for the world around him since he is not distracted by law school, money and new cars. “My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal.” (Krakauer, 33). While we focus on growing our net worth exponentially and admiring the beauty of the overpriced watches that we one day hope to have, we fail to appreciate something so simple as the sunset or the stars. From such appreciation, we can discover legitimate happiness.
(AGG) " Once you need less, you have more"- Anonymous (Quotes Native); Materialism takes over people 's lives and makes them want more, but this doesn 't necessarily mean that they are happy with more material. (BS-1) Materialism can be seen through interactions between characters and have become a part of everyday life. (BS-2) Materialism is also a major part of society itself, the people in power want others to have material. (BS-3) When people get away from material, they find happiness, which is what materialistic people have been looking for all along; but they are looking in the wrong place.
Chris McCandless, a Transcendentalist? Unlike the majority, Chris McCandless decides to leave his home and possessions, and embark on a dangerous journey to the Alaskan wilderness. In the novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, the author describes Chris McCandless’ journey in depth to show transcendentalist ideals. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that focuses on following your heart and the idea that humans lead towards goodness, while defying against society and materialism. Many well known transcendentalists include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Seeking out simplicity in your lifetime can be a very time consuming goal and is often frowned upon from your peers. If someone doesn't fit into societies’ social expectations they are looked upon as outcasts. Outcasts face criticism from numerous peers, giving them motivation to keep creating their own path to obtain their individual goals in life. Martin Luther King Jr., and Chris Mccandless are two of the largest social and environmental warriors known today. Creating their own pathway of obtaining their goal in some similar ways.
Theme Analysis How would you feel if society forced everyone to be the same? In the book The Giver, society has forced its’ citizens to go to Sameness so no one is different. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, the U.S. government has made several amendments so people are the same, going as far to force citizens who are smarter or stronger to wear radios, masks to hide beauty, and weights. Both governments are doing their best to force their citizens to be a certain way, and they implemented rules to make sure of it ; in fact, Harrison was even murdered trying to call for a revolution.
In the two readings “Becoming a Writer” by Russel Baker and “Simplicity” by William Zinsser there are many things in common but there are also some differences in these two works “Simplicity” as a whole is stating that us as people and writers tend to use words of nonsense and “meaningless jargon” that do not need to be included in the writing to get your point across and are not needed to provide a positive reading experience for the reader. Zinsser is being a critic on writers and writing as a whole and he states a clear problem that he has with the way we write today. In “Becoming a Writer” Baker explains an experience that he went through while Zinsser did not provide such an example of why he feels a certain way about writing. The experience
“Harrison Bergeron” is a short fiction written by Kurt Vonnegut, the story is set in the year 2081, and it talks about a futuristic society where all people are equal. No one is smarter, beautiful or stronger than the other, and if someone happens to be better than the others they find themselves compelled by The United States Handicapper General to wear what they call “handicaps” in order to bring down their abilities to the most basic levels as the others. Throughout the story, Vonnegut expresses a strong and vigorous political and social criticism of some historical events in the US during 1960s such as the Cold War and Communism, television and American Culture and Civil Rights Movement. “Harrison Bergeron” was published in 1961 during that time several events were happening around the world in general and in the US in specific which was engaged in a series of political and economic crisis with the communist Soviet Union know as The
I read a book wrote by a transcendentalist named Thoreau. He was a simple kind of man that was all about being simple. He moved out of town to a cabin in the woods next to walden pond. He said “ I wanted to live deep a suck all the marrow out of life”. By that statement he is saying that everyone gets this only life so get the most out of it as you can and not let the little things slow you down.
We have all been guilty of wanting more, when we already have plenty. Whether it’s another piece of cake, a fourth pair of converse, or a few extra phone covers, we don’t consciously think about everything we’ve accumulated in the short span of our lives. Instead, we think ‘why not?’ and add it into our collection of stuff. But does buying more, owning more, and having more, necessarily guarantee happiness?
This is a great ideology, but sometimes only the essentials aren’t what make life worthwhile; traveling, socializing with people of similar or different interests, laughing, and crying
The Underlying Causes of World War I The air is crisp as the breeze flows through the silk curtains, making a rippling noise that fills the silent room. The sun beams onto the kitchen table shining the tears in the eyes of my mother. Our breath matching in intensity as the news of war rips though the country like a wildfire. The rooms despondent disposition is sliced through when my mother mutters “Better war than this perpetual waiting” with a smile.
In a critique of both the works, the paper adopts the Aristotelian thought citing that actions of human aims to fulfill goodness, which arguably is the happiness, one that arises from virtues practiced out of habit. Both the philosophers weigh in heavily on the role of happiness in the day to day lifestyles of humans. Adopting a sharp critic to the conventional principles of utility, Mill recognizes that happiness, as opposed to pleasure has a wider space in human attainments. He goes in deeper to explore the levels of pleasure
One study revealed that money was an essential need for happiness, but it was not what made the people happy. They established satisfaction in close relationships with loved ones, community work, fulfillment and pride from their work and accomplishments (Diener and Biswas-Diener 162). The highest life satisfaction was found in societies of wealthy nation while the unhappiest nations were the extremely poor ones. When it comes to materialism, it does not matter if someone is rich or poor, all that matters is that “your income is sufficient to your desire,” and that “differences in aspirations lead to very different amounts of happiness” (Diener and Biswas-Diener 170).
“Happiness depends on ourselves” and he continued to say “happiness is a central purpose of human life and a goal in itself” (Ackrill,1981; Mortimer, 1978). In other words, this means that in cases such as the poverty stricken societies or countries, people should strive for happiness with the little things they have in life and continue to stay in hope. They appreciate the little they have in hope that it will get
