What is it like to be Happy? This is the answer that many people seek today. So often people deal with everyday life choices and decisions. But also people must understand that with every choice and decision there's always a consequence good or bad. American poet Linda Pastan who was from a small town in Potomac, Maryland had many dreams and hopes for her life. During the beginning of her career she decided to give up writing of poetry to focus more on her family and their happiness. The Obligation to be Happy and I am Learning to Abandon the World are two of Linda’s poems that displays some differences and similarities into life and happiness. Could one truly give up something they love to do and still be happy?
In the Obligation to be Happy
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I am learning to Abandon the World character is dealing with grief that is causing her sadness and depression. “And the world has taken my father, my friends”(). She seems suicidal, she has already lost so much so their is nothing left for the world to take from her. “I am learning to abandon the world before it can abandon me.”(). She is thinking before the world can do anything else to her to make her feel this way, she will begin to slowly remove herself from …show more content…
In the Obligation to be happy the mood is more of depressing and disappointing. The character in this poem feels that she has given up so much already and she still isn’t happy. Of course she loves her family and wants to see them happy she doesn’t want her family to know how unhappy she really is so she feels obligated to put on a smile in front of them. But deep down she feels that her life is falling apart and she doesn’t have a purpose. Unlike The obligation to be happy the mood in I am learning to abandon the world is different. The character in this poem seems determined to find a way out that she would do anything. The mood in this poem is depressing, dark and