Lucy Yuppies Are Unhappy By Tim Urban

Writer Tim Urban, uses a character who he calls “Lucy”, to speak about a group of people in his essay “Why Generation Y yuppies are unhappy.” This group of people are a generation that are born between the 1970’s and mid 1990’s who in his definition, are wildly ambitious, with delusional expectations and are often taunted through social media which lead to their unhappiness. The author portrays this in a satirical and sarcastic tone, in order to get his point across. He also uses exaggeration and imagery for the audience to better understand the text.
Urban attracts the reader with a character, Lucy, who he describes to be part of a “yuppie culture that makes up a large portion of Gen Y.” He gives this group a term which he calls “Gen Y Protagonists

The times weren’t as tough and they did better than they expected which lead them to an optimistic mentality. This optimism influenced Lucy and her generation to think that “they can be whatever they wanted to be. Instilling the special protagonist identity deep within their psyches.” Urban uses a hyperbole to exaggerate his belief about the generations’ parents having the blame for their kids’ “special mentality”. Which leads them to think life should be handed to them. This device helps the reader recall why it is that Urban has this label of “special protagonist” for this generation. Furthermore, Urban cites a source by the name of Cal Newport, who indicates “follow your passion,” “a fulfilling career” have been catchphrases most searched for. Apposed to “a secure career” through Google’s Ngram viewer. He utilizes this source to demonstrate how the generation’s mentality has changed from “The American Dream” to “Personal Dreams”. This strategy creates this image of the “GYPSYs” to actually be “wildly ambitious” like he claims they are and how much times have changed. Security isn’t the first thought in this generation anymore, fulfillment is

Stay wildly ambitious 2. Stop thinking that you’re special 3. Ignore everyone else. The author's tone is remarkably arrogant and biased. Consequently he ended his essay with giving advice to the generation Y, which was a different outcome than I expected. The essay definitely shows that Urban’s blunt approach was not to tease his audience, but to get his point across by deliberately reminding the audience, that you get what you work hard for. In life nothing is given to you, and as soon as you realize this, you’ll be one of the few of that generation who isn’t a complete yuppy. His approach could have been different because not everyone would be moved by his writing because of the blunt tone he created. Nonetheless, it is easy to see past the satire and exaggeration and easily understand his piece of