Surprised by Joy Essays

“I’m tall, fat, rather bald, red-faced, double-chinned, black-haired, have a deep voice, and wear glasses for reading,” C.S. Lewis described himself to a young admirer in 1954 (Dorsett). While this self-description possesses accuracy, who is C.S. Lewis really? For many individuals, Lewis will forever remain the creator of the phenomenal world of Narnia, the author of some of the most famous children’s books of the twentieth century. Even to this day, fifty-four years after his death, Lewis remains

Francesco Petrarch’s “The Eyes that Drew from Me Such Fervent Praise” and Michael Drayton’s “Since There’s No Help, Come Let Us Kiss and Part” shed light on their speaking voices’ romantic relationships. Francesco Petrarch’s sonnet discusses lost love. The speaker reminisces over his dead lover’s charming features that he misses, while Michael Drayton’s sonnet focuses on the different stages the speaker goes through before he or she accepts that the lovers are separated and hopes that this will change

In the profound poems “Lament” by Gillian Clarke, “Report to Wordsworth” by Boey Kim Cheng, and “Before the World Intruded” by Michele Rosenthal, the theme of nostalgia is explored through unique stories. Initially, the poem, “Lament” describes the horrible scenes that occurred during the Gulf War, the poem “Report to Wordsworth” is written as a report to Wordsworth, who greatly appreciated nature during the industrial revolution where he defended it, which as a result urges humans to feel empathy

unusual aspect and reaction of the situation is developed which further adds a variety of emotion. It gives the poem a definite and discrete sound. In addition, the young baby is alive and vigorous, which also reminds us that life goes on. The innocent joy of a baby, unawareness of the events that are taking place exaggerates the pain of loss in the reality which reinforces the sense of

Rhetorical analysis of How to Live Unhappily Ever After In the article, “How to Live Unhappily Ever After” written in 2012, by Augusten Burroughs for The Wall Street Journal, he explains his concept of living life without the constant pressure to be happy and healed. In other words, Burroughs addresses the true importance of happiness based on his own life experience, and why our view of happiness may be construed due to misleading societal beliefs. Burroughs supports this conjecture by contrasting

The character Sodapop is happy-go-lucky because he is usually happy and merry when they mention him in the book. On page seven when the text declares “Soda's movie-star kind of handsome, the kind that people stop on the street to watch go by.” it suggests he might be happy-go-lucky because people who look good are usually popular, so he would be happy because of his friends. On page eight when the text stated “He can get drunk in a drag race or dancing without ever getting near alcohol.” suggests

On a daily basis, humans are faced with the questions: “What makes a person happy? How does a person achieve happiness? What is the pursuit of happiness?” The pursuit of happiness has become an ever growing industry through things like “ways to happiness” books and life coaches according to Richard Schoch, the factors to achieve happiness are valued at around $18 billion dollars. This amount of money being spent on happiness is a right of people in America; it is the right of Americans to have a

I have so many wonderful reasons to be thankful. Being thankful allows you to experience life to the fullest. I believe it is important to be thankful for my family and friends. Thankfulness allows you to appreciate what you have so you take care of your things. We should appreciate what we are given and use them with care. When you receive something new and valuable you should keep it in good condition and not let it be destroyed. We should all be thankful for everyday objects we use because many

There is a great likelihood that most of the children on this planet have heard this phrase at least once in their lifetimes, “It’s perfect”. Perfection is a concept that has been sought after throughout human history. Regardless of who they are or where they live, human beings have all made some attempt or other to achieve perfection in something, regardless of how small or insignificant that something may be. Parents have urged their children to aim for the top seat, the highest score, the best

One of my favorite my most favorite hobbies would have to be traveling! I absolutely love going to different places around the world. Traveling allows me to admire what I call the beauty of nature. Traveling is my favorite hobby because; it allows me to escape my everyday responsibilities. I love to travel with family and friends but, I’ve also always been the type that would catch a flight just to get away alone if necessary. That’s what I call fun! The excitement of going to another state or country

Optimism, this noun brings light to many challenges that people face daily. Being optimistic people are able to remain happy and open minded; this attitude also helps the people around the person who is optimistic because it brings light to the troubles others may face. However, not many people can obtain optimism in the face of challenges. In the face of challenges, optimism can be very hard to find when challenges occur in our lives. Challenges can makes us very scared, fearful, and sometimes angry;

Not many things can make one happy; like truly happy. The situation is different for everyone though as happiness could be found in anything, based on people’s personal preferences. Some people feel happiness in everything they see while others only find it in certain mediums, actions, or situations. For those who belong in the latter part can still find happiness in many avenues but most of the time, these only give a certain amount of bliss before they get sick of it and move to the next thing

health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” (Harvey) Gratefulness is indeed a tool to improving happiness, William Arthur Ward was once quoting saying, “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”

Happiness is a choice. No matter the situation we are in, at any given time, we have the liberty to make a conscious choice on how we want to feel. Psychiatrists have found that while around 50% of our ability to be happy lies in our genes, another 40% is determined by our thoughts, beliefs, behaviors and actions. And that’s a lot. It means that we are creators of our own luck. Ultimately, your thinking can determine your path and ability to achieve happiness. How often do you find yourself thinking

The reason behind chosen Seligman’s positive psychology is that in dealing with cancer patients, in the real life, the patients usually have the concept of depression as a side-effect of dying, they decide to stay away from any kind of socializing or making new relationships, all the above are the opposite of positive psychology that looks at the things from a positive angle, which suggests the good life they have in dealing with

Although no concrete definition of happiness exists since it varies for each individual, risk taking usually does not play a role in achieving this emotion. In other words, we should be happy with what we have; if we are not, usually ever-present reasons to be happy are surrounding each human being; they are simply in need of recognition. The kid who receives a beaten daily is brimming with happiness on that one day that his father does not thrash a whip against his/her barren skin. Whereas, the

Araby” by James Joyce is a story about a boy who finds himself admiring a girl in his neighborhood. He tries to impress her but gives up at the end. The story reflects the theme of growing up process which in this case, not physically but mentally. It also conveys the theme of childhood idealism that cannot exist in reality. The story uses many narrative techniques that relate to the themes in order to make the story effective for both showing the author’s message and entertaining the readers’ mind

Identity is such a simple word and yet has so much depth to it. Every being has an identity. The real question is how identity shapes each person. The concept of identity is multi-layered. One can have an identity that pertains to only themself, but one can also have a group identity. At the end of the day, a person’s identity is all that they truly have with them throughout their whole life. Preston identifies three frameworks for analyzing how an identity is formed and transformed. He describes

In this part, the researcher is going to show the results and findings that prove and support the claim. Firstly, the researcher starts with the results and findings of the first novel The Color Purple. Initially, the researcher uses word list to find out the frequency of the word "Mr." is mentioned in the novel by Celie. The word list functions as quantitative approach. Mr\. 234 (2846.09 per million) Fig.1 As shown in Fig.1, Celie, throughout the novel

War has no boundaries. It separates families, tears down homes full of memories, and turns people against each other. A memorable piece of literature that epitomizes the true effects of war is Obasan by Joy Kogawa. Obasan is a valuable piece of literature; it shows another aspect of World War II and its devastating effects. Japanese-Canadians are silenced, brutalized, and punished due to the paranoia of war. Kogawa’s writing style has such an impact on the individual reading the book. The writing