The irony connected with the obstacle in achieving happiness is the pursuit of happiness. Those who pursue happiness with deliberate effort find themselves having to work harder and harder over time to achieve their ends. By trying to pursue happiness, we look for obvious, insubstantial objectives to achieve the happy life. Existentialism, however, may provide both the antidote to this vicious cycle, and give direction on how to find happiness-- by filling our lives with what T.S. Eliot calls real substance. Purpose is not easily found and comes with a costly price tag; we must look into ourselves, find the hollowness that exists in each of us, and dive into the abyss of our inner self. Most people are easily discouraged by the idea of shining a light into the shadowy realm of our mind and heart. We do not want to discover what may lie in the shadows, but if we have the courage to grope in the dark, we may discover our truest self. The darkness is a gift and not a curse.
Making the decision to act is the fundamental idea of existentialism. Choice is sacred in, and in choosing to create a positive perspective, we lighten the load that negativity brings. Albert Camus, in “The Myth of Sisyphus”, finds the classic tale of Sisyphus’ punishment as an existential masterpiece. The rock that Sisyphus has to push for all of eternity, to most, is viewed as an infinite imprisonment. Instead, Camus does not view this as a curse, but as a form of self-absolution. Similarly, Jean-Paul Sarte, author of “Existentialism”, explains existentialism as a way of taking responsibility for all of mankind and stresses the importance of choice. Man has the ability to shape his fate with making a choice and acting upon it. Choice is power. David Foster Wal...
... middle of paper ...
...ay to find happiness is to dive head-first into the darkness. The darkness is not an enemy, but a friend that will give guidance to a more substantial life. In choosing to challenge the shadow, we can begin our journey in finding a substantial purpose that deserves our devotion.
Works Cited
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus, and Other Essays. New York: Vintage, 1955. Print.
Crewdson, Gregory. Untitled. N.d. Photograph. Beneath the Roses, Massachusetts.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946. Print.
O'Brien, Tim, and Edward Keating. The Vietnam in Me. New York: New York Times, 1994. Print.
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. New York: Broadway, 1998. Print.
Wallace, David Foster. This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion about Living a Compassionate Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2009. Print.
“O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. Prince Frederick, MD: RB Large Print, 2003. Print.
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a very uniquely written book. This book is comprised of countless stories that, though are out of order, intertwine and capture the reader’s attention through the end of the novel. This book, which is more a collection of short stories rather than one story that has a beginning and an end, uses a format that will keep the reader coming back for more.
The Things They Carried: Truth, Fiction, and Human Emotion. There are many levels of truth in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. This novel deals with story-telling as an act of communication and therapy, rather than a mere recital of fact. In the telling of war stories, and instruction in their telling, O'Brien shows that truth is unimportant in communicating human emotion through stories. O'Brien's writing style is so vivid, the reader frequently finds himself accepting the events and details of this novel as absolute fact.
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.
Source G: "The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath." American Voices. Glenview: Scott Foresman, 1995. 821-47. Print.
O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried." X. J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. Backpack Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. Joe Terry. Pearson, 2012. Print. 10 Feb. 2014.
Kaplan, Steven. "The Undying Uncertainty of the Narrator in Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried'." CRITIQUE: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 35.1 (Fall 1993); 43-53.
Kaplan, Steven. "The Things They Carried." Understanding Tim O'Brien. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. 169-192. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 79. Detroit: Gale, 2005.Literature Resource Center. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
I read, "The Things They Carried," in last year's English class. I think that this is the only book that my class as a whole read, which means a lot coming from a class where spark notes was their way out. The way Tim O'Brien wrot...
O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway
In the essay Why Happiness, Why Now? Sara Ahmed talks about how one’s goal in life is to find happiness. Ahmed begins her essay with skepticism and her disbeliefs in happiness. She shows her interest in how happiness is linked to a person’s life choices. Ahmed also tries to dig deeper, and instead of asking an unanswerable question, “what is Happiness?” she asks questions about the role of happiness in one’s life.
When an average person seeks happiness, most often they search in the wrong place: "If only I could have that I would be happy." For ages, man has been seeking happiness from outside, not within. People have the misconception that material things and materialistic goals will bring them ultimate happiness, but in truth those only bring transient happiness. True and lasting happiness can be reached from within when one realizes the ultimate truth. This ultimate truth, the main focus of transcendentalism, can be reached through self-reliance, nature, and oversoul, the main principals of the philosophy. By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty, goodness, and truth.
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. New York: Broadway, 1998. Print.
O’Brien shows us the power of imagination and storytelling through his novel, “The Things They Carried.”
Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been engrained in our national consciousness since Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act: pursuing happiness. The problem however, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in his novel Fahrenheit 451, is that those things which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. By examining Guy Montag, the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and the world he lives in we can gain valuable insights to direct us in our own pursuit of happiness. From Montag and other characters we will learn how physical, emotional, and spiritual happiness can drastically affect our lives. We must ask ourselves what our lives, words, and actions are worth. We should hope that our words are not meaningless, “as wind in dried grass” (Eliot).