All humans yearn for some sort of perfection; whether it be the “perfect” job or the “perfect” family, the idea that something is perfect only if there is nothing more to be added and nothing more to be taken away has always been sought after by society. People are constantly pushed to believe by society that those who are famous, have the most money and live the most lavish lives are the people who have a perfect life; completely disregarding their state of happiness. Many are blinded by this unrealistic and invariably unattainable standard and fail to realize the bigger picture, that perfection is the state of being content with oneself and/or their surroundings.
As defined by dictionary.com, perfection is, “the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.” This definition, although subjective, has seemingly become a forced concept through the years. While the denotation has always been idolized, the poster family of the 1950’s is what really started putting ideas into people’s heads about what perfection is/what it looks like. From there, the media labeled specific people and material items that they believed to be perfect; such as those in television shows and in movies,
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To illustrate, in the movie Finding Forrester, William spoke to Jamal of the feeling of total satisfaction he received when he finished a piece of his writing, before he sent it off to an editor. To Forrester, knowing that he alone accomplished writing it gave him a sense of proudness and happiness, which to him was perfection. Instead of dwelling on what he did have and what he did not have, Forrester let minute instances like this impact him on a bigger level than the sadness and hurt in his life. He cherished these instances of happiness and by recalling the experience of it, was able to obtain the feeling and remember it to let it bring him joy in his day to day
The struggle between happiness and society shows a society where true happiness has been forfeited to form a perfect order.
“The word perfection cannot be defined into one person or one thing. Perfection can only be told or seen in a first person view. No one will genuinely think something or someone is as perfect as another person, it’s impossible to see eye to eye with something that is as powerful and subjective as perfection.” - Jordan van der neut, 2014
This quest of perfectionism not only happened to Aylmer, it is also happening in today’s world. Perfectionism has taken over people’s mind. For example, teenage girls want to have bigger butts like Nicki Minaj, and flawless faces like Beyoncé. They would spend their
No matter how hard humans have tried to achieve perfection none could ever reach perfection. Perfection is the allusion made by the human mind. Perfection is described as “the quality or state of being perfect: freedom from flaws, having maturity, and the quality or state of being saintly”. (Merriam-Webster)
Society longs for a perfect model to show how humanity should be. Throughout history, perfection has been looked for in gods and other-worldly beings, yet never in humans. Perhaps this is because perfection is subjective and unattainable. Each person can have their own idea of what makes someone perfect, which can make the most ideal person, imperfect. One simple flaw can be seen as imperfect. Despite that, with the advancement of technology and media, people try to become perfect through surgeries and other, more damaging, processes. In “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a scientist believes that the removal of his wife’s birthmark can make her perfect, or rather, his idea of perfect. Hawthorne uses symbolism, foreshadowing, and dark romantic ideals to say that while attempting to be perfect, you can be hurting yourself or others.
Put simply, people have to go through pain to know and understand what the true meaning of happiness is. Nussbaum states that she is happy when she know she is working for something that is difficult to achieve.,but when she feels a feeling of satisfaction she blames herself because deep down feelings of satisfaction doesn 't necessarily makas her happy.She cites that when you work for a feeling of self satisfaction you aren 't always happy but when you work hard,day 's upon day to accomplish something that you have always wanted you are going to feel at most happy.Nussbaum then cites Austin a British philosopher point of view on the brave warrior , even though the brave warrior have been through a great amount of pain and loss his life after have evolved into a beautiful and loving life. The great warrior is now a moderate brave and loving
Perfect: adj. ˈpər-fikt 1. Entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings, is the first definition you find on dictionary.com for the word (perfect). Is this actually possible to attain? Has anyone actually ever been perfect? Or is it all in the eye of the beholder? These questions are asked by almost every girl, as we dream to one day reach the unattainable. This is especially true at the tender age of fifteen, where nothing seems to be going right with our bodies and everything is changing in us. This poem stresses the fact that as everyone realizes how unrealistic this dream is, the knowledge makes no difference to the wish. Marisa de los Santos comments on this in her poem “Perfect Dress”. The use of verbose imagery, metaphors, and the simplistic approach are very effective in portraying the awkward adolescent stage of a young woman and the unrealistic dream of being perfect.
...o act unjustly. In order to sustain perfection there needs to be a willingness to negatively affect others for personal gain, such as the corporate leaders of the Compounds and their consumers, and Crake and all of the people close to him. The best way to avoid this very common and toxic desire in life is to be completely and utterly satisfied with the self and have no passion for perfection like Jimmy did. His acceptance of his dysfunctional family and himself allowed him to avoid the deception that is perfection.
...ulous, and yet increasingly, people are trying to artificially prolong and create that fleeting feeling, failing to recognize that it is its evanescence that makes it so invigorating. Both Schumaker and Bradbury attempt to convince of this, arguing that it is truly the journey and not final destination that matters. We must live by the principle of jumping off a cliff and building our wings on the way down, as Bradbury often says, for if we fail to do so, then we are reduced to little more than pigs blindly gorging ourselves at a trough, on nothingness. Both writers urge us to reject the predilection prevalent in our society to seek phony happiness and entreat us to live lives that are not one-dimensional and stilted but rather multi-faceted and diverse, positing that only in such a life will we be able to experience, among a spectrum of other emotions, happiness.
Perfection is what many people attempt to achieve in there lives, yet none do. It is the ideal result to the hard work and toil each person does, in order to become greater than they are now. Within literature, characters may seem perfect but upon closer inspection, are deeply flawed. This is the case in the three pieces of literature; Oedipus the King, My Last Duchess, and Death of a Salesman. All three of these prove that fact that “Perfection is like a dream. When people finally see the flaws, they wake up and the dream ends.”
Both in the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and the poem, "A Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, themes of Utopia and the changing of ideas of the ideal are presented in many ways. Utopia is generally used to describe an ideal, or perfect place and as shown in The Giver, Sameness in the community is used and maintained as a form of their Utopia. The concept of joy in "A Perfect Day” can also be viewed as perfection with how only someone’s happiness is important and joy is always felt. Utopia tends to last temporarily and has been -and still is- not achievable due to different ideals and beliefs clashing together in the process of creating it. This type of destruction happens to the ideals in both the novel and poem as the story progresses.
Think about what would make you happy right now. Most of us would say something that relates to money or something luxurious we see on TV shows. Maybe a new car would make you happy or the house of your dreams. We all have analogous goals and aspirations. From a young age, we are programmed to want certain things. We see images in movies or in TV shows that are appealing. We think that with money, all of our tribulations will wash away. That’s why people go to work or buy lottery tickets or even gamble. We want what society has told us we want our whole lives and we are not fully satisfied with life until we obtain these goals. Society builds this perfect image in our heads of what happiness is supposed to look like and today’s modern technologies and our upbringings are significantly influenced by it.
Most people have indulged in the perfect wine, made love to the perfect person while possibly wearing the perfect outfit. Or have they? Is there a such thing as perfection, if so can we attain it? No. Nothing in this world is perfect because it is impossible to create perfection. According to Plato's Theory of Forms, perfection cannot exist in the physical world but only the realm of the philosophers; the ones who choose to lurk deeper in the veiled mysteries of metaphysics.
Until high school, I thought perfection meant being the best at everything and getting perfect grades on every assignment. I wanted to be the physical embodiment of perfection, the epitome of perfect, so that when you heard my name, all you could think
When we are young children, we are introduced to the concept of "living happily ever after". This is a fairy-tale emotional state of absolute happiness, where nothing really happens, and nothing even seems to matter. It is a state of feeling good all the time. In fairy tales, this feeling is usually found in fulfilling marriages, royal castles, singing birds and laughing children. In real life, an even-keeled mood is more psychologically healthy than a mood in which you frequently achieve great heights of happiness. Furthermore, when you ask people what makes their lives worth living, they rarely mention their mood. They are more likely to talk about what they find meaningful, such as their work or relationships. Research suggests that if you focus too much on trying to feel good all the time, you’ll actually undermine your ability to ever feel good because no amount of feeling good will be satisfying to you. If feeling good all the time were the only requirement for happiness, then a person who uses cocaine every day would be extremely happy. In our endless struggle for more money, more love and more security, we have forgotten the most fundamental fact: happiness is not caused by possessions or social positions, and can in fact be experienced in any daily activity. We have made happiness a utopia: expensive, complicated, and unreachable.