What is happiness? Does it have anything to do with freedom? Everyone would like to live, think, and act freely. Whenever we make our own decisions, we learn and experience something new whether it is good or bad, we are still happy with it because it is our free choice. We all learn about life by living it. If we are too afraid to take a step we cannot go anywhere. Every other decision is another risk, and every other risk makes our heart beat faster which makes life more desirable. We always need to look forward in life because we cannot go back in time, and change things that are already happened. Our past plays a big role in our future, but we should not get stuck in our memories if they keep us away from moving on. In “Eveline”, James Joyce tells us a story about a girl who lives in Dublin , and is about to make a major life decision. Eveline wanted to have her freedom, but she was afraid to run away because she had a lot of responsibilities. Was she going to put her fears on the side and let the romance lead her life, or was she going to give up on her dreams? If we want to live a free life, then we should be ready to take risks. Thinking about our future, and wanting the best for ourselves does not make us a selfish person. We all have responsibilities, and we all respect our families, but we should not be living for others. We should make our own decision even if it is going to hurt us at the end because only that way we can find the happiness.
Eveline wanted to have her freedom, and make the best decision for herself, but she had to be really careful with her decision because it was not only going to change her life. She needed to think of her father, and the promise that she made to her dead mother which w...
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...sion at the end because she was scared to take a risk. I was born and raised in Turkey , but I moved here a few years ago, and it was a big risk for me. I did not know if things were going to work out or not. How could I know the answer without giving it a try? I started a new life which was not easy, but at the end I became a stronger person because now I know that I can make my own decisions, and be happy with them. No one has a perfect life, and if people get afraid to start or try new things, they will not go anywhere. We all come from different backgrounds, and life teaches us different lessons, but if we just sit there and do nothing, then we cannot make a difference. We never know what will happen in our future, and that is why we should never regret any of our decisions. Good and bad experiences make us become a better person, and keep us going with our lives.
William James once said that “Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action." Everyone living in a society we live in today are putting in efforts to obtain happiness. Many individuals will pursue that happiness while others will compromise it. To achieve happiness, everyone has their own methods, but sometimes it will not work, when you realize you can’t always have what you want. In the text To Kill A Mockingbird and the Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet, Harper Lee and Shakespeare developed the idea that every individual pursue or compromise happiness differently because we have different beliefs and values that shapes our identities. Compromise can seem like a negative thing, but in some situations it is crucial to happiness. It is not possible to always everything you want in life but the desire of pursuing happiness provide individuals with more satisfaction than compromising happiness.
Jeannette was angry at her grandmother for not accepting her having a black friend. She wanted her parents support to justify that all people are the same however her parents really needed a place to stay and would rather not back up their daughter than challenge Erma in fear of being kicked out. Jeannette realized how people become hypocrites and having to be forced to go against their own beliefs.
In Babylon Revisited Charles wants the freedom of having the ability to have his daughter. By this I mean that Charles wants to be able to have his daughter come and live with him instead of his daughter living with her aunt. But due to his past alcohol problem and lifestyle, he has to prove to his sister that he is now capable to care for his daughter. Similarly, in The Hills Like White Elephants, Jig wants freedom. She wants the freedom of choice. She wants to be able to make her own decision without the man constantly nagging at her. In both stories there are also obstacles that stand in the way of happiness. For instance, Charles obstacle that is in the way of his happiness with his daughter is his sister-in-law and his old friends. His sister-in-law gives him a hard time because she believes that he is responsible for the death of her sister (his wife). Charles’s old friends from his past are also an obstacle because although he has changed and is trying to live a better life, his friends are still drinking and living the same lifestyle, which he has tried to move
she wanted to see true love one more time, she wanted a love story to
In the majority of the story Eveline "sat at the window," (512) which parallels with her paralysis because she does not move. Eveline "was going to go away like the others" (512) because she was one of the only people left in Dublin from her childhood. However, Eveline doesn't go since she is trapped in her setting. Almost nothing in Eveline's setting ever changes throughout her life. The significance of Eveline looking around the room "reviewing all its familiar objects" (512) is that she "never dreamed of being divided" from them. All around her Eveline "had those she had know all her life about her" (512). Eveline is a product of her environment. The reader can see how the setting never changes, Eveline's life molds to it. This explains the reason for her not going away and starting a much happier life.
Eveline has always felt lonely ever since her mother’s death but especially now when there is nothing more she can do with her life but find someone to take her away and love her. Eveline’s desire for a better life seems like it may come true when she meets Frank who she thinks will take her away to Buenos Aires. When her chance comes along for her to leave with Frank she too pushes her chance away. She thinks that she no longer deserves a better life other than fulfilling her duties to her family and chooses to be alone for eternity.
In “Araby” by James Joyce, the author uses several literary elements to convey the multitude of deep meanings within the short story. Three of the most prominent and commonly used by Joyce are the elements of how the themes were developed, the unbounded use of symbolism, and the effectiveness of a particular point of view. Through these three elements Joyce was able to publish his world famous story and allow his literary piece to be understood and criticized by many generations.
storyf which only she knew. At first glance they were not so great but after her
She wants Frank to give her life and “perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live” (Joyce). This states that she doesn’t really love Frank. She just wants to get out, and if Frank could give her love, too, that would be a plus. The story recalls that, “Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition” (Joyce). This shows that she doesn’t look at Frank as her love or husband. She just wants a way out and Frank is her only way out of the life she lives now. Eveline states that, “Frank would save her. He would give her life” (Joyce). This suggests that she just wants more life back into her isolated life. She wants to go with him and move on because she wants to be saved and wants to have life because the house she lives in now doesn’t have life. If Eveline goes with Frank “People would treat her with respect then” (Joyce). She would have a better life with Frank and would be treated better, but she is too scared to leave her old life behind even if it is worse. At the end of the story she can’t leave her family behind and won’t get on the boat with Frank to leave her other life behind. “Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy” (Joyce), “its protagonist literally left frozen at the point of her escape, unable to board the ship that promises to carry her out of the city” (Latham 123). This is a symbol of her holding on to her old life and not being able to leave that behind to go and live with
Mrs. Marian Forrester strikes readers as an appealing character with the way she shifts as a person from the start of the novel, A Lost Lady, to the end of it. She signifies just more than a women that is married to an old man who has worked in the train business. She innovated a new type of women that has transitioned from the old world to new world. She is sought out to be a caring, vibrant, graceful, and kind young lady but then shifts into a gold-digging, adulterous, deceitful lady from the way she is interpreted throughout the book through the eyes of Niel Herbert. The way that the reader is able to construe the Willa Cather on how Mr. and Mrs. Forrester fell in love is a concept that leads the reader to believe that it is merely psychological based. As Mrs. Forrester goes through her experiences such as the death of her husband, the affairs that she took part in with Frank Ellinger, and so on, the reader witnesses a shift in her mentally and internally. Mrs. Forrester becomes a much more complicated women to the extent in which she struggles to find who really is and that is a women that wants to find love and be fructuous in wealth. A women of a multitude of blemishes, as a leading character it can be argued that Mrs. Forrester signifies a lady that is ultimately lost in her path of personal transitioning. She becomes lost because she cannot withstand herself unless she is treated well by a wealthy male in which causes her to act unalike the person she truly is.
By not taking that opportunity, Eveline probably missed a life of exploration with Frank. Eveline would have had the chance to know what independence feels like and she would have had the chance to experience individual freedom. Instead, her life afterwards is a life of regret and imprisonment with her family. Being an only child, she is bound by her family’s actions and their duties. Eveline has taken on an incredible part of the burden in keeping the family together. Her father is an overbearing and unfair man who takes his daughters earnings for himself; and rather than appreciating her sacrifices, he ridicules her. As she now lives with her dad and her two brothers, she feels tired and frustrated with her dad’s commands and her everyday life. Everyday, she sadly waits for frank to come back into her life once again and fill her life with happiness. Eveline may possibily in the future live her freedom when her controlling father passes away, but perhaps it will become too late for her to experience the freedom she wanted.
Eveline is compelled by her responsibility of taking care of her father. In this story, the main antagonist is her father who is a shameful parent. He creates an unplea...
There is overwhelming evidence in Eveline's life that change is good, yet she continues to resist it. Eveline saw her mother make many common sacrifices and give up her freedom of choice in everyday life. She learned, by looking back at her mother's life, that a life without adjustment, while not wholly undesirable, is in fact not a life of comfort. She contemplates her freedom to change. She could leave with Frank; maybe he would save her. However, in the end, she chooses the same path as her mother and, due to her fear, essentially squelches her own opportunity for change with a life of sameness.
Throughout my life, I have learned to see that happiness is not such an inaccessible dream. Although its notion varies from one person to another, happiness is often times only one inch away. Some people will experience happiness in the pursuit of it. Some will find it in sacrificing themselves for greater goals. Others will find it in people’s company, in lust or in drugs. There is no recipe for success or happiness, and it is only up to us to define what we want from life, and how we want to get it. The only certain thing is that it is never too late for anybody to achieve their dreams, to make peace with their feelings, and ultimately, to be happy.
But in this debate, one question still raises its head - What is happiness? Happiness is not actually leading a luxurious life, but the luxury of living a life. Happiness is not actually about expanding your business, but it lies in expanding the horizons of life. Happiness is not having a meal in the most famous restaurant, but having it with your most beloved family. It does not lie in attending honorable parties, but to attend a party with honor.