The Happiness Machine Literary Analysis

That which many strive for every day in life is personal happiness. Though the search for happiness may seem fruitless, it remains a constant goal in the hearts of each and every one of us. But, how do we even begin to reach this seemingly impossible goal of pure bliss? Through reading Ray Bradbury’s short and magical tales of childhood, Dandelion Wine, I have come to realize that true happiness is the product of fulfillment. Therefore, when striving for joy, one must realize that it is not material things, nor even what they typically associate with happiness that they are really searching for; it is the feeling of fulfillment.

I learned this lesson in a three-part series within the book titled “The Happiness Machine”. In the series, Leo Auffmann observes the negative and gloomy conversations that he often heard around him. In response to these

conversations, he thought up a plan to invent a machine that would cure any who used it of their depression, frustration, and all other things which he considered toxic to a good life. He called this invention the Happiness Machine. However, after he built his glorious the machine, he discovered that it brought exactly the opposite of what was intended. It brought no happiness at all, only sadness and despair. After a few trials the machine erupted in flames, leaving Auffmann completely dumbfounded that his labors and research had been for nothing.
Auffmann, with his good intentions and true will for success, can represent all of us in our pursuit of happiness. As humans, we tend to look for the quickest solution to our problems possible. Auffmann’s solution was a machine that could bring happiness to people. It was actually a pretty brilliant idea containing all the makings of joy, showing the user times of bliss and refocusing their attention to happy things. For each user was an individual scene or procedure that, in theory, would truly maximize their happiness. Of all the parts this machine contained, it was missing one extremely vital tool.
When people were given this contentment, it was clear to them that this happiness was nothing like the real sense of happiness. Even though the machine had nearly everything Auffmann could think of to improve the emotions of his family and friends, it was wholly artificial. This one aspect of his project was the very thing that doomed it. The induced happiness that the machine produced didn’t feel real because it was just handed to them, like the effects of a drug. This machine could never really make anyone happy because it just gave them everything they wanted all the time, and allowed for the absence of the thing that makes happiness so satisfying: the feeling of fulfillment.
Though the quest may seem exhausting, “The Happiness Machine” made me realize that pure contentment and joy can often be found right in front of us.

Dandelion Wine does not set positivity as merely a goal. Throughout many of the short stories, happiness seems to be the default. Bradbury shows that gaiety can radiate from the fact that we are alive. In his narratives of children, he points out the beauty and wonderful things that happen in life. Some of these things may be as grand as love between two people, but what Bradbury highlights are the things in life that we often look over in our hunt for our ideals of what happiness should be. These things are as simple as our morning coffee, the feeling of rain on our skin, or even just waking up each morning to a new day. In the case of Auffmann, the source of true delight was always with him. He realized that it was his family, which he worked hard to please. Through this realization it’s evident that happiness is not something that can be synthesized, it’s something that we find by looking closely at what we have earned, achieved, and created in our

lifetime.
The major difference between the joy that fulfillment can bring people and the happiness that the machine brought people lays in humanity’s desire for self-improvement and development in all matters. We desire expensive things because that requires us to work hard and make adequate income. We desire people to love us because we are acceptable to their standards. We desire good grades because it is a reflection of our work ethic and determination. The result of self-improvement creates happiness, not being given a new car, being given someone’s affection, or being given an A as the result of nothing. I have come to understand that this need for fulfillment is largely a reflection of the need for personal improvement, and it is this that will lead to true happiness.