There Is More Than Being Happy Analysis

Kathy Szelag

Professor Goldenstern

LAS 318

Due Date: 03/12/17

Creating a Meaning Through Art

After reading the Atlantic article “There is More to Life than Being Happy” and “Life in the Iron Mills” by Rebecca Harding Davis, I could understand how the character Hugh strives to find meaning in the iron mills through his art. In the Atlantic article the main point was that the key to a fulfilled life is ‘meaning.’ This article is about Viktor Frankl who was a Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna who was later sent to the Nazi concentration camps. Through his experiences with suicidal patients he realized that it is not about being happy. He concluded that the one thing that fuels people and keeps them going is their meaning in life.

Meaning is the responsibility to something greater than the self. In Life in the Iron Mills it was evident that Hugh used his art to find meaning in a world where he endured a lot of suffering being part of the working class.
Frankl’s experiences while being a therapist in the concentration camps have led him to conclude that when negative things happen to a person it decreases their happiness but increases the amount of meaning they have in life. In addition, the Atlantic article mention Roy Baumesister’s research. Baumeister was a social psychologist and he concluded that, “People whose lives have high levels of meaning often actively seek meaning out even when they know it will come at the expense of happiness. Because they have invested themselves in something bigger than themselves, they also worry more and have higher levels of stress and anxiety in their lives than happy people.” When humans think about their past struggles, current sufferings, and their future they feel more meaning in their lives. Through the studies done by Frankl and Baumeister I could make a connection to Life in the Iron Mills. The story depicts how horrendous the working conditions were and how the working class was degraded. Harding Davis makes an analogy that the life of factory workers is like those of slaves to prove how awful the mills were.
Hugh uses his art as an escape from the feelings of hopelessness and degradation within the mills. The text paints a picture of how American factory workers lived and the emotions that they felt while working. Hugh’s character is used to depict the problems of the working class. The mill is where Hugh’s daily work takes place as well as where he sculpts. However, the mills is an environment that discourages creativity and imagination. Thus, Hugh struggles to create himself as an artist. In addition, he was also suffering from economic and imaginative deprivation within the iron mills. He sculpts a woman made of korl and he made her out to be muscular. When Mitchell, Dr. May, and Kirby arrive and see the sculpture they begin to critique it based on what they see. Dr. May and Kirby kept telling Hugh that he has the right to make himself whatever he chooses that he can in fact become an artist. However, they do not offer help and refuse to help him succeed. This is struggle that Hugh goes through but it creates meaning in his life. He is not happy about the circumstances which he is under but this creates high levels of meaning in his life because actively looking for a meaning even when happiness is at cost. Harding Davis mentions, “Was it not his right to live as they,—a pure life, a good, true-hearted life, full of beauty and kind words? He only wanted to know how to use the strength within him. His heart warmed, as he thought of it. He suffered himself to think of it longer. His struggles and his suffering have only made him more sure of who he wants to be in life and why he wants to be that. Which is ultimately what meaning signifies.
In Sculpture in the Iron Mills: Rebecca Harding Davis’s Korl Woman by Maribel W.

Molyneaux she analyzes and compares some of Harding Davis’s works. She mentions, “The statues represent what is most precious to Hugh, his "groping passion for whatever was beautiful and pure" (23), and, in the material from which they are made, what is most repellant to him; the korl, a "light, porous substance, of a delicate, waxen, flesh-colored tinge" (24), signifies the wasted flesh, the terrible vulnerability, and the sheer expendability of millworkers. The making of one object, the korl perceived as waste in the industrial economy, into a second object, a work of art that embodies only Hugh's wasted self, endlessly reproduces the central opposition of his life (165).” Once again this ties in Frankl’s and Baumeister’s point on how meaning is creating by investing in something bigger than yourself. Hugh invested a lot of time and put in a lot of details into the woman made of korl. He used her as a symbol to indicate that she is hungry, not for food but for opportunities. Hugh used his talents to strive to find meaning through his art. Finding the Meaning in Your Work by Katharine Brooks she mentions that one out of the five dimensions of meaning is using your

talents.
In conclusion, using the information and the studies done in the Atlantic article There’s More to Life Than Being Happy describes meaning as being extremely important even more than happiness. Hugh strives to find meaning in the iron mills through his art because when he faces struggles he turns to art. In addition, every time Hugh looks back at his struggles he realizes how much better he wants to become and how he wants to do better. Hugh uses his artistic talent to take korl, a waste product from iron smelting and makes a beautiful woman out of it. One might argue that because the story ended with him committing suicide that he never found a true meaning. However, although he was not happy with his financial or work situation he still went to work and at the end of the day he would create art. He always had hope despite all of his suffering. This gave him something more valuable than happiness, he created a meaning in his life which was art.
Works Cited

Smith, Emily Esfahani. "There's More to Life Than Being Happy." The Atlantic.
Atlantic Media Company, 09 Jan. 2013. Web.
Harding, Rebecca. "Life in the Iron Mills." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company,
01 Apr. 1861. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.
Molyneaux, Maribel W. “Sculpture in the Iron Mills: Rebecca Harding Davis’s
Korl Woman.” Women’s Studies, vol. 17, no. 3/4, Jan. 1990, pp. 157-177
Brooks, Katharine. "Finding the Meaning in Your Work." Psychology Today. N.p.,
25 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.