Akopyan 1

Gor Akopyan

Professor Ditch

English 115

29 October 2018

Happiness Compared in Selfish and Selfless Individuals

Happiness is something that can be had and lost, maintained for a long time or take a

while to find. Sometimes happiness can be hard for some people to obtain such as in the novel

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows,

with character Elizabeth McKenna, who is happy, and Markham Reynolds, who is not. The two

are completely different characters and live completely different lives as Elizabeth is a

compassionate person who lives in Guernsey while Mark is a rich American who is incredibly

selfish. The story in the novel goes on around the time of World War II where tensions are very

high and the people of Guernsey originally made the potato peel society as an excuse for being

up late while under strict surveillance. The potato peel society turns into a book club that the

people in Guernsey come together to read and talk about books. Despite her untimely death,

Elizabeth is truly a happy character because of her ability to sacrifice temporary pleasure for a

greater happiness, while Mark is not a happy character because he manipulates others perception

of himself to think he is happy instead of truly becoming a happy person on his own.

Elizabeth McKenna goes through a lot of tough character-building moments throughout

the novel which define who she is as a character. These events that take place all challenge her

ability to stick to what she truly believes in regardless of what comes after. Housing an escaped

slave is one of the many things she did that even though if caught would hurt her, she still did
 Akopyan 2

because she thought it was right. The reason these examples contribute the Elizabeth being a

happy character is that these moments prove her being content with her life and how she chases

her passions. None of the things she does are forced or withheld, Elizabeth does what makes her

happy no matter what anyone else thinks. An example of this is when Elizabeth fell in love with

one of the soldiers stationed at Guernsey “He looked like the German you imagine-tall, blond

hair, blue eyes-except he could feel pain” (168 Shaffer) and had a kid with him despite the

volatile situation they were in. This highlights how Elizabeth, although knowing the risks to

having a kid with a soldier she may never see again, she realizes that it is what she wants and

goes through with it.

All of the things she does do also affect the people around her. Elizabeth’s lasting effect

on the people around her demonstrates how she sacrifices for her friends, which is what gives her

true happiness. We see this when after she is gone her friend says “I have felt Elizabeth’s

presence all along; she lingers in every room” (184 Shaffer). The things she does help and touch

other people in some sort of way, which only shows how helpful she us to everyone around her.

Her choice to follow her desires regardless of consequences seem to help others showing the true

intent of her actions. Not only for her friends, but Elizabeth also helps out people she doesn’t

know to well as long as she believes in it. We see this when Elizabeth puts herself in front of a

new friends when they are being beat at the labor camp. She knew that she would be punished

for it, which resulted in her death, but because she wanted to help she did anyway.

The type of happiness that Elizabeth possesses ties into the differences from short term

pleasure and true happiness. Pleasure could be any temporary experiences that provides joy to

the person, but that goes away quickly. With true happiness, it is a much longer lasting feeling

that provides a greater sense of being content with a person’s own actions. The Dalai Lama and
 Akopyan 3

Howard Cutler cover this topic in their article “The Source of Happiness” where the difference

between the two is explained as “The ‘right choice’ is often the difficult one because it involves

some sacrifice of pleasure” (32 Dalai Lama and Cutler). When it comes to deciding between

which action is correct, it can be hard to tell what is right. One of the choices might make a

person feel better right after, but the other one would make them feel bad now and better later on.

With Elizabeth, she mostly on ever chooses to sacrifice pleasure in order to feel more content

with her choices. The time where she risked getting herself in trouble for the escaped slave is a

clear example of this. Instantly after the choice she is more anxious and worried, but if she didn’t

do it then it would forever plague her mind that she didn’t help someone she could’ve. Cutler and

the Dalai Lama perfectly highlight the type of behavior that Elizabeth has when it comes to

tough choices that define her happiness. At the end of the day, Elizabeth can sleep feeling good

about herself because of her choice to do what she believes in even if she is uncomfortable for a

little while.

Elizabeth’s case for happiness coming from her helping other people out is backed up by

how self-reported happiness is higher in people who volunteer. Volunteering is taking the time

out of the day to help other people out even though it uses up a person’s own pleasure. This is

what Elizabeth is doing across many of the decisions she makes throughout her life in the novel.

An article called “Doing well by doing good. The relationship between formal volunteering and

self-reported health and happiness” by Francesca Borgonovi shows how “volunteers are equally

likely to be happy whether they have high or low status”. These finding indicate that happiness

can be achieved by people doing things that make them feel better about themselves. This comes

back to how sacrificing pleasure for true happiness is an important way to actually be happy

latter in life. Although Elizabeth does not directly volunteer, many of her actions actually end up
 Akopyan 4

making up a similar situation as volunteering. She is always focusing on helping others first

which is what her primary focus is on when it comes to decisions in her life.

While some might say that Elizabeth can not be a happy character due to her hard

circumstance she dealt with in life and how she died so young, I believe that how she dealt with

the circumstances she was put in made her happy. Elizabeth lived a tough life with many tough

choices. Her ability to listen to what she truly wanted without letting the taught of how it could

hurt her is what elevated her ability for true happiness. Yes, she dealt with a lot that could put a

heavy weight onto someone’s mental strength, but she only fed off of the challenges that she

went to. Helping all of those people gave her the strength to continue, and chasing what she truly

believed in is what made her happy. She even fell in love with a soldier stationed at Guernsey

and had a kid with him because that’s what she wanted even though she knew their would-be

problems. Ultimately, Elizabeth dealt with a lot, but her untimely death was not one that came

doing things she regretted since she only did things that she could be proud of.

Dropping all of the selfless characteristics that made Elizabeth happy would result in

Markham Reynolds, who is a rich American in love with himself and his own wealth. Mark fits

the typical characteristics of a snobby person who finds more in his money than anything else in

the world. He also is not a happy character, if he can even think long enough about it to realize it

himself. Mark seems like a guy with no reason to be unhappy since he is living life, but in all

reality, he is a guy with no real reason to be truly happy about himself. His relationship with

Juliet, who is a writer that befriends the people at Guernsey, dominated by him doing things he

wants them to do together instead of what is best for them, or what Juliet wants. Anything he

does is set up tailored to his expectations and wants such as when he ‘asks’ Juliet when she

wants to get dinner “Thursday’s too far away. Monday? Claridge’s? 7:00?” (35 Shaffer). Mark
 Akopyan 5

seems to ask Juliet for her opinion on when she wants to go out, but right after she gives her

input he completely ignores anything she says and sets the whole date, time and place up exactly

how he wants. He is only controlling every part of his life because he thinks that what is going to

make him happy. Blinded by all his wealth, Mark doesn’t know what true happiness is and

instead confuses himself into thinking because he is so rich he is also happy.

Marks happiness issues due to his wealth are also detailed throughout Graham Hill’s life.

At a young age Hill was lucky and became rich, which lead him to live a life that manipulated

what he thought happiness was. In Hill’s article “Living with Less. A Lot Less” he details this

experience and how he realized that a person doesn’t need all of the material goods they desire,

but rather it can make them unhappier. Hill describes that “after a certain point, material objects

have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support” (312). A certain

amount wealth is no problem, but letting it dictate the rest of a person’s life and actions is when

it gets out of hand. Mark falls under this category because he lived his whole life being able to do

anything he wanted because of his wealth, which results in him not being able to figure out what

he truly wants in life. As Hill described it in his article, his emotional needs are crowded by his

own selflessness. This is highlighted in Marks own life with his relationship with Juliet and how

he never lets her get what she wants because he treats her like one of his possessions.

Such issues that are about happiness and income are covered in an article by Richard

Easterlin titled “The happiness-income paradox revisited” can highlight the problem Mark has in

a bigger picture. Money can not provide all of the things that make happiness a reality for

people, it can only help achieve it. Being crowded by the idea of money being happiness is what

kills the ability for people that are wealthy to be happy. The article states that “happiness does

not increase as a country’s income increases”. This strictly means that when people have more
 Akopyan 6

money they are not happier, but in a way larger sense. If you take the poorest country, the people

living there might be happier then the people living in the richest one. This exemplifies how the

correlation between happiness and money is not more money make a person happier. Just

because Mark has all of his wealth is no explanation for if he is happy or not. This means that if

we take away is money we can see what he has left to decide is he is happy, which subsequently

is almost nothing. His selfish lifestyle and relationship with Juliet end abruptly and he really

have nothing going for him after his wealth is out of the picture. This is the true sign for how

unhappy Mark really is since he has nothing of real meaning in his life, but his money is able to

stop him from seeing the sad truth that he is unhappy with himself.

Although some might argue that Mark is rich so he can not be happy, I believe that I have

effectively proved how Mark is truly unhappy. Marks wealth is only a boost to his ability to

reach happiness, the problem is that he doesn’t realize this. He thinks that his money is what

makes him happy, but in the end, he is left alone with his own wealth. What truly makes a person

happy is finding the things they really care about in life as Graham Hill talks about. Blinding a

person’s own self into not realizing they are not happy does not make them happy. If Mark wants

to actually become happy, then he has to find the true definition of happiness for himself. As

fake as his relationship was with Juliet, he has to find something that he cares about to a

significant degree. With Juliet he never cared about her or what she wanted, he only wanted her

for the status. The start to finding real happiness would be finding something that Mark himself

wants to do not to look better, but because he actually cares about it.

What truly contributes to a person happiness is what they make of it. Everyone can reach

happiness based on what hey care about and how they approach it. That is why Elizabeth is a

happy character, as she knows what she wants and always does it. As for Mark, he only does
 Akopyan 7

things because he thinks he wants it or he wants it to make him look better, but there is never

passion in his actions. The best way to reach that happiness is to think about how a person can

look back at themselves and their own actions and feel like they did the right things or the thing

that the truly believe in.

 Akopyan 8

Works Cited

Cutler, Howard and The Dalai Lama. “The Source of Happiness”, Pursuing Happiness,

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, 21-32

Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A Lot Less”, Pursuing Happiness, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016,

308-312

Borgonovi, Francesca. “Doing well by doing good. The relationship between formal

volunteering and self-reported health and happiness.” Social science & medicine 66 11

(2008): 2321-34.

Easterlin, Richard. “The happiness-income paradox revisited” PNAS (2010)

Shaffer, Marry Ann and Annie Barrows. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The

Dial Press, 2018.