Identity Defined Through Happiness

Happiness defined results from the possession of or attainment of what one considers good. It does not come from a set of peck that have occurred in our lives instead it results from a set of attitudes and emotions that we feel. In todays world, how umpteen of us can actu tout ensembley admit to having found true triumph? Not many. In George Saunders book, Civil War Land in braggy Decline, specifically his story, Bounty, two groups of individuals, the Normals and the Flaweds, struggle in the pursuit for contentment.In their endeavour to achieving this, their personal identity is greatly compromised and therefrom defined by their income or economical class. Satisfaction/ gratification today, seems like a never-ending locomote filled with false motivations to achieving it, such as freedom, money, love, or materialistic needs, and justify by futile hope and the degrading of others. As a result, we pull up s demands what we truly lack and what truly makes us happy, and redefine our identities through what we hypothesise willing make us happy.Hope is often futile when trenchant for enjoyment because we constantly expect much and want more therefore for getting what truly makes us satisfied. The one and only thing that the Flaweds used as motivation for their struggles was hope. Saunders describes this hope when the father throws his children over the castle wall in hope for a separate life for them. He states, He threw us over to save us from death. He believed in people. He believed in the people on the other side of the wall (p. 137).Because the father believed in the people his children ended up searching for cheer in all the wrong places and degraded themselves in order to survive. They were better off starved to death than living a life of slavery and humiliation. In this sheath, the father forgot that family was more important even if it meant watching your children starve. Another source of exculpation used by us when searching for happine ss is the technique of displace others down. The Normals had no other choice but to use the Flaweds as a means of achieving satisfaction.Such cruel treatment is portrayed to us by a slave buyer who states, This regimen of daytime beatings and lonely nights will continue until such time as there is nothing rest of you free will I will sell you and others of your ilk at tremendous markup (p. 155-156). The slave buyers position in society justifies to him that it is okay to leave alone everyday beatings to others in order to use them for your benefit which was the money and eventually in impressing a woman named Carlotta.Therefore, the slave buyers false justification compromised his actions and redefined what happiness should be. What we assume will scram us happiness defines who we are. What the Normals thought would bring them satisfaction greatly varied from what the Flaweds set forth as happiness thus validating the great gap in such classes. The Flaweds wanted to melt do wn their slavery therefore happiness to them was freedom, which in their world could only be attained if one was a Normal.Saunders reveals Connies struggle for happiness when he states, .. She pilot for a Client, the Normal son of a transportation mogul therefore while touring with his parents, he saw her hunched over and that was that Connies flaw is a slight, very slight, vestigial tail she went through a bad effect and tried to sand it off When she came out she was humiliated and refused to speak (p. 96-97). To Connie, happiness meant falling in love with a Normal and being considered a Normal, and because she failed in doing so, she tried cutting her flaw off and ended up depressed and humiliated.What made her happy defined who she was, a person who couldnt estimate or wear her flaw proudly. The Normals, however, defined their happiness in some(prenominal) different ways because they had the option available for them in doing so. To some Normals, happiness came from money, to some from love, and to a lot of others, materialistic matters. A perfect example of happiness through materialistic needs is the Normal family who make a living out of potatoes. The husband states, If you want something small, youve got to get it for yourself.I want a generator for my family. Lights at night. A fan in the summer. And Im getting them (p. 133). The guy had nine kids and a wife and just kept himself reside and working to take note his happiness in buying those things. The parents fail to take care of their children and value their family and put all that aside to buy nice things for themselves. Here, their identity is compromised and based on their materialistic needs. Happiness today is described by society as having a great job a nice car and an amazing wardrobe.However we fail to realize that this is not true happiness. The more we have does not equal the more happiness. At the end of Bounty, after Cole finds his sister and makes sure that she is okay, he con tinues to find something else to do in keeping him busy by joining the rebel group at the end. This is the scary truth that we face in our daily lives. We need to go to college, find a career that will return us great money, and settle down. At the end we call this happiness. The more we have going for us in our lives, the more content we are. prize about plastic surgery. After stooling one flaw, we discover another, and until we fix all of them, we end up feeling happy. We fail to hold on to what is more important, such as health, family, and security, and cling to what society portrays to us should be happiness. In Bounty, Cole fails to realize from the very start that he was better off in Bountyland with his daily meals and sense of security. We must redefine what happiness is and by doing this, we create a new and better identity for ourselves.