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Jessica Jeong

Professor Corri Ditch

English​ 115

02 April 2018

Happiness is a Choice

Happiness can be changed and influence in different ways. In ​Western​ society, people

determine their own happiness in different ways. Some use material possession as a way to feel

happy and other sometimes uses memories to achieve happiness. In the ​epistolary​ novel, ​The

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society​,​ by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, it explains

the lives of the characters through letters ​to each other during World War II.​ In these letters, they

talk about their current lives and their day, but they also talk about their past experiences.

Through these letters the reader can get a deep understanding with the characters and how they

feel because it is their personal thoughts and opinions. One of the main characters, Mark

Reynolds, explains his feelings for Juliet in order to try and win her over. Throughout the novel,

the reader is able to see how he evolves from being happy to being unhappy with his life and

how he deals with his feelings. Another character who is unhappy with her life but can find

happiness is Remy Giraud. Remy Giraud is a prisoner in a concentration camp who is able to

find happiness after her best friend Elizabeth is executed. Through her letter to the Guernsey

society, the reader is able to learn about her past and learn more about her thoughts. Mark’s

happiness is determined based from material possessions, whereas Remy’s happiness is

determined by her choosing to look at the positive side to every situation she is put in. From the

novel, one learns that someone’s happiness is truly their own choice.
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Throughout the novel, it shows the evolution between Juliet and Mark’s relationship.

Mark is overwhelmingly happy when he receives a letter from Juliet explaining how she was

flattered with the flowers he sends her. In the response to this letter, Mark states, “He got me

what I couldn’t manage to get for myself: an introduction to you...The simple truth of it is that

you’re the only female writer who makes me laugh...and I want to meet the woman who wrote

them,” (34). This shows how Mark is happy that the delivery boy ended up giving Juliet his

address because then she was able to contact him. This is a point in Mark’s life when he is very

happy when he was able to get what he wanted. This is because his whole life he was wealthy

and was able to get what he wanted. ​In the article, “The Alchemy of Suffering” written by

Matthieu Ricard, Ricard explains how people suffer and the different types of suffering one can

have. Ricard states, “The suffering of change begins with a feeling of pleasure and turns into a

feeling of pain,” (36). This quote establishes how change is a main cause of suffering from

someone, and even though it can be a positive, happy change, people can still suffer from it.

When Juliet entered Mark’s life, it was a positive and happy change, but he eventually suffers

because he is unable to wed Juliet because she is not ready for marriage. Ricard states, “Hidden

suffering is concealed beneath the appearance of pleasure, freedom from care, fun,” (36). This

shows how Mark was caught off guard with Juliet’s response about marriage. Since everything

was going well in the relationship before the idea of marriage, Mark did not respond well to this

situation. The quote implies that since Mark was never told no, he has a lack of discipline and is

unable to solve issues in a positive and understanding way. Although he should not act like this

he cannot help it, because that is the way he was raised. Mark was used to getting what he

wanted.
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While in a relationship with Juliet, Mark tends to notice how she did not open up to him

and how she was unable to commit to him. Mark states, “Do you think I’m going to sit back and

let you go? You’re being ridiculous, Juliet. Any half-wit can see that you’re trying to run away,

but what nobody can understand is why,” (153). In this quote, one notices how Mark is starting

to get frustrated with Juliet because she is not opening up emotionally to Mark and how she

guards herself and her heart in fear of getting hurt again. Out of frustration, in the letter to Juliet,

Mark calls her a “half-wit,” which suggests the idea that he was upset and started to become

insensitive towards Juliet. Mark’s happiness is temporary because he found happiness through

material objects. He also found happiness when he was able to get what he asked for. ​Penney

Amber in the article, “What Makes you Happy?” explains the idea of temporary happiness and

what really makes someone happy. Some people who in today’s society, “feel such a drawing to

people and possessions, hoping they will give us the security and love we need,” (1). Amber

implies the idea that because some people use material possessions as a way to gage the amount

of security and love they feel, they soon learn how material possessions is only a temporary

happiness. After someone gets everything they want, they soon find out how unhappy they truly

are. In the novel, Mark always measured his happiness with his material possessions, and since

he grew up wealthy, he only felt happy when he got something he wanted.

Later in the novel, one reads about Remy Giraud, a woman in a concentration camp. She

writes a letter to the Guernsey society, explains the death of ​her friend,​ Elizabeth. ​In the novel,

Remy states, “I write so you and the child will know of her and the strength she showed us in the

camp. Not strength only and...Elizabeth was my friend, and in that place friendship was all that

aided one to remain human,” (178). This implies the idea that Remy wrote to the society as a
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way​ for her to get closure with Elizabeth and her death. She also wanted the society to be aware

of what happens in the concentration camp ​she is in​. Although this is a negative and unhappy

moment in Remy’s life, she is able to find positive and happy moments through the rest of her

life ​because she is able to reminisce on the happy moments in life​. In her life, Remy states, “I do

not think that anyone outside such a beautiful place could know how much that meant to me, to

spend such a quiet moment together,” (179). This shows how she was able to move on and is

happy that she has positive and happy memories with Elizabeth that she was able to cherish and

reminisce about. In Remy’s life she starts with being unhappy and then realizes how even though

everything is not always happy, there are ways to find happiness in every unhappy moment.

With this type of state of mind, Remy is able to get through the concentration camp and go on

with her days.

Remy’s emotions are shown through the death of Elizabeth and how she is able to gain

her happiness back.​ In the article, ​The Sources of Happiness​, by Howard Cutler and the Dalai

Lama, they state how people’s mentality and state of mind is the main cause of whether or not

they are happy. The Dalai Lama and Cutler states, “tragedy may send us into a period of

depression, but sooner or later our overall level of happiness tends to migrate back to a certain

baseline...this process [is called] ​adaptation​, and we can see how this principle operates in our

everyday life,” (22). His quote implies the idea that people can be ​both​ sad and unhappy during a

tragedy but people eventually learn to cope with their pain and it becomes a normal thing in their

daily life. Even though Remy was sad about Elizabeth’s death, she learns to deal with it and

learns to move on but not forget about how she feels. The Dalai Lama and Cutler state, “If you

are mentally unhappy or frustrated, then physical comfort is not much of help...If you maintain a
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calm, peaceful state of mind, you can be a very happy person even if you have poor health,” (25).

This shows how Remy was able to change her mentality towards unhappiness and how she find

positive things. Also, when she changed her mentality, she was able to have closure and able to

move on from Elizabeth’s death. In the article, “Achieving Happiness: Advice from Aristotle,”

by Michael W. Austin, Austin states how Aristotle believes that happiness is a virtue. Aristotle

believes that, “the life of virtue is crucial for human happiness. When we are just, kind,

courageous, generous, and wise, we experience deep satisfaction and fulfillment that is available

in no other way,” (1). Austin suggests the idea that, because Remy ​had positive and good

intentions​, who did not rely on material possessions to make her happy, she was truly happy

because she chose to be happy and chose to be positive and negative situations. Even though

Remy had a difficult life, she was happy because she wanted to be happy, ​therefore happiness is

a choice.

Throughout both Mark’s and Remy’s life, they had two completely different lives. Even

though they had two completely different lives, they both had an option of fulfilling their own

happiness in their own ways. For example, Mark chose to find his happiness through his material

possessions and Juliet. Because he did not want any other materialistic object and got rejected

from Juliet he let this affect his happiness. Mark chose to not move on from the situation and

loathe in his unhappy state of mind. Unlike Mark, Remy chose to be happy. Remy’s life was

much harder than Mark’s life and she did not have many material possessions. Remy had a hard

life in the concentration camp, but she became one of the happiest characters in the novel,

because she looked at the positive side of situations and did not let negative moments ruin her

day or affect her happiness. In the concentration camp, Remy learned how in order for her to
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survive, she would have to be happy and not let negative situations affect her. Ultimately,

happiness is a choice that can only be decided by the person themselves.

To conclude, everyone’s happiness is based off of their own state of mind and material

possessions. From reading and analyzing different characters from the ​epistolary​ novel, ​The

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society​, the readers will learn how happiness is a choice.

Mark chose to not move on from his situation ​with Juliet​ and decided to be unhappy with his

own life. ​On the other hand,​ Remy chose to be happy and grateful of the things she has and the

memories she has made in her life and while living in the concentration camps.
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Works Cited

“The Alchemy of Suffering.” ​Pursuing Happiness​, by Matthieu Ricard.

Austin, Michael W. “Achieving Happiness: Advice from Aristotle.” ​Psychology Today​,

Sussex Publishers, 26 July 2010,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ethics-everyone/201007/achieving-happiness-ad

vice-aristotle​.

Cutler, Howard. “The Sources of Happiness.” ​Pursuing Happiness,​ by Dalai Lama.

Penney, Amber. “What Makes You Happy?” ​Campus Life​, vol. 59, no. 9, May 2001, p. 46.

Academic Search Premier​, EBSCOhost,

libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=

aph&AN=4419685&site=ehost-live. Accessed 9 May 2018.

Shaffer, Mary Ann., and Annie Barrows. ​Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.​ Allen

& Unwin, 2014.