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Surica Segal

Professor Ditch

English 115 M/W

09 May 2018

The Right Path to Happiness

Happiness and pleasure are two very different things; one is stable while the other is

wavering and inconsistent​ according to His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler​. The

two are easily confused which can lead to a frustration amongst people about their efforts to

achieve happiness and may lead to discouragement. In ​The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel

Pie Society ​by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows I would define Juliet Ashton as happy

because she does not desire for ​most that​ she cannot have and has followed the four noble truths

to liberate herself from suffering, while Markham “Mark” Reynolds is unhappy due to his

desires for those he cannot have and his obsession with worldly possessions and controlling that

which is out of his reach.

The novel is set after World War II, a time when many had lost everything and were

barely getting by. Markham Reynolds was a fortunate American who was blessed with a good

sized fortune, ​which made afford the rationed and overpriced food easier for him to obtain. It is

because of his wealth during a time of life or death that one might perceive him to be happier

than those less fortunate who went without so many necessities in order to feed their families and

maybe themselves.​ Although Markham Reynolds may have had everything he could ever want

due to the amount of money he had, but he was empty underneath the surface. He​ allows​ his

desires to control his mindset and how he lives his life ​which was discussed with great detail in
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the article by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. His Holiness. His Holiness​ The

Dalai Lama ​introduced​ the four factors of fulfillment: wealth, worldly possessions, spirituality

and enlightenment. These embrace the totality of the journey to happiness. While Markham

Reynolds has already attained wealth and worldly possessions, he has not delved into the

spirituality and enlightenment aspects, leaving him at a loss of happiness. ​Without those certain

aspects he only obtains the unstable pleasure that with eventually disappear with time.

Markham Reynolds starts off slowly and passively trying to gain the attention of Juliet

Ashton through buying her pleasure in the medium of flowers. This ​is considered to​ be a form of

passively trying to control her. When Juliet Ashton takes action​,​ as Aristotle discusses in his

article​,​ in order to understand what his courtship meant​.​ Markham Reynolds pounces and begins

to slowly try to take control over her. This goes against what Epictetus argues when he says​,

“Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us,” (Epictetus 88). In order for

Reynolds to achieve happiness he must learn to let things go in order to focus on those that

directly impact his well being. His concern over Juliet Ashton’s involvement with the literary

society is one that wastes his time and energy. He makes her go to the restaurants he wants, the

parties he wants, and skip appointments that have to do with her career. He becomes infuriated

with her infatuation for Guernsey and the friends she has made and demeans her for it. He knows

he has no control over what she wants out of life and it is not the same as what he desires. This

failure to control and the upset it brings Markham Reynolds contributes to his state of

unhappiness.

One of Markham Reynold’s biggest issues is that of which is discussed by Raj

Raghunathan in his article “Why Losing Control Can Make You Happier”, a power stressor or
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“tendency to get angry and frustrated when others don’t behave the way you want them to​,​”

(Raghunathan). Markham Reynolds creates more stress for himself when he tries to take control

of those around him than anything else in his life. He allows his need for control to take over his

journey to happiness and ultimately destroys his chances with anyone he gets involved with.

Juliet Ashton and most of the other characters in ​Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

have no issue when it comes to controlling others and that is why they are able to find happiness

faster and in an easier way. Power stressors are not something they have to worry about in to get

through life and have relationships and friendships with other people.

There are healthy ways in which one must try to achieve happiness through. Juliet Ashton

sees that what her and Markham Reynolds had was becoming toxic and something that was not

ultimately going to make her happy for the right reasons. She knew that just being with someone

in order to be able to say you have a significant other was not going to be a healthy thing for her

life in the long run. ​Although Markham Reynolds did seem to be devoted to her ever since the

beginning when he wrote, “[G-d] knows, my intentions are pure...I’m entirely at your disposal,”

(Shaffer and Barrows 34-35), ​Juliet Ashton sacrificed a relationship and not finding another man

in order to pursue her career and a path that she was sure would make her happier than where she

was. She put faith in the fact that she would find someone down the line that would see potential

in what she adored doing and would embark on the journey with her.

Despite Markham Reynolds, Juliet Ashton is aware of herself and the things that take

away her possibility of happiness. Juliet Ashton is unhappy at the beginning of ​the novel​​ due to

where she is in her career. In order to develop and become happy she demonstrates the Four

Noble Truths, “Recognizing suffering, Eliminate its source, End it By practicing the path,
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(Ricard 39). She identifies that she does not want to be a comedic writer anymore. She finds a

new topic to write about that does not involve comedy and delves right into it developing a love

for it therefore eliminating her source of suffering by ending it and following on the path to

maintaining it. When Markham Reynolds tries to take control and throw away what makes her

happiest she ultimately decides he is the one that needs to go. It is in this way that her journey to

happiness moves forward.

Unlike Markham Reynolds who remains in the same mindset and doing the same things

over and over, Juliet Ashton takes action. While she asked for help in finding a new path to take

her career on, she ends up finding it all on her own. She does not wait for Sidney Stark or Susan

Scott to find contacts in Guernsey. She develops her relationships and inquires about others and

more information in order to develop her new article. When she realizes that she does not find

what she needs in Markham Reynolds she decides to move on and not waste her time and energy

on something she knows will not ultimately lead to her happiness. The series of action she takes

to develop new relationships and friendships with the people of Guernsey and move from one

area of her career to another is what helps her find her happiness.

One of the biggest and most important things Juliet Ashton did consistently throughout

the text​ is eliminating those people around her that provided negative influences on her life. She

did not go with other publishers that she knew would not support the career path change she

wanted to take, she did not kiss up to all the critics who wanted to find the latest gossip about her

to talk about in their newspapers and magazines and she did not make friends with those who

were busy bodies, sticking their noses in other people’s lives. She made the decision to “break

ties with people who only want to complain and put down others” as discussed in the article by
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Operation Meditation about the easiest ways to find happiness within yourself. While finding

happiness in external things is an important path to happiness, so is making sure the people you

surround yourself with is. Juliet Ashton got rid of Markham Reynolds because she knew all he

was doing was bringing negativity into her life which was entirely unnecessary. She tried to

make room for him in her life, but when he took issue with the one aspect that was becoming the

biggest source of ​her happiness,​ she knew he had to go. It was not something she could change in

him. It was something he had to want to change and he needed to do it on his own for it to

actually work and stick for a significant amount of time.

During the war not many were thinking about their happiness but just surviving and

getting through each day. It is something that we all take too lightly and need to find certain

ways to solve this important problem because it plays into many different aspects of our lives.

Those that lived in Guernsey seemed to only be surviving until their contact with Juliet Ashton.

Then there was a sense of something bigger than themselves to live for. The connection to the

outside world and the love for literature gave birth to strong bonds amongst the friends. These

were bonds created happiness in places where it seemed as though that emotion would never

again be achievable.

A common misconception is that happiness and pleasure are one in the same ​as discussed

by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler​. It is because of this that many find

themselves struggling to achieve what they perceive to be the simple concept of happiness.

Markham Reynolds tries to find happiness in things that will only bring short term pleasures.

Juliet Ashton abides by the four noble truths and aristotle’s philosophy of taking action in order

to achieve happiness in an efficient and intelligent way. While the two cross paths, it is clear that
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Juliet is the only on aware of her inner contentment and actually takes the proper actions in order

to change her life around and bring herself happiness. While Markham Reynolds had all he

wanted in a materialistic sense, he was left feeling empty and unhappy with his world he had

created for himself.

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Works Cited

Epictetus. “From The Handbook of Epictetus.” ​Pursuing Happiness: a Bedford Spotlight Reader,

by Matthieu Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St. Martin’s, a Macmillan Education

Imprint, 2016, pp. 88-95.

Lama, Dalai, and Howard Cutler. “The Sources of Happiness.” ​Pursuing Happiness: a Bedford

Spotlight Reader, ​by Matthieu Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St. Martin’s, a

Macmillan Education Imprint, 2016, pp. 21-33.

Raghunathan, Raj. “Why Losing Control Can Make You Happier.” ​Greater Good Magazine​, 28

Sept. 2016,

greatergood.berkley.edu/article/item/why_losing_control_make_you_happier.

Ricard, Matthieu. “The Alchemy of Suffering.” ​Pursuing Happiness: a Bedford Spotlight

Reader, ​by Matthieu Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St. Martin’s, a Macmillan

Education Imprint, 2016, pp. 34-42.

“Six Easy Ways to Find Happiness Within.” ​Operation Meditation,

operationmeditation.com/discover/six-easy-ways-to-find-happiness-within/.