The True Meaning Of Happiness In David Foster Wallace's This Is Water

Part One The true meaning of happiness can be found in David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” by putting yourself in other’s shoes, and it can be found similarly in Thomas Merton’s “Learning to Live” through the external and inner self. To start, David Foster Wallace explains in “This is Water” how to lead your life to happiness and how to overall become a better person. In his commencement address, he talks about how it is natural for people to automatically think about themselves rather than to not think about others. Wallace believes that people tend to focus on their own thoughts and what is bothering them rather than how other people are feeling and thinking. The solution to this problem according to Wallace is education. He believes …show more content…
In David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water,” he explains that happiness can be found by putting yourself in other’s shoes and thinking about them first instead of before yourself. This can ultimately lead to a happier lifestyle and it can brighten someone else’s day when they are down. Similarly, Thomas Merton explains in “Learning to Live” that to find happiness you have to have the freedom of exploring how you want to learn and how to discover who you are through your external and inner self. By discovering who you are as a person and figuring out what you have to offer to the world in your own way, this can lead you to happiness because of the freedom it gives you. Therefore, the meaning of happiness is what you can do for others and what you can do for the world …show more content…
First off, Into the Wild is about a man named Chris McCandless who goes on a journey through the Alaskan Wilderness in search of happiness after he is betrayed by his family after finding out that his father had a secret second family. Thus, this led to Chris leaving his home and everything behind and going on a trek through the Alaskan Wilderness all by himself. Chris felt betrayed by his family and felt that he could not be happy with the people in his life. He was warned about how dangerous the journey through the Alaskan Wilderness would be, but he disregarded what people tried to tell him and he went on to explore by himself. Not only that, but he prepared very little for his journey so that he could be challenged in ultimately finding happiness out in the wilderness. Once Chris is on the verge of dying of starvation, he realizes how to actually find true happiness. He realizes that happiness cannot be discovered by one’s self, but that happiness is only real when shared with others. Chris ultimately dies of starvation in the end due in part to his lack of preparation leading up to his death. However, he discovers what he believes is the way to