US Supreme Court clerk, successful lawyer, professional writer, proud mother, and loving wife; what else could Gretchen Rubin ask for? Happiness: she just wanted to be happier with her life. With that, she took an interesting approach to the situation; starting a year- long happiness project. Afterward, she wrote a memoir about her experience which had a very unique structure. Gretchen Rubin organized her literary work in a distinctive fashion to articulate the central ideas and purpose of her conquest: happiness. In order to understand the effectiveness of the novel’s structure, comprehension of the text is necessary; so, what was Gretchen’s happiness project about? In Gretchen’s words, “it is changing your life without changing your life.”
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For example, specifically in chapter six, the author addresses the points: remember birthdays, be generous, show up, don’t gossip, and make three new friends. (Rubin 141) Even though the entirety of the chapter focused on the concept of friendship, it could be difficult to understand what Gretchen actually did to put her resolution into practice. To alleviate the problem, the author incorporated dozens of real life examples of how she implemented her resolutions. One example from chapter six was about remembering peoples’ birthdays. Gretchen said, “All the happiness experts emphasized the importance of strengthening bonds with friends—but how exactly are you supposed to do that? At a bare minimum, you can remember birthdays.” (G. Rubin 143) Such a small gesture will strengthen ties between two people and elevate your happiness. Also, a personal snippet of information, such as this, helps the reader mentally grasp the concepts of how to strengthen a certain aspect of happiness; and that is the ultimate goal! The author is looking to convey the chapters’ message to the audience, and the description of her own resolutions is as a superb medium for just that. If the author had not organized the chapters around her personal resolutions, the value of the message being expressed by the author would have
For example, specifically in chapter six, the author addresses the points: remember birthdays, be generous, show up, don’t gossip, and make three new friends. (Rubin 141) Even though the entirety of the chapter focused on the concept of friendship, it could be difficult to understand what Gretchen actually did to put her resolution into practice. To alleviate the problem, the author incorporated dozens of real life examples of how she implemented her resolutions. One example from chapter six was about remembering peoples’ birthdays. Gretchen said, “All the happiness experts emphasized the importance of strengthening bonds with friends—but how exactly are you supposed to do that? At a bare minimum, you can remember birthdays.” (G. Rubin 143) Such a small gesture will strengthen ties between two people and elevate your happiness. Also, a personal snippet of information, such as this, helps the reader mentally grasp the concepts of how to strengthen a certain aspect of happiness; and that is the ultimate goal! The author is looking to convey the chapters’ message to the audience, and the description of her own resolutions is as a superb medium for just that. If the author had not organized the chapters around her personal resolutions, the value of the message being expressed by the author would have