The Promise Of Happiness Analysis

We make choices. Some choices we regret and others we will never forget. The choices that we make throughout our life is what shapes us; whatever we did is what we chose to be. This can correlate to Sara Ahmed’s book, The Promise of Happiness because she is interested to see how happiness is related to some life choices and not others (2). She questions what happiness can do for an individual and how much happiness an individual has which can affect the choices we make for ourselves and others around us. The life choices we make can correlate to Ahmed’s claim for the wish and will people have for happiness. “In wishing for happiness we wish to be associated with happiness, which means to be associated with its associations” (2). If you choose the right associations within society then happiness will come along with it. Within the social media society, teens like to call happiness a …show more content…
Ahmed calls marriage a “happiness indicator” (6). Ahmed tells us that a happiness indicator functions as not only a measure of happiness but a predictor as well (6). Marriage is a happiness indicator because it is predicted that if you find your true love you will be happy, but that is not always the case. If you associate yourself with the wrong people, then your happy marriage will take a turn for the worst. You can end up in an abusive relationship or with a soulmate who cheats. In most cases, this results in a divorce. This relates to Ahmed’s claim, “If we have a duty to promote what causes happiness, then happiness itself becomes a duty” (7). If we go through daily routines on how to be married, then we are teaching ourselves that marriage is a duty or job rather than a booster. Marriage boosts our happiness and teaches us how to not only be happy on our own but with someone else as well. If we associate ourselves with a soulmate who boosts our happiness and supports us in everything we do, then we can find ourselves becoming