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Azucena Castro

Professor Corri Ditch

English 114A

9 may 2019

How suffering transforms people to know true happiness after feeling pain

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a historical novel, by Mary

Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. This novel is about how was life during WWll When

German soldiers controlled Guernsey during the occupation of the Channel Islands the

islanders were held to a strict curfew and severely oppressed. One of the character that I

chose from this novel is Juliet Ashton. She is The novel's protagonist and his role in this

novel is a writer Juliet is searching for a more serious topic that she can write about under

her own name and my second character is Dawsey Adams he is a native from the island of

Guernsey, the islands located in the English Channel between France and Britain Juliet

receives a letter from him a she decide to Juliet decides to visit her new friends who

is Dawsey Adams over her several months on the island, Juliet also falls in love with

Dawsey and proposes marriage Finally, Juliet realizes what she wants to write about in her

next book. Juliet's drastic life decisions while on Guernsey provide the joy and self-

fulfillment she had been seeking all along. For this reason a can say that Juliet Ashton and

Dawsey Adams are both happy people because analyzing the two characters came to the

conclusion Juliet Ashton she likes to enjoy the little things like for example when she came

to Guernsey she enjoy the landscape also, I consider that she is an admirable and free-

spirited woman, spontaneous, and dedicated to her loved ones but especially to be happy.
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Dawsey Adams is a lovely and stronger man who likes to help other people, he is a man

that everyone admires and I can describe him as a happy and noble person because people

who do not know him want to visit him and bless him for the kindness of him and a person

who is not happy he can not be nice to other people. The way people live in their places can

be happy humans once they have experienced suffering and felt pain, keep bad memories

and secrets, and then people begin to have happy moments experiences and helps then not

feel pain or go through bad experiences ever again.

Juliet Ashton is a woman who in her childhood suffered a lot when she lost her family

and stayed in an orphanage and besides that she was mistreated by a guy who did not give

her much attention but when she grew up she became a brave woman who loved people with

a spirit that she took control of her happiness, Juliet likes to enjoy small things such as, for

example, the clouds, the birds, in other words the landscape. “ it was like that-every bird’s

chirp was weighty and symbolic...clouds boiled up over the cliff-sides, and the fields were

swathed in grey”( Juliet 162).This is important because a person who has pain in the soul

will not notice these small and beautiful things in life because people with suffering are

unhappy and want other people to be so this also shows that she left the past behind and She

started a new life full of love and happiness even for those beautiful things of nature. This

also says that her free spirit makes her think about the future and not the past. Happiness

takes her to another world of love and happiness in a world that she find the person who she

love and she never go back to pass because they don't want to suffer again.

Dawsey Adams is a man who suffered in the war because his parents also died and he was

someone stuttering to bullying also explained in a letter that Dawsey sends to Juliet tells him
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a little about him and tells him that divide to the curfew that there was no war in the past after

9 pm and that it was a crime and that they could not have pigs at all but when he grew up he

became a good man since Juliet says he is a man with a very beautiful smile too she says that

they went to a church also he likes to read books and that he likes to help people a lot but

above all Juliet explains that his new friends have degenerately treated her and in those

friends goes Adams this makes me persuade that he is a happy man. “ he has the sweetest

smile I’ve ever seen… Dawsey took me to a tiny church…” ( Juliet 161, 167). This is

important because in spite of all the bad things that happen because of the war, she is smiling

because she keeps smiling and Juliet explains that she has a charming smile that she had

never seen before. the bad and the suffering do not fill her heart with hatred and that in spite

of everything can be happy since he also says that the stutter that I had with the time that was

growing disappeared these and more reasons I say that he is a happy person and loving

Comparing the article of Brooks with the character of Juliet Brooks says that when

one says pain and suffering people never come back the same he says they always come

back different I compare it because Brooks lost his son and went through the pain of losing

a relative a loved one and Juliet When I was little, I lost my family in the war. Brooks says

you can transform it into something secret and when he says that when you go through

suffering and do not return the same thing, I relate that these people experience happiness

and do not come back in pain since they know the happiness transforming the past the pain

into something sacred and secret of which only memories remain so I relate them. “It

means seeing life as a moral drama, placing the hard experiences in a moral context and

trying to redeem something bad by turning it into something sacred"( Brook 286) this
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means that Brook found his way after having gone through the pain of losing his son and

that in spite of everything that happened he had the courage to transform the past into

something secret and learn to be happy and in spite of all the pain they went through. He

stopped them to be feiz as well as to compare these two persons of pursuing Happiness and

The guernsey literary and the potato skin pie society the best thing of this is that Juliet and

Brooks they lives their life and enjoy the good times.

Reading the article by Graham Hills by Pursuing Happiness and reading The

Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society I can compare Dawsey Adams with Hills

because they are both humble people who found happiness in small things for example

Adams makes happy people with a smile or take them to a small church does not need great

things or material things to be happy as Hills explains that his expansion is small but his

life is great this relates them because after the suffering found happiness in small things. “I

have less… my space is small. My life is big” ( Hill 312). This is important because both

are humble people but with great hearts it is also important because it shows that they are

happy since a person who does not know the true happiness did not pray for others to be

happy and also a person who does not know happiness The only thing that matters are the

luxuries of travel and momentary pleasures and a truly happy person enjoys small moments

and small things.

The article by Aminoff, Bechor who is a Philosophy study explain that if a person is

happy because other people can see them at first sight because they are characterized as

people of good thoughts, good actions and positive feelings “ Human happiness may be

defined as the complex of positive sensations, perceptions, emotions, or thoughts”

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(Bechor). I can relate this to Juliet because she was a free-spirited woman who always had

a smile for others, towards good intentions but above all she had good thoughts, she was

always enchanted that, through books, she transmitted her good intentions. Also Shmotkin

explain in his article that It does not matter if human are happy suffering because both help

in some way.” Either positive or negative both help” (Shmotkin). This is important and I

relate it to Juliet, Dawsey because when they first suffered that I help them to be happy and

never go back to where they were first also important because they were on the sides first

negative and now positive.

Other can argue that Juliet and Dawsey are not happy because when people suffer as

children are left with the trauma of everything that happened and that does not let them be

happy they can also say that with everything that happened they cannot found happiness

anywhere. For example in Lyubomirsky article explain that “if you’re not happy today, the

you won’t be happy tomorrow” this is important because it relates to the two characters

Juliet and Dawsey because they were not happy when they were happy they killed their

family, they were orphaned and also today they have great dreams and memories of how

they were those times of war and in this quote explains that they were not happy with

children, except now with adults.

In conclusion these two people are happy because they show their love for small

things also that despite everything that have happened in their lives they were not converted

by bad people or people who do not know that it is true love and true happiness also with

this I show that happiness after suffering exists that you can keep everything bad as

recurrent or secret but that each person later finds the way to happiness and that knowing
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true happiness does not come back because it is better to be happy all your life than to live

suffering every moment and I relate these two articles of Pursuing Happiness one is the

Brooks that explains how he suffered with the loss of his baby and says that people do not

return the same as they decide to be happy and choose to turn the pain into memory as well

as Juliet who she lost her family because of the war and she experienced being an orphan

but she is a woman full of life and congratulated now, I also do the comparison of Adams

in the book of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Skin Pie with Hills since the two are some

people who discovered happiness in small things and who do not need luxuries or money to

achieve happiness Hills is happy with small space and a big life and Adams is happy and

makes happy to other people with a smile or even helping people that shows that there is

happiness of suffering. Juliet, Adams, Hill and Brook are also examples of how to carry a

pain as great as the loss of a loved one these four people also of how they are happy

without grudges and can lead their lives with a smile and that they do not stop the past

because they know what They want in their lives, since they know that it is pain they do not

want to go back because they decide to take their problems quiet but above all without

being happy, these people have the gift of freedom from suffering as it says in the article of

THE ALCHEMY OF SUFFERING that only a fool decides the suffering and that there is

only one way to break free. “ only a fool wants to go on suffering” ( Ricard 34). This is

important because it also shows that if you already experienced suffering and pain and then

you know the real one happy to go on enjoying life only a fool decides to go back to the

beginning and in this world nobody wants to be a fool, so once you they know happiness,

they do not come back because they learn to love themselves and also other people.
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Work cited

Shaffer, Mary Ann & Barrows, Annie. The Guernsey and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Random house, Inc. 2008. Trade Paperback Edition.

Hills, Graham. “Living with Less A lot Less.” Pursuing Happiness. Ed. Bedford /

St. Martin's. 2016. 308-3123

Brooks, David. “ What Suffering Does.” Pursuing Happiness. Ed. Bedford/ St. 2016.

284-287.

Aminoff, Bechor. "Entropic Definition of Human Happiness and Suffering."

Philosophy Study 3.7 (2013): 609. Web.

https://csun-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-

explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_1science_s30071dfc3f507a99b640ebbd79461413ec587ba9

&context=PC&vid=01CALS_UNO&search_scope=EVERYTHING&tab=everything&lang

=en_US

Shmotkin, Dov, and Amit Shrira. "Happiness and Suffering in the Life Story: An Inquiry

into Conflicting Expectations Concerning the Association of Perceived Past with Present

Subjective Well-Being in Old Age." Journal of Happiness Studies 13.3 (2012): 389-409.

Web.

https://csun-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-

explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_springer_jour10.1007/s10902-011-9270-

x&context=PC&vid=01CALS_UNO&search_scope=EVERYTHING&tab=everything&lan

g=en_US
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