The Happy Man By Najib Mahfouz example essay topic

The story by Najib Mahfouz called The Happy Man is a story that has great meaning. It is about a man who is a writer for a newspaper company and one morning he awakens and decides that he is very happy. He decides that he life is perfectly happy. Throughout the day he makes many decision and there is a sequence of events which are based on the fact that he has perfect happiness in his life. In fact it is the theme of the story.

In my opinion perfect happiness is impossible and the man in this story proves it in the fact that he loses his will and heart to work or write, he loses his sympathy for the worlds problems, and he loses interest to be with people. In the Happy Man after the man wakes up and feels very happy he finds out the he loses his passion to so his job. In the book he just decides he no longer wants to do his job. "Suddenly he felt that the office was too small for him; he had no desire to work". (CD) These words sum it up. That small of a thing caused him to decide he no longer wanted to go to work and write for the newspaper.

He didn't know why he just felt to happy. "The mere thought of his daily work was treated with absolute indifference and contempt, and he failed completely to bring his mind down from the heaven of bliss". (CD) In addition to not wanting to do the job he felt that the job was actually a not worth doing. He had to much happiness and didn't care. He couldn't write any stories in the newspaper because he couldn't put voice and opinion into the topics. (CD) He realized that you can't write a good article if you don't feel anything.

His intense happiness is all he could feel and it overwhelmed his other feelings. So in other words he could not find the devotion to do his job and he didn't want to search for it (SUM). He felt that his life was wonderful without it. He was just happy The Man's almost terrifying happiness could not be over come by sadness even when he thought of the worst of the world's problems. (TS) His happiness provided isolation from the problems of the world. In the book the it the author states, "Whenever he remembered a problem, his heart chuckled joyfully".

(CD) I feel that he knew it was wrong to be laughing at such things but he was in a state of mind that he couldn't shake. This quote shows that he is just trying to prove that you can be happy no matter what is in your life. Another line that I liked was, "He wished to laugh, to dance, to sing, spreading hi infinite mirth over problems of the world". (CD) He wanted to pass around his happiness that he had or thought he had. Inside all he could feel was merriment, nothing less, nothing more, hew was just grand. When he looked back on things that would normally eat him up inside like the death of his wife he blew it off like it was somebody else's wife.

(CD) The man just wanted to be happy and would do anything to stay at that zone because he was the happiest man alive. Not only did he blow off the worst of the worlds problems, but he also looked past the worst of his own problems. He was so happy that he lost all interest in socializing with people. (TS) Throughout the day he got worse and worse. His reaction, to the thought of the first letter that he received from his son that stated that he was going to emigrate to Canada, was laughing.

(CD) He laughed because he knew that his son was one less person that he had to talk with. In his mind that was happiness. In my opinion that is not happiness. During that same day the man was supposed to meet his friends at the club, but he felt that he did not want to join the endless talks about public affairs or private worries. (CD) He was in a world of happiness and that would ruin his day. His friends conversations did not make him happy.

His day was completely full of gaiety. Another quote is, "Will this feeling deprive him forever of his work and friends, of his sleep and peace of mind?" (CD) The man is not denying that the feeling of joyfulness is not normal. He recognized the strange and un habitual sensation, but his goal was to be happy and try to ignore the bad thoughts. (SUM) In conclusion it is impossible to be entirely happy and that is the theme of the story.

(TS) In this story the man felt that he was happy but he really was not. Work is an essential part of life and you can't be happy without money. He didn't feel like working which will cause much unhappiness in the end and less merrie nes. On top of that issue the main character lost his sensitive side towards world problems and his problems. Without emotions you can't live a life. You cannot feel love, or hate, or sadness.

Without those you are a walking zombie, a dead soul. Finally the Zombie loses his last piece of mind all trying to be a happy person. That is his desire to socialize. No friends is equal to no one to talk to which is equal to a miserable life. In fact you cannot say you have a life without being social. The man in the story might have felt that his life was stuffed with laughter and joyfulness for one day but the next day he will be miserable, because it is impossible to obtain perfect happiness.

(SUM).