Our society teaches us what is acceptable and what to do in our everyday lives. Is it possible it impacts how we feel happy? An individual’s happiness is unrelated to the society surrounding them, as it can’t dictate how we feel; yet, it changes our perspective of happiness. In the book, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, happiness is depicted as scarce for the soldiers during the war, but is abundant in the society surrounding them.
We are in a world where the media dictates our definition of success as wealth and popularity, the world back in 1910’s had the idea that success was having a powerful nation and fighting for that nation. This impacts your happiness but it does not completely dictate it. Happiness comes from the individual, yet the individual may be happy when they make the society proud.
War is a hostile environment, where almost no emotion survives, other than bitter humor and the will to survive. Paul is “Lost in remoteness” and is “In weakness”. “There is nothing here that a man can hold on to.” (149) Paul knows he is suppose to feel happy, as he is serving his country, but he can’t, his innocence stripped away from him. Remarque creates the setting of absolute loss of emotions, to the point where the character can faintly feel happiness, yet is also so lost in fear and his memories, they are clouded by thoughts of the war.
Due to the war causing their discomfort, Paul and his friends find most of their happiness when they are doing things that distract them from the war. Things such as cooking pancakes. Paul shows his love for pancakes and it is evident that the pancakes are something he really cares about. They are one of his favorite foods from his past life and he is so set on cooking them. The explosions come so fast that the splinters strike again and again against the wall of the house and sweep in through the window.” (235) This part of All Quiet On The Western Front. describes how Paul’s happiness works perfectly. Paul is ignoring the fact that bombs are dropping on him and is focusing more on the pancakes. As soon as the distraction is made from the war, happiness can ensue. Another time Paul is distracted from the war is when he dies. That’s when it’s all over and he no longer has to worry about it. Paul seems to be relieved that he can be done with all of the horrors of the war that he can just relax, and ignore all of the war. Happiness of the soldiers comes to them when they aren’t thinking about the war.
The happiness of the society, however contradicts the happiness of the soldier, or in this case, the individual. “But my father would rather I keep my uniform on so that he could take me to visit his acquaintances. But I refuse.” (164) Paul demonstrates how society and the individual's happiness differ. The society is proud of how Paul has went to war and fought for his country, yet Paul has different views and thinks it’s horrible that he went to war. One side is happy while the other isn’t. Paul wants to push his experience on the war front as far away as possible, yet that is the exact opposite of what society wants. Society prefers to see him fight it out with their enemy, even though it hurts his happiness. The actions of the individual shape the happiness of society. When Paul is out there fighting the enemies, he is struggling, losing his happiness while society becomes happier and happier. Yet when Paul does what makes him happy, such as beating up Himmelstoss, it hurts societies happiness. It is not a direct correlation, as the individual can be happy while society is happy, like when he is bonding with his fellow soldiers. It makes the army and society happy, while he is enjoying himself, yet there is a contrast in most cases. The individual causes the happiness of society based on their actions. The difference is that the society describes happiness as when society as a whole is happy. The soldier is willing to ignore his thoughts, emotions, and needs to give back to the society. Paul is willing to fight the war, even if he personally may not want to, he still does so society can be happy as that is the ultimate goal. Nationalism at that time made many people believe this.
Overall, society has an impact to a certain degree on an individual's happiness, yet does not dictate it. A person can be happy yet not fit under the society’s norms of happiness, but the person usually enjoys fitting under those norms as they do have an impact on the person. Society plays an important role in happiness, but does not have complete power over the individual for it.
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