Throughout peoples lives they pursue their own happiness, whatever that may involve. However there are many different ways that people can go about attaining this happiness. Some may do it the honest way with hard work and determination, yet there are others who do things that they know are wrong but they do anyway to help them achieve their happiness. This idea that the ends justify the means can sometimes inhibit that person from achieving their happiness. For example Martha in The Misunderstanding, by Albert Camus, and all of the characters in the play Line, by Israel Horovitz, attempt to achieve happiness through wrongdoings and deception and in the end ultimately fail to achieve their happiness. However in the movie Stranger than Fiction the main character Harold Crick achieves happiness through compassion and perseverance and therefore is able to keep his happiness.  The manner by which one tries to achieve happiness is imperative to whether or not they can attain such happiness.

             In order for Martha to receive the happiness that she feels she deserves she needs to move out of the confines of that desolate hotel. She wants to live by the sea in a place where, as she says, “the sun kills questions”(6), however for her to be able to move and live her life she needs money, which she doesn’t have. Since there are not many guests at their hotel she deems it necessary to take drastic measures in order to obtain the money. She decides to kill the guests who stop by and take all of their money. To her this is the quickest way to get the money she needs to be happy. Eventually, she only needed to kill one more man in order to get enough money to move, however she doesn’t know that it is her brother, Jan.  He is waiting for the right time to surprise his mother and sister with his return. On his first day home he doesn’t announce his return and that night he is killed. Ironically Jan was there to provide financial help to them since their father had recently died.  Therefore the way in which they went about getting the money prevents them from attaining happiness, because mother kills herself after she realizes what she’s done. Without Mother, Martha is not able to find happiness and therefore can never live her life how she wished.  If she had done the right thing and tried to make the money through honest virtues, Jan would have come and been able to give her money and in turn, her happiness. Since she decided that killing was the way to get the money, and she kills her brother, she permanently ruined her chances of ever finding happiness. This is why it is imperative to go about achieving happiness the right and honest way.

             The same is true in the play Line by Israel Horovitz. For the characters in this play to be happy they feel that they need to be in the front of the line.  However by simply going by who got there first, each one uses deceit and lies to ensure they are the first.  Fleming said “I spent the night in first. Right up there at the white line. Got my sack here with food and drink. I’m prepared. Prepared to be first. Not second. Not third. Not fifth. I’m prepared to be first”(33).  This is the honest and honorable way to attain first place, however it is taken from him dishonestly.  This in turn starts a domino effect and everyone starts using trickery and deceit in order to be first. For example Stephen tricks everyone to think that the line starts on the other side, yet once everyone follows and goes to the other side, he slips into first place on the right side of the line. These attempts to become first, ultimately mean nothing because each of them end up in first, of their own line. Therefore since they went about becoming first the wrong way, none of them were able to truly be first.

In the movie Stranger Than fiction the main character, Harold Crick, is an IRS agent and lives a very boring, monotonous life. However one day audits a baker, Ana Pascal, with whom he falls in love. He sees that being with her will make him happy, and he goes about this the honest way through hard work and determination. For example he buys her bags of flour as a gift, and that is when she falls for him.  In the movie he is the main character in a book, therefore the author holds his fate in her hands. The author says “But if the man does know he’s going to die, and dies anyway…dies willingly, knowing he could stop it…you tell me…Isn’t that the type of man you want to keep alive?”(115).

 Even though all of the author’s books end with the main character dying, she feels that she can’t do this to this particular character because of his attitude towards life and the honest way he lives it. This honest and natural way that Harold Crick was able to get his happiness with Ana ultimately saved his life, and allowed him to live and enjoy the happiness that he deserved and earned.

            The way in which people go about getting their happiness can be a crucial factor in whether or not they are able to be content with life. Since Harold used hard work and determination to get his happiness he was able to thoroughly enjoy the life that he earned. However Martha’s way of getting her happiness, killing for money, is what prevented her from being able to live and enjoy the life that she wanted. Therefore it is imperative to achieving ones happiness that they do the right thing and go about getting it honestly.

I chose this topic because I thought that it was a prevalent theme in each work. I was trying to convey the importance of how someone goes about achieving happiness. The fact that it was a multi-genre essay made it hard for me because I had never written an essay like this before. I think that i was able to convey the point that I was trying to prove. e