The Necessity of Seeking Happiness After Experiencing Abuse

This essay explores the crucial role of happiness in the recovery process for individuals who have experienced abuse. It emphasizes the importance of understanding life in a positive light and examines how therapy can facilitate healing. The analysis includes the film 'Precious,' which portrays a character's resilience in the face of adversity, and 'The Pursuit of Happyness,' which highlights the pursuit of happiness and the American Dream from an individual perspective. The essay also references studies and insights from various authors, such as Ricard and Allott, to underscore the significance of community support and personal choices in achieving happiness. The conclusion reinforces that happiness is essential for achieving individual goals and transforming lives.

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Introduction
Abuse can be a mis-utilization of power intended to cause harm or control another
individual. Such ill treatment in the form of physical, verbal or emotional tends to cause
immense pain and psychological suffering. While, abuse tend to leave psychological harms
which can be highly challenging to heal in comparison to bodily injuries and survivors tend
to have intense, harmful feelings long after the abuse has ended. However, abuses do not
need to have permanence (Tay, Kuykendall and Diener). Thus abusers often seek happiness
and wish to change. The following paper will evaluate the necessity of seeking happiness for
abused. In addition to this, the paper will focus on film Precious and the Pursuit of Happiness
which symbolizes individuals’ ability of managing misery and experience peace in
challenging times.
Discussion
Therapy can facilitate abused to leave destructive associations and recover from the
dreadful experiences. One of the imperative ways in which individuals can help themselves in
seeking happiness is to understand the life in positive terms. The movie ‘Precious’ based on
the renowned novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire is an American drama film. All through the movie,
Precious has used the word ‘Push’ as a intonation further reminding her of the critical time
when she had to give birth to a baby at an young age of 12. The film offers the readers with a
influential experience primarily owing to the storyline which has exhibited a narrow ray of
hopefulness in the dark clouded life of Precious. On the contrary, Ricard has argued that hope
must not be present in all such despair. However, Precious has developed as an odds-defying
blizzard which has beaten the emotional turmoil and significantly influenced the soul and still
becomes successful to put silver-lining on the darkest environment which many have found
to be impossible. Pradana Aquatama has mentioned that the movie Precious revealed that the
protagonist of the story preferred to speak on the personal account of rape incest survivor as

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she had not been able to view it in print prior to this. However, Sapphire the writer of the
novel stood up against the critics who precluded the narrative owing to their belief. Such
convictions have revealed the black community as a whole. Moreover, it had been the
strength of the community which has been considered as one of the aspects which has been
highlighted.
On the other hand, the film “Pursuit of Happyness’ sheds light on the American Dream from
an individual viewpoint. Thus, aligning with the title of the film, the story accentuates on the
constitutional right to "pursue" pleasure and joy, instead of perceiving the right to be happy
(French). Thus, the film has managed to evade focusing significantly on influential racism
and ways in which these factors intended into achieving the dream of the protagonists. On the
other hand, the film managed to shed light on the connection between father and son, through
all the phases of ups and downs of personal conflict in addition to economic unpredictability,
and further takes center stage and produces lovely results.
Meanwhile, Allott in their studies have mentioned that individuals are their own pursuit of
happiness. Individuals tend to seek every possible way which will produce utmost joy and
contentment to them. However, often individuals encounter other individuals who appear to
show greater level of happiness than them. This is due to the fact that these individuals may
truly be at an advantage since happiness acts as a choice which one can take along into their
own lives. The film is considered as a great example of a person who has attained minimal
achievement in life but inclines towards greater degree of happiness and avoids any situations
which tend to disrupt his life. Protagonist Chris Gardner experiences his own pursuit of
happiness with several unconstructive and challenging moments. But his great optimism has
driven him to the ultimate pursuit of happiness (Hitokoto and Uchida). At this juncture, it is
vital to note that community help to manage stress by reassuring the distressed to relax
through meditation or other such happenings.

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Meanwhile, Ricard has noted that Shirley Temple, an American actress dominated the
Hollywood box office as a child artist with her optimistic nature during the period of Great
Depression. While she had to deal with inconsistent moviegoers who lost attention in her
when she grasped adolescence, Temple responded to all these challenges with utmost
prudence.
Conclusion
To conclude, the main reason why happiness is imperative is that it facilitates
individuals to attain additional cherished individualistic ambitions and objectives. Thus,
being happy will help individuals to gain the capacity to transform several lives.

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References
Allott, Daniel. Shirley Temple Cheered Up Depression-Era Film Fans. 2015,
https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/shirley-temple-cheered-
depression-era-movie-audiences/. Accessed 22 Jan 2020.
French, Philip. "Precious | Film Review". The Guardian, 2020,
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan/31/precious-review-philip-french.
Hitokoto, Hidehumi, and Yukiko Uchida. "Interdependent happiness: Theoretical importance
and measurement validity." Journal of Happiness Studies 16.1 (2015): 211-239.
Pradana Aquatama, R. I. O. "Illocutionary Acts On Chris Gardner’s Dialogue In Pursuit Of
Happyness Movie." Language Horizon 4.4 (2016).
Ricard, Matthieu. Happiness: A guide to developing life's most important skill. Atlantic
Books Ltd, 2015.
Tay, Louis, Lauren Kuykendall, and Ed Diener. "Satisfaction and happiness–the bright side
of quality of life." Global handbook of quality of life. Springer, Dordrecht, 2015. 839-853.