Four page paper

The introduction to the essay would have to introduce the story you are writing about: either the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie story “The Thing Around Your neck.” A brief, one-to-three sentence summary of the plot of the story would probably help set up the essay. Then the intro should make clear that the essay aims to analyze why the characters in the story are (or are not) experiencing happiness in their lives by applying the concepts from Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis. Really, the question you are trying to answer is: how would Haidt analyze these people? What do you think he would say about them?

The body paragraphs (I would imagine there would be roughly 5 – 6 of these to make the page count of 4 full pages) should then analyze a character, or behavior, or event. In the Adichie story, obviously Akunna is the protagonist and would warrant the most scrutiny. Also you might analyze her boyfriend, his parents, and her relatives back in Nigeria.The conclusion should discuss what we (any reader) can learn from the preceding analysis. What are the implications of the story and analysis? What lessons or values has the story implicitly argued for? What might we say the lessons of the story are about family attachments? There are many other lessons one might see in the story also, but this is for you to consider and discuss.

the “The thing around your neck” story and the Haidt book to be cited specifically often, in every paragraph. That means quotes and page number