Many live trying to decipher the riddle of life. What is life? What is the purpose? What does it make? Even if we only seek happiness, why can we never achieve it? When we achieve happiness, why can't we grasp it and hold on to it for more than a few hours that pass like seconds? The question we must first answer is "What makes happiness true?". The movie “Into the Wild” shows Chris, a young adult, trying to get to Alaska. His beliefs in freedom and isolation from the modern world drive him to go to Alaska in hopes of finding that simple goal: happiness. He struggles and faces obstacles that prevent him from reaching his destination. Weird people, smart people, old people, young people; he met all these unique individuals on his journey. Each had a small impact on his thoughts and adventure. One person in particular, a young girl hidden as a subplot, is the final point of why his decision to leave not only the modern world but the people around him was not the way to achieve the goal that seems so far away. Happiness. This girl lived in a trailer park where free-spirited individuals were willing to slow down their lives and enjoy it. One aspect that made this type of life different from any normal neighborhood was that the inhabitants always shared with each other. This vital aspect of these people was never noticed by Chris. This proved detrimental in his short time in Alaska until his death in pain. In the two nonfiction pieces, “Skiing with the Dalai Lama” and “An Account of Happiness,” they assert similar beliefs about happiness. In both they show things that gave happiness for a short period of time. But both show something that will give happiness more than those... middle of the paper... materialistic. Happiness is creating through everything you enjoy, but not everything you enjoy creates happiness that lasts forever. Lifelong happiness was that thing that made not only you happy, but also the people around you. The movie “Into the Wild” shows that simply leaving society is not what creates the happiness everyone seeks. The little things like those explained in the poem "Happiness" are similar to all the pieces and the film. The Dalai Lama told the maid, in “Skiing with the Dalai Lama,” that happiness is up to human beings to decide what makes true happiness. But based on the information contained in poems, stories and films, the way to achieve happiness is simpler than humans do. If we take a step back and look, the answer is pretty clear. The answer to this question is that happiness is not true if it is not shared.