Little Miss Sunshine

The statement 'Our happiness depends on the strength of our relationships' is largely true, as an individuals happiness or subsequent dissatisfaction is often a mirror image of the many interpersonal relationships surrounding them; however our happiness as whole relies on many other aspects impacting our lives. This is shown in the film Little Miss Sunshine, the short story 'A mother's fondness' by Marion Rachel Stewart and the poem 'Aussie Love Poem' by Anonymous. These three texts successfully demonstrate the effect that strong relations have on ones happiness.

The film Little Miss Sunshine is a great representation of the above statement, demonstrated by the relationships between all of the family members. In the film, the character 'Dwayne' does not have good relationships with any of his family members, which reflects in his unhappiness throughout the film. In the dinner scene at the start of the film Dwayne writes a note to Frank saying "I hate everyone", Frank then asks "What about your family?", resulting in Dwayne underlining 'everyone' to exaggerate his hate towards his family. His vow of silence is an underlying factor of his general unhappiness and hatred towards his family.

Furthermore, the connection between happiness and relationships can be viewed in the short story 'A mother's fondness', as the daughter is unhappy with the way her mother treats her. The mother and her daughter have a relationship of turmoil as every time they communicate, a fight results. Through viewing both sides of the story, we can see how much the mother truly cares for her daughter; however, due to the tension in the relationship and resulting poor communication, the daughter never sees this side to her mother. This results in the daughter's unhappiness, reflected by how hurt she feels at her mothers handling of the situation.

The poem 'Aussie love poem' shows a strong relationship between a man and his wife. In stanza 4 the poem says "The moment that we met, I...