Paired Texts > You Can Buy Happiness, If It's An Experience

by Maanvi Singh

2014

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

Excerpt from 'A Christmas Carol': Marley's Ghost

Excerpt from 'A Christmas Carol': Marley's Ghost

Charles Dickens

In the first chapter of A Christmas Carol, titled "Marley's Ghost," a greedy old miser by the name of Ebenezer Scrooge is visited in the night by an old friend, who warns him to change his ways before it is too late.

Pair “You Can Buy Happiness, if it’s an Experience” with “Excerpt from A Christmas Carol: Marley’s Ghost” and have students contrast the news article with Dickens’ story. Does the study seem to support or contradict the story? Do students relate more to Dickens’ theme, or the study’s findings?

10th Grade Fiction 930L
The Golden Touch

The Golden Touch

Nathaniel Hawthorne

This text is Hawthorne's retelling of the classic myth of King Midas, whose greedy wish for a "golden touch" ends up taking away what is most valuable to him. 

Pair "You Can Buy Happiness, If It's An Experience" with “The Golden Touch” and have students contrast the news article with Hawthorne’s story.

8th Grade Myth 1150L
Keeping Up with the Joneses

Keeping Up with the Joneses

CommonLit Staff

The phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" describes the habit of trying to compete with your peers' social status, wealth, and possessions. This article explores our systems of status and class, and why there exists this pressure of social competition.

Pair “Keeping Up With the Joneses” with “You Can Buy Happiness, If It’s An Experience” and ask students to contrast the central ideas of the two texts. If, according to this study, people are made happier from experiences than property, why do we feel compelled to own all the same things as our peers?

8th Grade Informational Text 1240L
An Overview of the Great Depression

An Overview of the Great Depression

Jessica McBirney

In the informational text "The Great Depression," Jessica McBirney discusses the various causes and effects of the Great Depression, as well as how America's economy eventually recovered.

Pair “You Can Buy Happiness, If It’s an Experience” with “An Overview of the Great Depression” and ask students to discuss how Americans’ happiness was likely affected by the Great Depression. How did Americans continue to enjoy their lives during the Great Depression, despite having little money? To what extent did incorrect beliefs about the relationship between money and happiness shape the events that led up to the Great Depression?

7th Grade Informational Text 1020L
The Keys to Happiness: Partly Genetic, But You Control the Rest

The Keys to Happiness: Partly Genetic, But You Control the Rest

ABC News

The informational text "The Keys to Happiness: Partly Genetic, But You Control the Rest" discusses how genetics and personal choices influence a person's level of happiness.

Pair “You Can Buy Happiness, If It’s an Experience” with “The Keys to Happiness: Partly Genetic, But You Control the Rest” and ask students to discuss how the two texts explore achieving happiness. What similar suggestions do the two articles give readers for improving their level of happiness?

10th Grade Psychology 1160L
Scientists Reveal Three Keys to Happiness

Scientists Reveal Three Keys to Happiness

ABC News

The informational text "Scientists Reveal Three Keys to Happiness" discusses Stephen and Rachel Kaplan's findings on how to achieve happiness.

Pair “You Can Buy Happiness, If It’s an Experience” with “Scientists Reveal Three Keys to Happiness” and ask students to compare the two texts’ claims about happiness. How does the happiness that experiences bring people relate to the benefits of spending time in nature?

10th Grade Informational Text 1060L
Joy

Joy

Molly McGinnis

In Molly McGinnis' poem "Joy," a speaker describes various things that bring them happiness.

Pair “You Can Buy Happiness, if It’s an Experience” with “Joy” and ask students to discuss how both texts explore achieving happiness. Do students think that the speaker of “Joy” would agree that you can buy a form of happiness? Why or why not?

8th Grade Poem
Serving in Florida: Excerpt from Nickel and Dimed

Serving in Florida: Excerpt from Nickel and Dimed

Barbara Ehrenreich

In "Serving in Florida: Excerpt from Nickel and Dimed," author Barbara Ehrenreich talks about the first steps and early struggles in her social experiment. 

Pair “You Can Buy Happiness, If It’s an Experience” with “Serving in Florida: Excerpt from Nickel and Dimed” and ask students to discuss how money “buys” happiness in each text. How does one even buy happiness if they don’t have the money to begin with?

11th Grade Memoir 1470L