Prose Narrative: Moralism

I found Johnson's "The History of Rasselas" rather simple to read which was delightfully surprising. I do enjoy deciphering a poem and analyzing an essay but it was rather pleasant to simply have something sit nicely in front of you, a little dull, but nice in the last few weeks of school. The most interesting part of the narrative for me is the happy valley. It really grabbed me simply because it was the most perfect place. The children could live their lives as they pleased and nothing bad would ever happen. They did not need to work and they could play and learn whatever they wanted. They were given everything and anything that they could possibly want or need. Yet they were still missing something. They were missing happiness and an appreciation of what they had. They had no way to appreciate what they had because they had never had anything else. They never had stress or pain or confusion in their lives only happiness and wealth.
I think that we have all experienced this in our lives. Especially as children we all take advantage of what we have and we do not understand or appreciate how lucky we are. We can all say at the very least that we have been raised in one of the most wealthy countries in the world where we are protected and are able to receive such things as free health care. But when we were young we did not understand how lucky we were or how little other people in the world had. It was only after we grew up and were exposed to the awful things that have, and are happening in our world that we do understand our incredible luck. This is exactly what these children are experiencing in the happy valley. They have no way of appreciating what they have because they have not been exposed to anything else.