The Measure

One of the larger philosophical questions that Nikki Erlick explores in The Measure is about happiness—who has it, who deserves it, and how humans can achieve it. Through Amie and Ben’s correspondence, Erlick explores the ramifications of the strings on people’s perception of happiness, and offers a way to find happiness in the face of mortality.

With the strings, everyone now knows the length of their lives. In the immediate aftermath, people make changes, the result of a perspective shift that puts their daily lives into a larger context. Whereas before, humans had lived in blissful ignorance of their deaths, the strings have forced them to confront mortality. As a result, happiness seems out of reach, especially for people like Ben, with a short string. He is the first character to raise the idea of happiness directly in the novel. In a letter to Amie, he tells her about a friend of his who “set an alert on his phone to send himself the same message every year on his birthday: ‘Sit down and ask yourself: Are you happy?’” (213) This anecdote starts their conversation on the topic, and as they correspond, they delve more deeply into what it means to be happy, and how Ben can achieve it despite knowing about his short life.

Ben and other short-stringers struggle with the issue of happiness at a level that long-stringers don’t have to confront. Because their lives are shorter, their desire for happiness becomes both more pronounced, and more difficult to achieve. Ben addresses this:

I think we’re raised to believe that happiness is something we’ve been promised. […] But then this box arrived at our doorstep, saying that we don’t get the same happy ending as the people we pass on the sidewalk, at the movies, at the grocery store. They get to keep on living, and we don’t, and there’s just no reason why (213).

The short-stringers search for happiness is complicated by several factors, not the least of which is their envy of the long-stringers’ life expectancy.

Complicating this idea is the question of who deserves happiness. Although, as Ben says, there is no reason behind the short and long strings, as this new reality settles in, the cultural perception of happiness becomes more apparent, and revolves around the question of who deserves it. Ben says, “I think we’re raised to believe that happiness is something that we’ve been promised. That we all deserve to be happy” (213). Following this logic, he notes, means coming to the conclusion that his string is short because that is what he deserves. Katherine echoes this sentiment when she finds out about Jack’s short string, and wonders “why this would happen to him! Or to [her] brother. [Their] family has only ever done good things for this country, and this is how [they’re] repaid?” (182). Although long life is not linked to merit, both Katherine and Ben link string length, and corresponding happiness, to deserving. People like Anthony and Katherine, who have long strings, take it as a sign of their superiority.

However, Amie shifts the conversation when she tells Ben, “[B]y your own measure, you can still be happy. You can live well” (224). She and Ben, and other characters in the story, eventually come to recognize that the happiness of their lives is not defined by the length. Ben and Amie find happiness in acknowledging the reality of his short string, and then living their lives immersed in the present. Through their correspondence, Ben and Amie work through the philosophical ramifications of finding happiness in this new world, and are able to come to conclusions that they apply to their own lives. They move forward, happily, in their relationship, despite knowing that it has an end date. On her way to Central Park to meet Ben, Amie reflects that she “felt truly happy” (316). Although they know that their time together is limited, they have discovered a way to achieve happiness during that time.