In Troy’s point of view in Fences, I think that happiness is something that he feels like he
really deserves after the things that he does for his family—he’s pretty much the
only person who works, he’s pretty much the reason why they have clothes, food,
and a roof over their head—and this is why he thinks that he deserves to be
happy. For Troy, he doesn’t really feel that he gets happiness from being with
the family that he has now because he’s too preoccupied with wanting to provide
for his family and him going out and cheating on Rose with someone else in a way
makes him happy because he wouldn’t be held accountable for any responsibilities
towards his mistress.
I
think that our society presents happiness as something that is a necessity in
life. Every day, people want to be happy—whether it’s caused from the littlest
or biggest things in lives. For example, something as little as saying “hello”
to someone can make them happy for the rest of their day. I think that the way
happiness is presented in our society is an accurate portrayal of reality just
because every day, the only thing people want is for themselves to be happy or
for those they care about to be happy and they’ll do everything that they can
to make someone happy. For me, I feel as if happiness is a right. I feel like
happiness is a right because everyone in the world deserves to be happy at some
point in their life. There’s no way that someone doesn’t deserve to be happy,
even if they did something that others thought of as a reason for them to not
deserve happiness.
Overall,
I think that these two versions of happiness—in Fences and in our world today—overlap in some points. I think that
they overlap in some points because Troy feels that he needs to get happiness
from somewhere outside of the house because when he’s in the house, all he can
think of is the responsibilities that he has for his wife and his kids. This
point overlaps with the way today’s society portrays happiness because if
someone is always doing things for others to be happy, they’re going to get
tired of making others happy and will want it. They’re going to go out and do
something that will make them happy. With Fences,
I feel like they will go out and find happiness when they want it whereas in
today’s society, some people just kind of hope that happiness will just one day
land in front of them but in reality, you kind of have to go out and do stuff
so that you can be happy—you can’t really just expect happiness to happen.
Good jobs! I liked how you defined Troy's happiness in his family and how your described why he does not feel happy anymore with them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point of view of happiness in our society and how important is for us to succeed in it.
Also the last analysis of the two versions of happiness is very descriptive and well done.
I agree that Troy believes that he deserves happiness and I think that you included all the correct arguments for why he believes this. "'I don't give you everything I got. Don't you tell that lie on me.''' (71). This helps to further develop your argument that Troy believes that he does everything he can and has helped his family immensely.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your point on view on the topic, it is strongly supported by the facts from the text focused mostly on Troy. we can see the clear connection you made between society and Troys views of happiness but with the difference between the text and viewpoint of society.
ReplyDeleteBut what if troy is leaving the house because he can't feel happiness anymore from being around his family, not because he has only spent time making others happy?
we can see this a little when he talks about the other woman he is using to cheat on rose. he talk about how he was always stuck for 18 years with rose, and that he got tired of it. so he took a chance and got another girl to see if he can find happiness again.
Although I disagree with a lot of the points that you argued, after reading this I see your point of views. For example, when you were talking about how even the littlest things as saying hello to someone could cause happiness. In my post I argued that money is the main cause of everyone's happiness, which I still feel strongly about.
ReplyDelete