In the text, Fences, I
think that happiness is emphasized more as an individual’s happiness being
important rather than many people being happy together. I think that Troy was
only thinking about himself when he cheated on Rose. I believe that he only
told her because of the guilt it was causing him. "'I stood on first base
for eighteen years and I thought...well, goddamn it...go on for it'" (71).
I think that this was a very selfish thing to do considering that this would
make both Rose and their children very unhappy. The book also emphasizes
individual’s happiness by what Cory was doing. Cory wants to play football so he
was willing to completely forget about his responsibilities and his job in
order to do this. I think that there was definitely a better way that Cory
could have balanced out both to insure that he and his dad were both content with his choices.
I think that in our society, happiness is something that we
all strive for. It is presented as something that every individual should want
and deserves. I do not think that it is over glamorized in our society because
it is a very important trait. Although, I do not believe that how it is portrayed
is an accurate reality. Like the pictures, society shows that happiness should
be a huge priority in one’s life and one should directly focus on their own
happiness. In my opinion this is not how it should be. Individuals should be
more focused on creating other’s happiness and doing the unselfish thing. Creating
other’s happiness could actually have a huge impact on certain individuals. Happiness is a right for everyone. Not everyone will be happy if people are only focusing on creating joy for themselves.
These two versions of happiness overlap in the sense that
both societies are working to only better themselves. Why should happiness only
revolve around individuals? Why not big groups? I believe that both societies
should begin to look for happiness in others instead of themselves. 
Although I wrote a lot of opposite points as you did on my blog post, many of the things that you said opened my eyes and made me think in a new perspective.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you stated, "It is presented as something that every individual should want and deserves. I do not think that it is over glamorized in our society because it is a very important trait" since it is something important and something that every person deserves to feel. In my blog post, I said that happiness was over glamorized; but I now believe that maybe it is over glamorized for a reason, it is something that everyone should feel and deserves to feel.
I support all of your thinking, especially when you said that it was selfish of Troy to cheat on Rose and that he was only thinking of himself. Some more evidence to backup that thinking would be "All of a sudden it's 'we.' Where was 'we' at when you was down there rolling around with some godforsaken woman? 'We' should have come to an understanding before you started making a damn fool of yourself. You're a day late and a dollar short when it comes to an understanding with me." (68)
ReplyDeleteI strongly believe what you are saying in your paragraph about them being happy only when it comes to themselves, and not thinking about happiness for others as well as themselves. But I would say in the real world many people do think about creating happiness for others. An example is all the charities we have, Its donating your own money to help people who are less fortunate .
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