Happiness

In the book Fences I don’t think there is a real meaning of happiness. I think that everyone has a daily routine and that they need a little escape. It’s one of the most important things to a person; fulfillment. If we look at Cory, he likes to play football instead of work. That’s what makes him happy after school; that’s his escape from his normal routine for a while. Same with troy; he provides for his family five days of the week and on Fridays he goes to “Taylors”; usually going to see Alberta as his sort of “escape”. Even though it involves hurting his wife, to Troy, standing at “first base” or waiting for something to start just wasn’t enough. He feels like he can be his true self around Alberta and that makes him happy.

I think society over glamorizes happiness completely. When people think of happiness; money is right behind it. Certain TV shows sort of pull you in to this train of thought that, in order to be happy I got to be like that, rich, famous, and liked by all. Even commercials push being happy and even cool. The new Chevy Silverado ad that compares a man with a truck and a man with a corolla. They bring in “real” women and ask who they would go for, giving the viewer an idea that that truck is for sure going to bring me happiness. I think that we all have to find out what happiness means to us personally and strive to do that every day. Happiness in the book and in real life overlap because Cory is doing the same thing. He is trying things out and pursuing what he is good at. He likes football not working at a grocery store, and he thinks he could go somewhere with it and in his mind, if he can do something he likes and it can make him successful, then that’s what he will do.