What causes happiness?

Some people in life may consider happiness to be a state of mind or just a minor occurrence, when in reality it happens all around us every day. In the playwright, Fences, we see that the main protagonist is not very content with his life as a mere garbage man, but tries to make the best of it. At one point in the story, Troy says that he had the perfect life, “I fooled them, Rose. I bunted. When I found you and Cory and a halfway decent job... I was safe.” (69-70). Unfortunately, something in his life was a either a little bit too dull, or he just needed some more excitement in his life, “Then when I saw that gal… she firmed up my backbone. And I got to thinking that if I tried… I just might be able to steal second –“(70), or he was selfish for his own personal greed. Back in those days, happiness was given through booze, baseball and in Troy’s case, having an affair with another woman.

Now how does society treat happiness? Society treats happiness about the people you spend time with, or the memories that you make. Happiness correlates with how you want to make the best in your life worth something. Giving back to a homeless shelter or even cleaning up our streets from the trash and garbage careless people throw down is how some people gain confidence and boosts their happiness. Other people gain happiness through the possessions that you receive, such as the dog you always wanted, or that new car come around Christmas time. In the playwright, Troy was happier to be able to keep the roof over his head and provide for his family than buy a TV, “Two hundred and sixty four dollars… cash money. While you thinking about a TV, I got to be thinking about the roof… and whatever else go wrong around here.” (32), which he believes is an immediate concern and does it for his family to provide and take care of them.

Both of these perspectives correlate with each other, as both of them have to do with either providing for your family, or making the best of your life while you are here on Earth. They differ in the fact that Troy just has the wrong way of thinking about happiness. He thinks that happiness is the feeling of actually being happy, but in retrospect happiness can be fixing that roof, or spending time with your wife, kids and friends. He tries so hard to make all of their problems go away, when he should honestly just have Rose’s mindset of only crossing bridges when they get to them, and not letting the continued stress of keeping the family afloat get to him so hard, that he has to find happiness away from his family.