What is Happiness..?

Happiness in this book is a confusing thing because each character has a different definition of happiness. Troy finds happiness as living his life and providing for his family but also having something he can escape to. For example, the woman that he had a baby with was his way of escaping his daily routine of working, coming home, and providing for the family. "'I can laugh out loud...and it feels good. It reaches all the way down to the bottom of my shoes. Rose, I can't give that up'" (69). For Rose, happiness is a different story, she defines happiness as being with her family, loving, and caring for the people that she is closest with. This is why she stays home to cook and clean while Troy is out being the breadwinner. For Cory, happiness means doing what he loves you and he loves playing football but his dad doesn't think that he will be happy in the long run. I don't think happiness has an overall definition in this book just because each character has their own way of looking at things in a happy or negative way.

Our society presents happiness kind of like the book fences does. Each individual in our society perceives happiness in a different way happiness can be a routine that you do daily and you can be perfectly happy with that or doing something different every day. I think happiness is over glamorized because we are so infatuated with the fact that we can live every day being happy with who we are but society makes it hard on people. I would say happiness is not an accurate portrayal  of reality because being real doesn't mean that you're happy all the time sure you can overall be happy and have happiness but there will always be negativity in the world. I don't think happiness is a right because I think we decided our own happiness and it shouldn't have to be a right to be happy with your life.

Lastly I would say happiness in the book fences and in the real world is close in comparison because each individual has their own definition of happiness. Although I do think the real world has a big society influenced happiness and by that I mean society tells us what we need to be happy. In the book I feel like each character knows what they want to be happy but the reality is that they can't find it. I would say comparing the book to reality doesn't justify what happiness really is but then again neither does the real world.