OPTION 2:
This option is an exercise in comparing and contrasting. Select two of the four stories we’ve read thus far (“Cathedral,” “The Birth-mark,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” and “The Story of an Hour”). Think about what these stories say about “happiness”–do they depict a uniform view of how people experience happiness? Why or why not? How?
You might even want to pick two specific characters to work with. For example, how does Jig’s experience of happiness differ from Georgiana’s?
I believe that I might have a completely different perspective on the story “Cathedral” than some other people, but I’m going to be a rebel and write it anyway. To me, happiness in this story is marijuana. The scenes where all three central characters smoked pot were a very memorable one to me. The narrator was passing around the “dope” to his wife and her blind friend Robert. One quote from this scene is “My wife sat on the sofa between the blind man and me, I passed her the number. She took it and toked and then passed it back to me. “Which way is this going?” she said. Then she said, “I shouldn’t be smoking this. I can hardly keep my eyes open as it is. That dinner did me in. I shouldn’t have eaten so much”. This is pretty much what happens in real life except for the dinner part. It reminds me of That 70’s Show when all the characters would sit in a circle smoking pot while talking random mumble jumble. I would not personally do pot however, but it sure does seem like a pleasant and enjoyable experience. The high school I used to attend had a ton of potheads sitting around the parking lot close to my school. They seemed like a happy bunch and they reminded me of the three characters in the “Cathedral”. I was not able to completely comprehend the ending of “Cathedral” but I interpreted as an awakening for the narrator. Although the narrator smoked pot daily, he wasn’t able to fully embrace the power of marijuana until he met Robert. Robert allowed the narrator to see what it’s like to be blind and smoke marijuana at the same time. The narrator ended with “It’s really something”, which to me is a sign that he achieved ultimate relaxation and happiness with his marijuana. Perhaps the uniform view of how people experience happiness is through marijuana usage. I don’t think I’ve seen an angry marijuana user ever in my life or have even heard of one. You see angry drug (crack, cocaine, heroin) addicts, angry alcoholics and angry drivers but you never see any angry marijuana addicts. Maybe this story is really telling us something here.
The moral of the story “The Birth-Mark” is perfection is unachievable. Happiness to Alymer is perfection. That is all he cares about and is willing to do anything to obtain his goal. He wants his wife Georgiana to be completely perfect physically and her birth mark turns him into a mad scientist. While he was finally able to get rid of the birth mark, his loving wife died from the removal of it. This short story definitely does not depict a uniform view of happiness. None of us can be perfect and those that strive for perfection often times end up with many consequences as we see here. We all must sacrifice something in order to become almost perfect. For example, Michael Phelps has to devote 10 hours of his life swimming in order to become the best swimmer in the world. Constantly striving and seeking perfection is not a way someone should live their lives. Many of us accept that we aren’t perfect, but we accept who we are and we are happy because of that. (Philip Chen)
