A writing instructor tells Perkins to stop writing stories with happy endings. She replies, “I can’t imagine why anyone would try to change the world unless they believed in happy endings.” What do you think of this response? Do you believe in happy endings?
I love happy endings. But sometimes things don’t end up that way. It’s something you have to accept. It’s totally unrealistic to always think there is always going to be a happy ending.
And are there endings? The constant of change and the cycle of life affects the concept of endings for me.
Trying to be an activist in these chaotic times we live in, where everything Frances Perkins stood for and believed is being destroyed, absolutely requires hope. But as Rebecca Solnit puts it, hope is not a belief in a happy ending. It is simply recognizing that no one knows what is going to happen. It is there that we find hope, and the courage to keep on fighting for a brighter, more abundant, more equitable future for all beings on this planet
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All we have its hope right now. We can’t fight - the playing field is not even, the other side has too many advantages and doesn’t play by the laws of the land. We just have to hope our country can survive these times.
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There are no happy endings, each day is a new one, good or bad. Life is a series of experiences, some good, some bad. It is what we take from them that truly matters. As live goes on we learn to take each day and make the best of them. I look at it as each morning that I open my eyes, it is a good one, let it begin.
When I read Perkins’ response about happy endings, it struck me as a little surprising - but nice! I can see why when you are working hard to bring hope and to make the world a better place, you would write fiction with happy endings. While life does not always have happy endings, more and more, I seem to want my stories to have happy endings.
Perhaps “happy endings” is a bit simplistic, even for her instructor. What I think Perkins felt was HOPE, and it would be hard to “fight the fight” without that hope that thinks can be better.
I completely agree with Patricia H and Michelle H.
I also love happy endings. Being a believer in progressive policies it was probably imperative for Frances to believe in happy endings. In order to strive for things that in dark times seem impossible it’s important to have the ability to hope and believe that you can make things better. I need in these horrible times to keep the faith , to believe every protest, ever sign, every boycott will make a difference in saving our democracy.
I think in certain times or stages in our life, happy endings make it possible to keep going. I know Hollwood films were very popular during the big depression. And now that I’m older, I find cruelty, violence, or the good guy losing, too harsh for me, and I frequently let the reading go. So I look for happy endings. Probably why romance novels have become so popular.
I think believing in happy endings is what kept her motivated, especially in the hardest times, and it served her well. She believed the world could be better if people put in the work.
I think she was an optimist. She couldn’t have preserved through her own heartache without thinking something better would be down the road. She had so much personal and professional angst, that would have crushed many. She had to fight for justice in her work,and her personal life was harder. Dealing with mental illness is hard anytime, but in the twenties/thirties, before medicines, I don’t know how she did it. As for me,I like happy endings when I read romance,but I’m also a realist, so get your happiness where you can.
I think anyone who wants to change the world must at least believe in the possibility of happy endings. To believe that there is no possibility of a happy ending leads to despair. Why work toward change if you are convinced that it will never happen? Frances had an optimistic sense of agency. She not only believed that things could change for the better, she believed that she could make that change happen.
I think people who try to change the world have an idea of what THEIR happy ending looks like. I’d like to think that most people are looking out for each other,but not everything ends happily. Unless you’re in a Hallmark movie!