Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Endings


Why do we love to see Happy Endings? As humans beings who crave stories we always love to see the unrealistically perfect ending to a story. Maybe it’s the guy gets the girl or the couple can finally be together but in whatever genre we like happy endings. But have you ever wonder3ed why we like happy endings so much? Is it because we’re optimists?  Dreamers?  Or is it because we’re realists who know that life is filled with obstacles, some of which we can overcome and some we can’t, but we want our fiction to be filled with hope? Barbara Delinsky responded to this question and gave three reasons. One was we enjoy happy endings because we like read about positive outcomes so we can approach real life in a more constructive and hopeful way. The next was for mere entertainment, and the last one was for the feeling of getting completely drawn into a book. I completely agreed with all of these reasons because I feel that happy endings are the most entertaining and make me leave hopeful and optimistic after I’m done.

First, happy endings help you get a more hopeful approach to real life situations because seeing a positive resolution within a plethora of obstacles inspires you. I don’t know about you but I love seeing a happy ending and wish that could happen to me after I’m done watching it. After the movie or book, I just feel good about myself and feel more confident. On the other hand a sad movie makes you feel depressed and tired after your done reading it because maybe your favorite character died or had something tragic done to them. A happy ending makes you hopeful that maybe just maybe you might get your happy ending in life!

Next, we love reading happy endings because they are most entertaining and fun to read and watch. Happy endings offer a good escape from reality where everything is unpredictable and anything could go wrong at a second. It takes you to a world where good always prevails and dreams come true and as optimistic readers we love seeing a positive resolution for a change. In a world where a lot of wrongs and sad resolutions happen we are attracted to and amused by stories that offer the happy endings.

Lastly, we loved getting completely lost in books with happy endings because it is easy to have yourself drawn into the plot. In these books you associate yourself with the characters and feel what they feel. You go through the story hoping they get their happy ending. You feel the drama in their life and honestly hope for their happy ending and once they get it you get in such a happy and positive mood because something went right. As I mentioned before, this is escapist literature and gives a brief escape from reality which a lot of people enjoy.

There’s just something about happy endings that we love!

2 comments:

  1. I indulge myself in this type of scenario all the time! I am an avid reader, and i prefer the love stories by Nicholas Sparks. Like you mentioned, these fictional stories show a variety of obstacles that the characters are thrown into, but in the end the girl always gets the "guy of her dreams" and everything falls into place. This always makes me happy as well, sometimes wishing i was right there with them. No one wants to find out someone is dying, or they have some disease or even that their best friend is moving away, so why write about them when the ending can be filled with joy instead. In reality, we are always faced with different situations, some worse than others but in the end we always want to best outcome that is possible!

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  2. We all enjoy happy endings because they don't happen in real life since pretty much anything that can go wrong in our lives will go wrong. As of late everything in my life has gone to complete crap and it doesn't look like there's going to be a happy ending anytime soon. But the hope for that happy ending inspires us to keep going through all that we have to suffer, even when we have no chance at escaping it. We see the movies and read the books and think "why can't that be me?" These stories show us that even though happy endings are unlikely to occur to us, there's still a slim chance. Everything in life doesn't have to be miserable and there is still good in the world.

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