12 AP English
Monthly Blog
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”- Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence. Though everyone has the right to pursue happiness, should others come before your own happiness? The pursuit of happiness is one of the themes presented in A Doll House and The Awakening. In A Doll House and The Awakening the main characters search for independence and happiness. In A Doll House Nora does get her independence and begins to pursue happiness, but she gives up her marriage and abandons her children to do so. In The Awakening Edna does obtain happiness and independence, but kills herself in the end.
The Awakening was all about Edna looking for independence from others and finding happiness. She does this, and is happiest when her husband is away and is even happier when Robert comes back. Because Edna is trying to be happy, she declines to go with her husband to New York and she sends her kids to stay with her sister-in-law. Some might say that this is irresponsible and that her kids should come before her happiness. I say that in this case, they did. Edna realized that she wasn’t a great mother and that she wanted time to herself, so she sent her kids somewhere that they could be cared for and be happy. If Edna had kept her kids while finding her selfhood, then they would have been miserable and so would she. Because they were with the sister-in-law, the kids were safe and happy, and Edna was able to visit them and a genuine good and happy time with them. Edna found herself and was able to do this not at the sake of her children’s happiness, but still putting their happiness before hers.
A Doll House was about Nora finding herself and her independence. Nora does not do this until the end, and in order to do this she must leave her husband and abandon her children. Nora was a bad mother and not fit to raise her children and she accepted this, but she should not have left because her husband was not fit to raise them either. She should have left them with someone competent, or stayed with them until she found someone.
I believe that people have the right to do whatever makes them happy and whatever they want, as long as it is not detrimental to others. Your rights end where someone else’s rights begin. However, kids are different. When you have kids, they come first, always. I’m not saying that if you have kids you gave up your life. I’m saying that when you have kids, you lose the right to put your life first. Kids always come first because they are our future. They are all that we could have been. Kids carry all of our hopes, dreams and problems. They are the next generation, and hopefully they will be better than the last. Therefore, kids are the most important.
Lately, more and more people are doing whatever makes them happy and not caring if it harms others. This is a large problem in America, where we have so many rights and freedoms. Because America is a nation of individuals, we sometimes forget that others matter. We as Americans need to realize that we cannot harm others, just so we can be happy. If we do, our nation will swiftly fall apart as we all try to rise, but tear each other down.
