Reclusive Happiness

Haven't we all experienced hardships in our lives? Hardships are typically the type of experiences in which we lose hope and send ourselves into a downward spiral. While hardships are not the most interesting or wanted, they can teach good life lessons. Whether we embrace the good life lessons or ignore them is ultimately up to us. However, trying to find the good in everything will make life worthwhile. In George Saunders story, "Puppy", he explains two families with very different views on life. One family lives rich but is troubled by childhood memories. And the other lives very poorly with a life filled with bad choices, and a lack of motivation. Callie in the story doesn't get Bo professional help because she doesn't have the money needed. In addition, she also is troubled by bad choices that she has made, and as a consequence suffers a lack of motivation too.

Callie's family is very unstable financially and they just don't have the resources to help Bo professionally. Callie's family has always been unstable. Callie has around sixty dollars in her savings and near the ending she was about to split up with her husband, giving him 20 of the dollars. George Saunders says, "As far as the money, she had sixty hidden away. She'd give him twenty of that and go." Callie has such little money left that 20 dollars is considered to be a "good" amount. What's interesting is how money has a relation to hope. The big reason why the family was breaking apart was because of financial reasons, and that should never stop anyone. I would think if someone was financially unstable that they would try to work together and find a solution. This can be seen in the story as well when Callie tries to make plans with her husband. Callie wonders, "Why not sell this place and move to Arizona and buy a car wash, why not buy the kids hooked on phonics, why not plant tomatoes...he had done this thing of, while holding her close...like he was about to start crying." She definitely tries to reason with her husband but most of the ideas ended up being just thoughts. These suggestions were great, and logically made sense but the crying in the end is tough to understand. Was her husband crying from happiness or crying from loss of hope? It's possible that being in a poor environment/unstable environment has made a lasting impact on their mentality. Their mentality is making them think they are hopeless but they really aren't. This is just one of those hardships Callie's family has to get over.

Callie's family has also not made the best choices and this has caused her to be in denial. When
Callie was with her husband she was saying that her husband would have to kill the pup if the family (Marie's didn't take it). She said this because this is her husband's way of thinking. Callie says, "And if she took it, Jimmy was off the hook. He'd hated doing it that time with the kittens. But if no one took the pup, he'd do it. He'd have to. Because his feeling was, when you said you were going to do a thing and didn't do it, that was how kids got into drugs. And anybody raised on a farm knew that you had to do what you had to do in terms of sick animals or extra animals." The mindset that Callie's husband has is just not valid. I'm sure this is from some kind of abuse on the farm or poor living conditions/ unstable finance. Why does he have to do what he did with the kittens? Just because you were going to do something and didn't do it doesn't mean that's always analogous to kids doing drugs. There are many reasons why kids go into drugs, and his claim is just far from accurate. It's possible he lived in a drug infested environment or even his parents were drug abusers. The claim Jimmy, the husband, makes about anybody knowing what to do doesn't seem valid either. I think on different farms people would operate on different ideas, at least somewhat. Callie's family is living in denial; they don't have to kill anything. I have in my past also experienced denial and have made many poor choices, but I as many others realize living consciously is better than living unconsciously. When I live consciously I realize all the solutions to problems are right there in front of me, waiting to be used. While when I live unconsciously or rather in denial, I am blinded and can't see those solutions. Jimmy just has to wake up. Callie's family has to wake up, and everything will be solved.

Callie along with her family suffers from a lack of motivation do to their bad choices. However in the end Callie realizes she has what it takes to get herself feeling better, and to ultimately make the family better. Callie remembers her Sister Carol telling her something in the past, "Callie, you are bright enough but you incline toward that which does not benefit you." I agree with her sister and think very much so that she is right. I will go even farther to say, any human being that is bright can go towards a patch that does not benefit them. This is common with hardships and confusion. Callie has been living in the shadow for too long. The point is that when hardships and confusion come on, it can cause a loss of consciousness/mentality. This can temporally cloud brightness and thus cause a person to sink further down into the darkness (worry, misery, denial, loss of hope). Callie realizes in the end, "Love was liking someone how they are and doing things to help them get better." That's all she needed to realize to help her family. By living in the shadow she was unable to express her true emotions as they were lost in the dark. Now Callie can help her husband and possibly get Bo that professional help, after all as a mother, she is the best professional.

Callie's family may be poor, experience a lot of hardships, and suffer a lack of motivation as a result; however, it can have all the resources any other family can have along with stability. Hardships are those things just as anything else. They come and go, and how you treat them/what you get out, depends on you. Everyone has the ability to experience happiness and stability overall. It's not just those people in poverty that struggle with hardships. Everyone struggles with hardships, and everyone struggles in general; life is a game of survival. Everyone can get through these struggles and live a wonderful life, no matter who you are (upper class, middle class, or even lower class).