Happily Never After..

 

Childhood was fun. The innocence we had and the version of the world we received made us the biggest optimists. All the novels and stories we read had a young man going through hell to get to marry his girlfriend and they all ended after the wedding. It was beautiful. I loved it. That is what I imagined life would be like - happily ever after.

This blissful ending would get soiled when I got to high school. In literature class, we learned of this young man Waiyaki in Ngugi Wa thiong’o’s ‘The River Between.’ The book started well and I was really happy for him; I mean everything was working out in his favour. The first chapters were beautiful. Towards the end, however, he did a mighty showdown with the village elders and he managed to marry the pastor’s daughter but instead of them living happily ever after like other characters from my childhood stories, life continued. I was heartbroken. What do you mean life continues? He was supposed to be the hero who saves his people from the colonial government, period! That is where the book should have ended, but no, it was the day that ended and with it my innocence. (cue in some sad music)

The same theme would repeat itself in Henrik Ibsen’s ‘An Enemy of the People.’ Dr. Stockmann, who had made a major discovery and was making efforts to help save the people was ironically branded the enemy, it’s preposterous!

By the time I was done reading the second book, my heart was shattered. It was no longer happily ever after again. They say art imitates life and ever since movies, and novels started having this recurrent theme of the sun rising again and the couples having to figure out what to do next.

As I sat in that literature class many years ago, I grew up. I realized that happily ever after was a fairytale and those only exist in the world of imagination. They never prepared me for it and I think I need therapy because how and when did it become happily never after?