Identity and Happiness in Cantys Mayfly - Book Report/Review Example

11 March Identity and Happiness in Canty’s “Mayfly” Life is a cycle of finding one’s identity and happiness, but sometimes, it can be such a short cycle, beginning and ending too soon. Kevin Canty’s “Mayfly” describes issues of identity and happiness from James’ standpoint. James is getting married to Molly soon, but he is not happy with his life and relationship with her. He has a one-night stand with his alcoholic friend’s wife, Jenny. Canty uses point-of-view, setting, plot, characters, and symbols to explore ironic views on life’s various endings and beginnings, specifically the themes of identity and happiness. Life is as temporary as a mayfly’s life, but happiness is shorter when people lack the freedom and autonomy to express their real identity to themselves and their loved ones. The point of view of the story comes from James and it helps to shape the story’s focus because it shows his struggles in finding his identity and happiness. A third-person point of view that emphasizes one person’s perspective takes readers deep into his subconscious, where his conflicts arise and become unresolved. It shows that James cannot control his life because he cannot make autonomous choices, such as when he thinks that he does not have to explain to Molly why they should drive through the wave of monarchs: “Let Molly figure it out for herself” (Canty 65). The significance of this thought is that he wants Molly to understand on her own that their relationship is not helping them grow as individuals, but the verbal and dramatic irony is that he also cannot figure out what to do with his life. Furthermore, James’ perspective reveals his most intimate thoughts and opinions in life, which he does not always openly express to people who need to hear them the most. James finds Molly’s environmentalism annoying because of her impractical oversentimentality. She cries over dead butterflies, but she cannot stop smoking and find a stable job: “But James didn’t see how someone would hire her, with her smudgy eyes, her so-so-record” (Canty 65). She is a paradox, an environmentalist who cannot protect her own health and promote her own welfare. Another example is how James feels about Sam and Molly. For him, they are the same: “The two of them had the same knack for finding a sore spot and then poking it” (Canty 66), but he does not say anything and sips his beer instead. The people who need to hear his opinions do not hear them, so that they can change, hopefully, in the process of honest communication. James’ viewpoint, especially the absence of his voice, indicates his lack of self in the midst of people who impose themselves on his life. Aside from the viewpoint, the setting of the story enhances it by affirming its themes because it is something temporary, but is about long-term human relations and its role in their happiness. The setting of a married home suggests James’ apprehension of and hopes for marriage. James wants to have Sam and Jenny to have a happy marriage because it is the next stage of his life and relationship with Molly, but he has seen from Jenny’s infidelity that marriage is not all butterflies, but is one large mayfly with constant dissatisfaction: “It doesn’t sound like bliss” (Canty 68). Mayflies die fast, and so does happiness from marriage. Fishing is another setting that is temporary. For James and his father, fishing is their ultimate distraction from life’s miseries: “This was when his father would break out a Roll-A-Table and the cooler and set them up with sandwiches and beer...” (Canty 66). They had fun, but it became shorter and shorter after James’ mother died. Her death ended his father’s life to: “His father had seemed to lose his appetite for everything...All but the drinking” (Canty 66). His father turned into a hollow shell and lost his will to be happy. The setting underscores life’s irony that sometimes, long-term human relations cause despair, not happiness. Plot is another element that explores the themes of happiness and identity. Life and death shape the story because all the insects die fast, exemplifying the shortness of happiness. At first, James kills butterflies: “Then a shower of the, tapping the windshield like hail, wings trapped in the wipers, orange and black” (Canty 65). The hail of butterflies trapped in his car, and later on, falling on his body, signifies physical death, the precursor of his own inner death. In the end, he kills himself by making decisions that do not affirm his happiness. He answers “No idea” to Molly’s question about the purple-and-white-striped panty she wore (Canty 69). He has no idea of his life’s direction too, where he stays with Molly, despite wanting to leave her. The beginning of the story is about physical death and ends with inner death. These endings and beginnings shape the story’s theme of identity and its absence in a world where people are afraid to fight for their own happiness because they fear being alone. Jenny is unhappy with Sam, but she is trapped in her marriage, so she rationalizes her life with this belief: “Fair is like a children’s game-your turn, my turn...Fuck that” (Canty 68). She accepts life as it is, no longer exerting her free will and agency for happiness because of the insecurity that being unmarried offers. The plot of the story sums the happy beginnings and unhappy endings of life. The characters of the story further reinforce the characters’ gloomy pursuit for happiness. Marriage, in particular, is not at all as blissful as it seems to be. Jenny wants to save her marriage because of the kids: “They’re his children too” (Canty 68). She is the typical mother, sacrificing her happiness for her children’s happiness. But her resigned voice over their marriage counselling highlights her hopelessness. She knows that counselling will not work because they are not even communicating honestly with one another: “He doesn’t know, I think. What it’s going to be like. If he knew, he’d do things differently. Maybe that’s wishful thinking” (Canty 67). She cannot find happiness in a relationship where truth is absent. Like Jenny, James has difficulty finding happiness because he cannot be honest with Molly, and mostly, himself. He is not being realistic when he thinks that a single one-night stand can transform his dull life into something more powerful: “He could have preached the Sermon on the Mount if he had to. Leap tall buildings in a single bound” (Canty 69). In reality, James realizes that he is the same person, only tainted with a mortal sin. These characters do not change and become rounded individuals because they retain the flatness of their humdrum, disempowered lives. Symbols abound in the story, representing the themes of happiness and identity that cannot be reached without free will and courage. The monarchs signify how their temporary passing contrasts with life’s permanent obstacles to happiness. These butterflies pursue their common migration paths as part of their cycle of life: “Butterflies were everywhere, big monarchs heading north out of Mexico” (Canty 65). James’ car abruptly ends their blissful journey, where the implication is that unhappiness is natural to people who cannot fight for their happiness. Moreover, the dead monarch represents a dead marriage because marriage saps out the life of people who are not prepared for the physical and emotional tribulations of marriage and parenthood. Jenny has shown infidelity, but the next day, everything is back to normal: “But even sex magic didn’t seem to be working; she bustled, feeding the baby, wiping the counters” (Canty 69). Marriage has turned her into a slave robot, losing her sense of appreciation for life’s adventures. As for the blue butterflies, their significance lies in their similarity and difference with the monarch butterflies. They are migrating like the monarch butterflies, but instead of hitting something moving, they get stuck in the mud, where they are “restless” (Canty 66). They are similar because they are both lost in their journeys, but the monarchs are scattered going in different directions because of the hurdles in their path, while the blue butterflies seem defeated, where not knowing where to go, they stay where they are. Jenny and James express the same feeling of being stuck in their conditions. Jenny shares to James that she feels like she has no self anymore as a spouse and mother: “I love them. I do what can to keep them alive and happy. It’s like I’m not even there- there’s no person, no history” (Canty 68). She loses her identity because of her marriage and family. The mayflies are critical to the story too because they indicate fleeting moments, but the irony is that what is fleeting is what James wants to be permanent. James wants freedom, but he cannot have it because he is betrothed to Molly already. He sees Molly’s absence as his ticket to freedom: “She was in Denver for the day, a day in which James could make his own choices” (Canty 66). James feels that freedom is fleeting like a mayfly because he does not assert his will and claim his independence. Furthermore, the mayflies stand for James’ temporary autonomy and happiness. The possibilities for a new identity ends when Molly arrives: “All the lightness and the ease that he felt dissipated at once, evaporated like dew in the sun, all the adventures, all the different people he would be” (Canty 69). Like a mayfly, his happiness and ability to become who he wants to be rapidly ends because he does not have the courage to change his life. The insects and their short lives signify the bleakness of human existence, when people have lost their autonomy and free will. Uncertainty is not something that people like dealing with, so they sometimes prefer to be stuck in a cycle. This cycle, especially marriage and parenthood, do not empower them to be happy and to be free individuals, however. Instead, happy beginnings end with misery. To change is unnerving; to stay the same is pacifying, but is ironically more unsettling. Like butterflies, the beauty of what appears to be happy is fleeting. And like mayflies, happiness, when attained, does not last very long for people who cannot stretch their wings to be free. Work Cited Canty, Kevin. “Mayfly.” The New Yorker (28 Jan. 2013): 65-69. Print. Read More