Harsh Reality, Reality vs Illusion

During life we face many problems and obstacles, some that we bring on ourselves and other that are brought onto us by other members in our lives. It is rare in life that we are faced with a challenge and are overjoyed about it, a lot of the time we are happy how we handled it or happy that we learned something that may change the way we view other situations in life. Life is a tricky journey that isn't always filled with flowers and magical rainbows, from time-to-time people leave the reality they are in and create an illusion. An illusion where they are in charge and life is perfect, this illusion becomes so good that some have trouble snapping back to reality. Two characters that were faced with this challenge were Sammy from “A&P” and Jig from “Hills Like White Elephants”; they both faced the challenge of coming back from an illusion that they created because reality wasn't good enough for them. Both characters came to a realization that the illusion cannot be carried on and life does go on.

            Sammy, the main character of the short story “A&P” by John Updike, finds out how harsh the world is when he finally comes back into reality. The story is of a teenage boy working in a supermarket as a checkout clerk, he falls in love with one of the three girls that walked in only wearing bikinis. He starts to analyze everything they do and wear. “She had on a kind of dirty-pink-beige maybe, I don't know-bathing suit...”  (Updike). This was the way he was examining the girls at the beginning, just saying what they were doing and pointing their physical appearance. He tried to piece together what the girls are like and this is where his illusions start. Sammy starts to create false stories of what the rest of girl’s lives are like. I feel like this happens because he wants to talk to the girls. Being too timid to actually approach the girls, the illusions were his only way of “communicating” with them. This problems Sammy faces is very obvious because he even discussed the situation with his parents, meaning that the girls mean a lot more to him than he thinks. He starts to create the illusion that he knows more about them because he is too scared to talk to them, especially since the supermarket is empty and he has no other work to do.

            The short story of “Jig in Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is a sad story of a young girl traveling with an American in Spain in order to receive an abortion. From the beginning you can tell she isn't too interested and happy about this plan while the American keeps bugging her if she is okay with it. At first she tries to see if he will still love her and if everything will go back like it was, “But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?” (Hemingway). Deep down inside she knows that the truth is, love is gone and once the operation is over she will be on her own. By asking the American all these question she is trying to reassure her illusion that he still loves her. Once figuring out that the operation was an abortion, I knew that there was no love, no man that loves a women, would pressure her into destroying what he and her could make.

            Both Sammy and Jig are forced out of their illusion at the end of the stories, they are forced to face reality that they wish wasn't true. Sammy has to face reality that the girls did not see him stand up for them and quit his job, leaving him with the decision to either go back into the store and apologize for his actions, or move on and get another job. “I look around for my girls, but they’re gone, of course.” (Updike). This is the very moment that reality strikes Sammy and he realizes that he really was in an illusion, he thought that quitting for the girls would make one of them fall in love with him. Jig realizes that her future with the American is over when she said, “No, we can’t”  (Hemingway) that they can’t have everything. She is basically telling the American that their future won’t consist of them being together, she learns that her future is hers and not theirs. Both situations are sad because both characters are hoping that their illusion will turn into their reality but most situations its Reality vs. Illusion and not illusion into reality.

            The biggest example that I can find in modern society of Reality vs. Illusion would be the people that buy the “newest and quickest” way to loose weight. I’m referring to either the pill or exercise machine commercials that everyone knows they are unlikely to work and it’s all just a big scam. Do you think business companies that found a pill that will make you lose weight by not exercising charge people $30 for the bottle? That’s not possible but people still believe in it and buy it. After several weeks of trying this product they haven't lost any weight and just lost $30 on nothing. People have this illusion that it is possible to sit on their butt and lose weight just like some think that they can sit on their butt and eventually become billionaires.

            When people or characters think about how their lives should be and start to play them out they create this illusion and start to stray away from reality. They do not realize that just because they aren't paying attention to life that it won’t crumble their illusion. Both Sammy and Jig witnessed this first hand that reality doesn't care what they want, their hopes and dreams aren't important unless they make them important. The theme Reality vs. Illusion will always be a sad one because it usually ends with someone having his or her dreams crushed by the cruel world. Just like when you realize that little sign on the commercial that says “result will vary” really means this product probably won’t work and if you haven't figured it out, this is me tell you the product won’t work.