Enjoy the Little Things
The play Our Town by Thornton Wilder tells the story of a fictional American small town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire, between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens. The play revolves around the value of the everyday and the ordinary despite the fact that nothing particularly extraordinary or exciting happens, which is why Our Town is a perfect example of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote, “some pursue happiness— others create it.” We all seem to find our everyday lives rather mundane. Some have been doing the same job for the past 10 years, and others attend the same school, see the same faces, and take part in the same classes every single day. It seems that no matter how it is put, there is nothing very special about just another ordinary day. However, the play Our Town is able to offer a different and more positive view on an average day.
The third act of Our Town focused on death and dying, particularly the death of young Emily Webb who dies during the birth of her second child. After Emily’s funeral she emerges to join the dead, but first Mrs. Gibbs informs her that she must forget her life before she can move on and Emily refuses. Before moving on and joining the rest of the dead, Emily decides she wants to return to Earth to relive just one day, specifically a happy one that has great meaning. In response Mrs. Gibbs says, “No!— At least, choose an unimportant day. Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough.” (Wilder 100) Despite the warnings of Simon, Mrs. Soames, and Mrs. Gibbs, Emily decides to relive her 12th birthday. Emily finds it too painful, and realizes just how much life should be valued. Poignantly, she asks the Stage Manager whether anyone realizes life while they live it, and is told, "No. The saints and poets, maybe – they do some." (Wilder 108) This scene in Our Town shows just how important each day is, but many of us fail to recognize it until it is too late. Act three also shows how although Emily was unable to make any new memories and was obligated to forget all of her old ones, she is able to create happiness from reliving an ordinary day in her life.
Unlike many of us, Emily is able to create joy out of the simplest of things. She did not pursue happiness by reliving the happiest day of her life and pursuing what she remembered as her “favorite” day. Instead she chooses a typical day and decides to create as much happiness as possible out of what she had. Emily is able to find happiness in the most ordinary occurrences, such as the white picket fence around her house, the yellow paper that her birthday present is wrapped in, and how youthful her mother and father look. Emily is able to create such bliss from the most trivial details, and even at the very end of the book as she joins the dead and looks back at her family knowing that she will never again see or remember her friends and family, she states how beautiful the stars in the sky are.
The third act of Our Town focused on death and dying, particularly the death of young Emily Webb who dies during the birth of her second child. After Emily’s funeral she emerges to join the dead, but first Mrs. Gibbs informs her that she must forget her life before she can move on and Emily refuses. Before moving on and joining the rest of the dead, Emily decides she wants to return to Earth to relive just one day, specifically a happy one that has great meaning. In response Mrs. Gibbs says, “No!— At least, choose an unimportant day. Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough.” (Wilder 100) Despite the warnings of Simon, Mrs. Soames, and Mrs. Gibbs, Emily decides to relive her 12th birthday. Emily finds it too painful, and realizes just how much life should be valued. Poignantly, she asks the Stage Manager whether anyone realizes life while they live it, and is told, "No. The saints and poets, maybe – they do some." (Wilder 108) This scene in Our Town shows just how important each day is, but many of us fail to recognize it until it is too late. Act three also shows how although Emily was unable to make any new memories and was obligated to forget all of her old ones, she is able to create happiness from reliving an ordinary day in her life.
Unlike many of us, Emily is able to create joy out of the simplest of things. She did not pursue happiness by reliving the happiest day of her life and pursuing what she remembered as her “favorite” day. Instead she chooses a typical day and decides to create as much happiness as possible out of what she had. Emily is able to find happiness in the most ordinary occurrences, such as the white picket fence around her house, the yellow paper that her birthday present is wrapped in, and how youthful her mother and father look. Emily is able to create such bliss from the most trivial details, and even at the very end of the book as she joins the dead and looks back at her family knowing that she will never again see or remember her friends and family, she states how beautiful the stars in the sky are.