As human beings we often have expectations for many things in life, whether they are high or low, we still have them. For instance, have you ever gone to the movies and as you’re sitting in the theater watching the movie you find yourself creating this picture perfect, ‘happily ever after’ ending in your head? Then in most cases, but not all, you are surprisingly disappointed when the movie doesn’t end the way you had expected it to.
This doesn’t just happen with the movies we watch, it happens with the television shows we watch, the books we read, and almost anything that goes on in our lives. Expectations surround us and consume our everyday life.
A few weeks ago, I had watched a film called The Defiant Ones in Professor McCoy’s class. The movie follows two escaped convicts chained together trying to find their way back to freedom. As the movie progresses the two convicts find a way to break free from the chain that held them close together. Although separated, they continue to travel and work together to regain their freedom. As I was watching the film, I had found myself creating this ‘happily ever after’ ending where the two men get on the train, regain their freedom, and return back to the way their lives were before they were arrested. However, my expectations were crushed when one man hindered the other man’s, as well as his own, ability to get on the train headed towards their freedom.
Shortly after watching this film, I had arrived at the part in the novel I Am Not Sidney Poitier where the plot of the novel is similar to that of The Defiant Ones. However, the novel’s version of the scene where the two men attempt to get on the train differs from the movie’s scene. In the novel, Not Sidney, who is parallel to Sidney Poitier’s character in The Defiant Ones, “…found an empty boxcar and easily climbed into it. Alone.” (Everett 79) In other words, Not Sidney had managed to get on the train heading towards freedom. Although it wasn’t the exact ‘happily ever after’ ending I had originally created in my head where both men regain their freedom, you can say I was still very pleased to see my expectation come to life.
Unfortunately, in life we may not always get to see our expectations come to life and we may not always get the perfect, ‘happily ever after ending’, but that is just reality.