When Fantasy Fails

 Lucas Gonzalez

Professor. Brady

ENG 102

17 April 2025

When Fantasy Fails

In both The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, the endings support the idea that there is no such thing as a happy ending. Instead of closure or joy, both stories end with characters facing the cold truth. Each story shows that people often live in fantasy until reality forces them to confront the truth.

In the Things They Carried, the story ends with the character, Jimmy Cross, realizing that who he perceived to be the woman of his dreams, Martha, was never actually interested in him the whole time. During the war, Jimmy Cross would constantly think of Martha, showing how he was living in a fantasy for comfort; however, when the war ended and Jimmy Cross finally got to see Martha again, his dreams were crushed by the cold, hard truth. “Later, when he took her hand, there was no pressure in return, and later still, when he told her he still loved her, she kept walking and didn't answer and then after several minutes looked at her wristwatch and said it was getting late.” (O’Brien 19). At this point, Martha revealed to Jimmy Cross that she was nothing more than a good friend and not a romantic partner. Even when Martha makes it clear to Jimmy Cross, he rejects this idea and chooses to live in a fantasy by believing that Martha will somehow love him instead of facing reality; this is to help him deal with the pain of unreciprocated affection and rejection, leading to an unhappy ending. 

The idea of characters facing the cold truth leading to an unhappy ending is also present in Interpreter of Maladies. Throughout the story, Mr. Kapasi believes that Mrs. Das is romantically interested in him. An example of this would be when Mrs. Das starts talking about how she cheated on her husband to him. Later on, Mr. Kapasi is seen fantasizing about Mrs. Das writing to him. At first, this thought starts with them writing simple letters to each other, then the fantasy expands into him picturing romantic moments with Mrs. Das, such as going out to eat together. However, this fantasy quickly falls apart when Mr. Kapasi is faced with the cold truth. “When she whipped out the hairbrush, the slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address on it fluttered away in the wind. No one but Mr. Kapasi noticed. He watched as it rose, carried higher and higher by the breeze, into the trees where the monkeys now sat, solemnly observing the scene below. Mr. Kapasi observed it too, knowing that this was the picture of the Das family he would preserve forever in his mind.” (Lahiri 29). This ending proves that there is no happy ending for Mr. Kapasi, only the sharp, painful realization of the truth that Mrs. Das was never actually interested in him romantically.

Lastly, the theme of fantasy contradicting reality is also present in Breaking Bad. Throughout the show, the main character, Walter White, is seen as an overqualified poor chemistry teacher who should be doing something else with his life because of his knowledge. Due to this, Walter starts cooking extremely pure methamphetamine and selling it along with his partner. Eventually, Walter becomes a deadly kingpin, and the whole time, Walter tells himself that he is doing this just for the sake of his family’s finances and future. However, this fantasy contradicts reality when Walter has a moment of realization in one of the final episodes, he says, “I did it for me. I liked it, I was good at it, and I was really–I was alive.”(Breaking Bad). Towards the end of the show, Walter can no longer lie to himself, and his fantasy comes crashing down. This moment relates to the same emotional collapse in Interpreter of Maladies when Mr. Kapasi realizes that Mrs. Das does not want to have a romantic relationship with him. In both stories, each character is not left with a happy ending; rather, a harsh truth.

Overall, the theme of people living in a fantasy until reality forces them to confront the truth is present in all stories. In Breaking Bad, Interpreter of Maladies, and The Things They Carried, characters are forced to let go of their emotional fantasies and to accept the hard truth. Both Jimmy Cross and Mr. Kapasi are forced to face the truth that the women they dreamed of having a romantic relationship with never felt the same way. Aside from those characters, Walter White also experiences this when he realizes that he created a meth empire for his own pride and not his family. However, all 3 characters believed in their own fantasy and not the harsh truth. In the end, nobody gets closure, and there are no happy endings. 

Works Cited

Natchez, Jon, and Sarah Robbins. The Things They Carried: Tim O’Brien. Spark Pub, 2003. 

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. 

“Breaking Bad.” 2013.