Analysis Of Lydia Davis's 'Break It Down'

Why does everyone yearn for their own version of "happily ever after"? As toddlers, we're fed fairy tales that present a one-dimensional view of falling in love with your prince charming and everything naturally falling into place after that. As we grow up, social media continues to feed us the fantasy that it's an achievable goal. Lydia Davis' "Break It Down" utilizes money as a means of attempting to measure how much he's invested in romance. On the other hand, Anne Sexton's "Cinderella" puts a satirical twist on the age-old classic fairy tale that is probably one of the biggest offenders of perpetuating the idea of a happily ever after once you find your prince charming. However, once you use Davis' "Break It Down" as a lens for "Cinderella" there are a lot of realistic aspects of love and life that one doesn't immediately see when looking at the fairy-tale from face value. Through "Break It Down" we're able to conclude that one needs to invest in some shape or form to achieve love and drawn to a form of escapism due to the unrealistic expectations society pushes as happily ever after being an attainable goal.
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The allure of escapism could potentially stem from many things, but the central reason we have in both stories seem to be a sense of unhappiness with one's current life. Although many are aware that Cinderella and happily ever after is nothing more than a fictional fairy-tale we are still sub-consciously drawn to the idea of a perfect life and/or marriage. Our society needs to realize that perpetuating the idea of happily ever after sets unrealistic expectations and dreams for the younger generation and we should be more cautious in our approach to subjects like