The Pursuit Of Happiness By Malcolm Muggeridge Essay

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” As you know these words come from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, perhaps one of the greatest documents ever written. However, I do have a little problem with the last four words sentence, “the pursuit of Happiness” because I believe it actually sends an easily misinterpreted message.

“It is the elusive Gatsby, the cynical idealist, who embodies America in all of its messy glory.” Clearly as Adam Cohen asserts in his New York Times article “Jay Gatsby, Dreamer, Criminal, Jazz Age Rogue, Is a Man for Our Times”, this phenomenon is indeed true in that the American Dream is presented in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby as an idea that has been depraved into a dream characterized by the constant shift in ethics and fraudulence centered around materialistic visions of opulence and wealth.

Clare Boothe Luce once said, “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable when you’re miserable.” Wealth is the American dream, a goal many strive for, but what are they willing to do for it and at what costs? In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the film Chicago directed by Rob Marshall, their yearning for wealth leads many to make demoralizing decisions in order to succeed. Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters in the novel, is a wealthy man who lives in a mansion on the rich side of the city. Gatsby was in love with a woman named Daisy who ,while he was at war, left him for a wealthy man. Hence the reason why Daisy became Gatsby’s American dream and so he worked his way up the social classes to win her back. In the film Chicago, Roxie, a married woman, had an affair with a man who had “connections” with those in the dancing/singing industry. He lied and, consequently, she ended up shooting him. In prison, Roxie’s case became the story of the century and aided her ‘fame’. Although these works demonstrate that the American dream is achievable, based on the character's success, after closer analysis it is clear that the American dream is only achievable through corruption.

Since American literature’s emergence, the American dream has become a conceptual ideal for many people throughout history. Although the dream has its own distinct aspects throughout different time periods, it predominantly focuses on the foundations of wealth, success and a desire for something greater. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, is primarily known for the numerous lavish parties he throws each weekend at his ostentatious mansion in West Egg in an attempt to reunite with Daisy Buchanan, a woman he falls in love with prior to entering the war before the Roaring Twenties. However, he is seized with an impotent realization on the fact that his wealth cannot afford him the same privileges as others that are born into the upper echelon. Gatsby is completely blinded from his opulent possessions until he becomes oblivious of the fact that money cannot buy love or happiness. Throughout the story, the predilection for materialistic features causes many characters to lose sight of their aspirations, demonstrating how a dream can become easily corrupt by one’s focus on acquiring wealth and power.

Interpreted in multiple ways and forms, a quintessential aspiration has been the blueprint for Americans when engaging in perfection in politics, economics, and society. This “American Dream”, depicted by Jim Cullen, is a Puritan-inspired strive for opportunity presenting itself as an universal standard that constitutes to ultimate success. The reality of this Dream is a flawed repetition of a continuous pursuit of happiness, where one bleeds and sacrifices to be “happy”, and the constant modification of a new value and faith that resonates within each society introduced. The variation of this dream is communicated through the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, where wealth, faith, and happiness is never satisfied in the three core locations of the plot. With the longevity of this dream continuing to create insecurities and unease today, the two elements from Cullen’s interpretation of the American Dream that resonates within the dynamic setting of the Fitzgerald classic are the incompatible rendering of new faith/worship in different environments and the unstoppable pursuit of happiness, revealing a dissatisfaction with the dream.

Everyone has dreams of being successful in life. When the word American comes to mind one often thinks of the land of opportunity. This dream was apparent with the first settlers, and it is apparent in today’s society. In F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), he illustrates the challenges and tragedies associated with the American dream. By examining Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson through the narrator Nick Carraway, I understand the complex nature of the American dream. Jay Gatsby represents the cost complex of them all.

For generations many have immigrated to this great nation know, as the United states of America, all seeking for their share of the American dream. The American dream is the philosophy that anyone can become successful through hard work and perseverance. The 1920’s embodies this concept like no other decade in American history. It is also during this time frame that one sees the perversion of this dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests in his novel, The Great Gatsby that there is a right and wrong way to obtain the American dream. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is symbolic for the materialistic nature of the American dream and its corruption in the 20th century.

For our Economics subject, we watched The Pursuit of Happyness, a movie based on Chris Gardner, a salesman who was not making that much money and eventually experiences homelessness with his five-year old son. He faces problems when his wife is unwilling to accept his goal to become a stockbroker and leaves him. However, he perseveres even under all this stress.

The American Dream is said to be realised through hard work and perseverance ; it is ostensibly a reachable goal for anyone who chooses to exercise their ‘inalienable right’ to the ‘pursuit of Happiness.’ This ambiguous phrase, ‘the pursuit of Happiness’ was originally inserted into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson and is a clear and overriding concern in The Great Gatsby. In the 1920s, when the novel is set, America was experiencing a newfound level of prosperity; the economy was booming and the possibility of gaining wealth became an achievable reality. As a result, the pursuit of happiness in The Great Gatsby is far from the founding fathers’ initial intentions and instead, in this new context, Fitzgerald demonstrates

When it comes to predicting how something will make you feel in the future, you will most likely be wrong. In the book Discovering Pop Culture, edited by Anna Romasino, is the article “The Futile Pursuit of Happiness”. In the article, author Jon Gertner talks about how people think certain things bring them happiness but aren’t as fulfilling as they may think. Gertner gives examples by writing about four men that have been questioning how people predict what will make them happy and how they feel after it happens. Among these men are a psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, psychologist Tim Wilson, economist George Loewenstein, and psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Gertner uses facts from scores of

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a one of the best stories written during a chaotic period in our nation’s history, The Jazz Age. The Twenties were a time of social experiments, self-indulgence, and dissatisfaction for majority of Americans. Fitzgerald depicts all these characteristics throughout the novel with his interesting themes, settings, and characters. The most elaborate and symbolic character Fitzgerald presents to his readers is Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby as a vehicle to explore the idea of The American Dream, which was a key element in shaping American society and it’s citizens. Fitzgerald does not sugar-coat his definition of the

After World War I, America offered the potential for boundless financial and social opportunities for those willing to work hard—an American Dream. The American Dream is defined as someone starting low on the economic or social level, and working hard towards prosperity and or wealth and fame. Establishing fame, becoming wealthy, having lavish luxuries, and a happy family would come to symbolize this dream. For some, however, striving for and realizing that dream ruined them, as many acquired wealth only to pursue pleasure. Even though the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby appear to relish the freedom of the 1920s, their lives demonstrate the emptiness that results when wealth and pleasure become ends in themselves. Specifically, the empty lives of three characters from this novel— George Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan—show that chasing hollow dreams results only in misery.

During the 1920s, the perception of the American Dream was that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if they only work hard enough. In the book titled ‘Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity,’ the author Roland Marchand describes a figure that he feels represents the quintessential 1920s man who is living the American Dream. He writes, “Not only did [Gatsby] flourish in the fast-paced, modern urban milieu of sky scrapers, taxicabs, and pleasure-seeking crowds, but he proclaimed himself an expert on the latest crazes in fashion, contemporary lingo, and popular pas times.” (The Demise of the 1920s

When you stroll into a busy city, you 'll see individuals heading to work or chatting on cell phones, utilizing their PCs, and listening to music. Individuals walk beside each other with nothing more than a passing look. How about we go to the same road in the year 1950, kids are playing, individuals making proper acquaintance and conversing with each other, conveying yet a folder case. As should be obvious, society has changed, as hours, days, months and years pass. The very ethics that humanity was based on have been lost. So, what has really changed from 1950 to 2015? The answer is our conception of society followed by the value of happiness. To unpack this disorder, we must take a closer look to the primitive societies and how they evolved, as well as the concept of ideal society and compare it with our understanding of society and happiness.

As I stared into the window, I no longer saw the joyful spirit within me, but instead an emotionless corpse with no direction. Alone and scared, I waited and waited for Roger to return, but sadly I still sat there waiting. Roger’s was my older brother, about one week ago he left to find a job that could support the both of us. After the death of my father, just over a month ago, we struggled to get by and found ourselves fighting for survival. Ever since the disease started infesting the town, people were been dropping dead day by day. Dead corpses, broken bottles, and smoke filled the streets of London. I was afraid to leave the house because I could not bare to see shrunken pupils and hollowed out souls of people I once knew.