The Pursuit Of Happiness In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Perhaps it is safe to say that most everyone in the deranged world that we live in today aims for happiness. Some would even say we are simply slaves to our primal passions, shackled in our endless pursuit of fulfillments and shaping our existence around them. Gravitating towards the things in life that bring us pleasure, and recoiling away from those that could cause us pain. A lot of individuals think of happiness as an overall end goal, while others consider happiness the starting point of being great. Nevertheless, happiness is drawn from different things based off the individual.

Happiness is what makes friends, friends. George always goes out of his way to make Lennie happy. Everything he does is for Lennie’s benefit, along with his own. George is making sure Lennie has food, comfort, money, a job, and a true friend. In the text, Steinbeck writes, “Lennie pleaded, “Come on, George. Tell me. Please George. Like you done before.” “You get a kick outta that, don’t you? Awright, I’ll tell you, and then we’ll eat our supper….””(13). Everything that George does, is for Lennie. He cares about Lennie so much, and that is what makes him a true friend to Lennie. Lennie tries his hardest to make George happy as well. Lennie makes George believe that they can have their own place one day. That makes George happy and hopeful. True friends make sure each other is

People travel through life with what seems like a single goal: to be happy. This may seem like a selfish way to live, however this lone objective is the motivation behind nearly all actions. Even seemingly selfless deeds make people feel better about themselves. That warm feeling experienced while doing charitable acts can be described as happiness. But what is authentic happiness? There is an endless possibility of answers to this question, and man seems to be always searching for the solution. Although one may reach his or her goals, there is always still something one strives for in order to be happy. In the book Stumbling on Happiness, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert takes the reader through

The pursuit of happiness is unlimited happiness, and not happiness that goes away quickly. Pursuit of happiness is a right that everyone has, and it is obtained by the enforcement of power in the Declaration of Independence.

This is important because it shows that George wants to be alone but does not truly want to be lonely. Lennie is George’s responsibility. George views Lennie as a brother, friend, and partner in crime. Without Lennie, George is lonely but he knows that he saves Lennie from his own personal misery in the end. George knows he needs Lennie just as much as Lennie needs him. He needs his friendship and is lonely after he takes that friendship away from himself.

The American Dream: Is is fact or fiction? In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers set forth the idea of an American Dream by providing us with the recognizable phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. The green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock symbolizes Jay Gatsby’s “Pursuit of Happiness” in the novel, The Great Gatsby, set in the 1920s on Long Island, New York. The American Dream can be defined as “the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American Dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, not by chance” (Fontinelle, Amy). At the birth of our country in 1776, our founding fathers introduced the American Dream as a personal desire to pursue happiness; however, the pursuit of happiness was not intended to promote self-indulgence, rather to act as a catalyst to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit. As our country has changed, the idea of the American Dream, in some cases, has evolved into the pursuit of one’s own indulgences such as material gain regardless of the consequences.

Lennie’s mental disability required him to have George’s approval to be happy, thus ultimately needing George to be happy. At the beginning of the story, George and Lennie walked into the serene area where the pond was. Lennie drank from the pond and said, “You drink some, George. You take a good big drink” (Steinbeck 3). This quote illustrated how

Aristotle once said that “Happiness is a state of activity”. In other words, pursuing happiness is an activity. The protagonist in the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby emphasis this quotation. Initially Gatsby acquired wealth in order to win daisy over, However Gatsby is still stuck in the past which becomes an obstacle on winning Daisy, in the end he is murdered based on false accusations. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The author is suggesting that we often try to alter our life, In order to pursue the materialistic happiness.

He would yell at Lennie and tell him if he didnt have him he could go and do as he pleased. When in reality George did not want these things. He was greatful to have a friend in Lennie, so he would not have to be alone. With Lennie's simple mind, he could not comprehend what George was talking about most of the time. He believed that George got upset over simple things such as ketchup. He too was very thankful to have George to go along with. Although he did not understand the complexity of things sometimes, he knew that he had a true friend who he trusted wouldnt leave him.

Throughout history people have been looking for something that made life special, spectacular, or one of a kind. Today, this search is known to the world as the “pursuit of happiness”. The phrase use was heightened during the enlightenment period and lingered for long after. This impact of its use did not only impact the way life was looked at but also impacted the arts during that time and for the future. Two pieces that show this evidence is the novel Candide by Voltaire and the song “Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid Cudi. Both of these works, even though they were published more than two centuries apart, carry the theme of the pursuit of happiness. These pieces are evidence of the unchanging pursuit that mankind goes through.

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

Gatsby’s love and longing for Daisy then became his motivation to become wealthy, high classed, and successful. Gatsby does reach the element of gaining wealth and success, but his ambition is only half met. It is the full achievement of his goal which will soon lead to the destruction of his life.

Happiness is the central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. All action is goal oriented and the goal of every action, is to reach happiness. According to Aristotle, happiness is “living well

The Pursuit of Happyness is a movie that follows a man and his son through hard times and sacrifices they had to make. Personal Finance is a big factor in this movie. Chris, which who is the protagonist had to work day and night to make sure he could provide for his son. When identifying components and sources of income Chris struggle to get a good income. Some examples of what he did were he sold bone density scanners.

The Pursuit of Happyness is a critically acclaimed and multi award winning film directed by Gabriele Muccino. The movie was adapted by the New York Times best-selling book also called The Pursuit of Happyness written by Chris Gardner. The film reflects on the struggles that Chris had to face when he was an intern at a stock brokerage firm and had to provide for his son. The film deals with many major issues such as poverty, discrimination, struggle and homelessness.