Why Is Happiness Important In The Great Gatsby

During the 1920s, many people thought money was the key to happiness. They thought money could only have a positive impact on their lives and keep them content. However, these people neglected to realize the negative effects that wealth would have on both themselves and the large impact that it has on society. Amidst their joy, they were unable to see that and wealth does more harm than it does good. F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, illustrates his perspective on the 1920s. This story takes place on Long Island in the Summer of 1922 and follows the life of narrator Nick Carraway and the many interesting encounters he has with his friends, such as Jay Gatsby as well as Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald is able to convey these negative

“feeling of pleasure or contentment” is what happy is defined. Throughout the book “The Great Gatsby” it is focused heavily on the characters' happiness and what they want for their life. I focus on Myrtle Wilson, who seems to just be some mistress who is a bad person because a man is cheating on his wife for her. Myrtle is more than just some mistress, she wants happiness, she wants what she can't have with her husband. Myrtle wants money she thinks that will make her happy, and that could be what truly makes her happy or it will give her the false happiness that she wants. This relates to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs because she's not getting what she needs in her eyes; she wants more than what her husband is giving her and she can get that with Tom.

Something that everyone strives for in life is to be happy. People strive to achieve this state of being and everyone has a different way of finding it. In The Great Gatsby the rich appear to believe that filling their lives with materialistic treasures is the only way to attain true happiness. The rich continue to live their lives and hope to fill the void inside of them with wealth. Nick realizes as he spends more time with the upper class that you can’t buy happiness because of the upper class’ lack of ambition, Gatsby’s lack of happiness from winning over Daisy, and the superficiality of the upper class.

The Great Gatsby is a book that almost proves the phrase “Money can’t buy happiness”

What makes people happy in most countries is when they gain more wealth. These values are still true today and as true in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, which is held in the 1920’s. Most Americans think that wealth and happiness are synonymous with each other. This belief will continue to fuel an economy and marketplace that persuades consumers into buying products that will provide them “happiness”. Wealth and human happiness have reached an equilibrium in the view of an enormously capitalistic society, contrary to the beliefs of social progressives who believe happiness comes from the heart. Gatsby’s generation of the 20's were the age of a market that was primarily fueled off of the neediness of the average consumer. The same values are present today because our need for flashy products stem from the free market economy in this country. Consumers believe that they need all the things that businesses are attempting to sell to them.

During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so

Everybody strives to earn it, those little green things in your wallet. Green is associated with good and happiness; above all, things of desire. Nevertheless, it doesn’t truly make you happy with your life and most importantly, yourself. In the fictitious novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the characters who have money at their disposal are constantly looking for something else to fulfill their longing to have a meaningful life. Despite it’s problem-solving reputation, money isn’t what it’s chalked up to be, the characters with excessive money aren’t sincerely happy with their lives. Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker and never satisfied with their m0ney. Fitzgerald’s characters never seem to connect their feeling of never being satisfied with their infinitesimal amount of happiness.

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.

Dissatisfaction plays a hugely significant role in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. To many people, it is commonly thought that having large amounts of wealth means large amounts of happiness and the ability to achieve anything you want. But if we look at the characters in The Great Gatsby, They are surrounded by money but yet still remain greatly dissatisfied with their lives. They have achieved what millions of people strive and work hard to get, but yet they still are unhappy. It could be because they are simply bored, have a troubled history, or are still trying to achieve some goal. Either way we learn that unhappiness and being unsatisfied is a recurring theme in the characters of The Great Gatsby.

Imagine winning the lottery and being a multimillionaire. Now think, would having all of this money cure personal problems and provide endless happiness? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, demonstrates how wealth cannot buy happiness. Keeping in mind the early 20th century setting, people and social status were usually distinguished by wealth. Throughout the novel, several instances occur where wealthy people become involved in serious conflicts related to money. The greed for wealth in present time, and in the 1920’s, conquers nothing in the search for happiness.

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that explores the glitz, glamor, and promiscuity of the Roaring 20’s in New York. Many people living in the United States at this time carried a new sense of pride/self-esteem. They invested all of their money into the stock market and the economy was thriving. People now realized that it was actually possible for an average citizen to acquire riches by working hard. With this lackadaisical attitude came some strains, both personally and financially.

In today’s world, everyone wants to be happy. People will do whatever it takes to get happiness even if it means putting themselves first, which is not in other people’s favor. Characters of The Great Gatsby seem to not to be able to have true happiness but have temporary fixes to give themselves self-satisfaction at the least. Since the characters are not happy with their current lives, they have affairs. This is what makes them feel like they’ve achieved prosperity. Gatsby and Daisy’s love affair’s is founded on their love for each other while Tom and Myrtle’s affair is based off the two wanting social status.

The Roaring 20s, The Jazz age, the 1920s were a time of great prosperity in the United States. The 1920s were an era of change, both politically and socially. Americans began to move into cities, rather than living on farms, and the nation's wealth more than doubled. Buying the same goods, listening to the same music, dancing the same dances, and overall having the same values, people felt united. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, these values are reflected in the characters’ lifestyles. A recurring theme in the novel is that money cannot buy a person’s true happiness, and this theme is exhibited in the various characters actions, choices, and what they value most in their lives.

In the award winning book, The Great Gatsby, some of the characters are unsatisfied with their lives, whether they were rich or poor, employed or jobless, had a good reputation, or bad, their families, and even their personal histories. Those who have read the excellently written book, most of the characters are pretty wealthy. People tend to think that happiness if having what they want physically, like goods and money. But even the wealthiest people tend to be depressed or unhappy with the life they have. Characters in that category include Mr. Wilson, Daisy, and Mr. Gatsby himself. Happiness isn’t acquired by wealth, it’s acquired by love and being able to be content and stable with their daily lives.

As Bertrand Russell once said, “It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.” Indeed, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, set during the Roaring 20s, displays the materialism of the characters through their concern to obtain more belongings. The Roaring 20s is considered as one of America’s most prosperous eras, however, Fitzgerald denounces the loss of moral values, the loss of identity, and the deception about achieving a person’s American Dream in addition to the hierarchy ruled by the rich. Thus, in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses characterization and symbols to explore the superficial nature of the Roaring 20’s and in doing so exposes the dangers