Free Great Gatsby Essays: Can Money Buy Happiness?

Jillian Brown

Ms. Gibson

English 3

4 January, 2023

Can money buy happiness?

When someone thinks of happiness, the first thing that comes to mind the most is love, family, success, but no one really expects the answer to be money. Money is something that is definitely a necessity for life in this time but having more money will not make a person happier. Happiness should not be determined by how rich or poor someone is, it should be determined by the actions and the people surrounded in that person’s life. It's demonstrated a lot in The Great Gatsby and is further proven throughout our day to day life. In the article, “Money can't buy happiness, a neuroscientist explains why”, it states, “because the human brain can make intuitive and abstract

As the book, The Great Gatsby, states multiple times about Gatsby’s house, how “his imported clothes, antiques, and luxuries….” and how his lifestyle resembled life of “a British Aristocrat”(Fitzgerald). It also shows before he got the money and all the other luxuries. Most people think it's right when he met Dan Cody, but in reality, when he met Dan Cody, Gatsby was not the “rich” one and in fact was not looking for the riches but more of a way out of his old life, which made Gatsby finally not alone and worn down anymore, but begin to find that happiness he had been searching for. In the book, The Great Gatsby, it states, “To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world” and following that, it also states, “He was employed in a vague personal capacity- while he remained with Cody he was in turn steward, mate, skipper, secretary, and even jailor, for Dan Cody..”(Fitzgerald). This statement just shows how he originally left his poor life to get a better one, but went through challenges and many jobs before he really got into the money part of that, yet still seemed happier and more satisfied with his life, especially having Cody by his side. He learned to be a gentelman and present himself with the “internship” with Dan Cody. He used all of the tools he was taught from

As we stated before, Gatsby grew up dirt poor, which leaves readers thinking he believed he needed something better than his past, even if that meant doing whatever he needed to get rich. Although, he may have had a drive for the money before, Daisy really pushed him towards the money. Daisy was definitely his clutch for keeping him happy, and he never had a care in the world for actual money when he was with her until he, himself, could not keep her because she needed more. Daisy needed the financial stability and reassurance that Gatsby could not give her. All of that made Gatsby turn to moving towards money, but not to buy him happiness but to get back what originally made him happy: Daisy. The article, “Spending money on happiness doesn’t always last, or work at all”, it states, “In fact, consumers with six-figure incomes (36%) are more than twice as likely to believe money buys happiness than peers who earn less than $35,000 in annual wages (14%). Overall, about 1 in 5 Americans think money can buy happiness. But even higher-income earners aren’t immune. Among Americans with at least $100,000 in annual income, arguments over inheritances (27%), requests for money (24%) and feeling used (21%) are among the reasons for their displeasure.”(Pentis) What the article is saying came from a graph that was taken from a survey which asked “Has money ever made you unhappy?”. A lot of people in