Happiness In The Great Gatsby

What in life makes you truly happy, and is it relatively attainable? Throughout our lives, we are constantly instructed and motivated by this idea that wealth and power bring joy and we dedicate our existence working towards that goal. We idolize fame and affluence, and crave to be in the places of those who “made it”. This unseen mask that others put on is deceiving and immensely misleading towards admirers. Although one might say that money can buy happiness, the American Dream is reaching the point in one’s life in which they can personally believe that they are satisfied with what they have and don’t own a desire for needing more.

The American Dream is not reaching tons of wealth and obtaining the utmost amount of money you can. Throughout

Almost all of the main characters are extremely wealthy, yet they are still suffering and wanting more. We can notice an example of this from “Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island,” who “sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” (104). His whole ideology was focused on the wrong path in life, “so he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (104). Gatsby reinvented himself out of the mind of a 17-year-old boy and revolved the whole rest of his life reaching towards an unrealistic goal of which was totally childish. From his young mind, he had thought that gaining the maximum amount of wealth possible will bring happiness along with it, yet that was not the case. Gatsby never achieved his American Dream for the reason that his Dream was to have Daisy all to himself, and no matter

The short story by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory, is an excellent way of depicting how others falsely perceived as one way and seen as achieving the American Dream yet, in reality, they feel something totally divergent. The townspeople in the story all describe Richard Cory as this Godlike King figure by saying, “ he was rich—yes, richer than a king—, And admirably schooled in every grace:, In fine, we thought that he was everything, To make us wish that we were in his place.” (9-12). Everyone perceives him as some to look up to. He is idolized and believed to have achieved the conditions in life to which they only dreamed of reaching for. Yet, one's perception can be elusive and one absolutely can never know what others feel inside. There is an extreme turn of events when the poem goes on to say, “and Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head” (15-16). When the audience finds out that Richard Cory ended his own life, it brings up this feeling of shock and disarray. Through the whole poem Edwin Robinson has set up this positive, joyous mood, yet when announcing the gruesome suicide of the main character to which many admired, it brings up prevalent attention. Although one can be perceived and shown off as someone who is happy and has everything that they want, it is impossible to tell what they legitimately feel inside. Richard Cory gave off the impression