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How Does Money Build Happiness In The Great Gatsby

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There's a saying that the more money you have the happier you are and better quality of life you have. You can have the newest clothes, nicest house and get to travel the world. Have you ever thought that money could get in the way of everything you dreamed of? Neither did Jay Gatsby. While writing The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald intended to convey that wealth doesn't always lead to happiness. Before the war, Jay Gatsby was happy and in love with Daisy. Everything was great and life was easy. Daisy then meets Tom Buchanan and they start dating and later get married. "Why they came East I don't know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together." (Fitzgerald 17 ). They were able to travel together and spend money for seemingly no reason. They then moved to West Egg and lived in a damper house with expensive furniture and elegant decorations. “ The living room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in gardens of Versailles.” (Fitzgerald ??) The house they lived in was overly decorated. …show more content…

In fact, it gets every character further away from happiness. ‘The combination of restlessness and resentment puts them on the path to the tragedy at the end of the book.” (Wulick 113). Gatsby tries to use his money and get Daisy and that fails. He ended up dying because of an affair that Tom was having. Daisy is unhappy in her marriage to Tom because he is not committed to her. She then has an affair with Gatsby because of that unhappiness. “Gatsby was taught to measure success failure and virtue in pecuniary terms.” ( Berman 33). If you did not have money it was thought that you failed in life. If you did not have money though you learned how to appreciate the things you had

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The 1920s was a tough decade people spending money on useless items that only satisfy them for a second and then get back to being depressed. Spending money is like a drug it only last for a certain amount of time then you crave for more and more until you drop. That's why money doesn't buy happiness all it does is put more stress in your life. For example, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a man named Gatsby didn't win Daisy's heart and he worked for years for his money but Daisy wanted someone else with money so Gatsby didn't achieve his American Dream. The Great Gatsby showcases that money cannot buy happiness through Gatsby’s parties, his love for Daisy, and his funeral.

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Gatsby had met Daisy five years earlier and has loved her since. But in the past five years, Daisy has married Tom Buchanan and given birth to a young daughter. While Daisy was getting married and moving to East Egg, Long Island, Gatsby has been yearning after her and hoping she would show up to one of his

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Jay Gatsby is from a small town and poor town in North Dakota (Fitzgerald 173). As a child, he was “... bound to get ahead (Fitzgerald 173).” Mr. Gatsby observed a strict regimen driven by a rigorous schedule that pushed him each and every day (Fitzgerald 173). Gatsby never reaches his “Dream”, which is Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby’s ultimate goal, his most desirable object is exactly that, Daisy (Donaldson 197).

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When Gatsby and Daisy danced Fitzgerald explains, ‘’I remember being surprised by his graceful,conservative fox trot’’(fitzgerald 105). This is important because of how Daisy and Gatsby first met because of the way they were together before he went to go fight in the war. Then, after he went to war, Tom gets married Daisy only because of his money, which is very wrong of Tom and Daisy. Some people go through hard times and,‘’if the most basic needs are not met emotional contentment cannot be achieved’’(Sheppard). The idea of money does make people happier to a certain extent.

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Gatsby is an example of not needing money to be happy because he was content with what he had before the war and didn't need money to feel good because he had daisy. Another example of people not needing money is Mr.Wilson he was not very wealthy, but he was content with what he had and stayed faithful to his wife even though she did not do the same. Nick is also a good example of not needing to be rich to be happy he was not poor or rich, but he made do with what he had and ended out being content with his life despite being surrounded by rich people who were not as content as him. A quote that helps flesh out the idea of being content without money is when Mr.Wilson answers with "I can't complain" (page 25) when Tom asks him about his business further showing that he did not actually need everything the wealthy people have to feel

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In the book, Gatsby is very foolish, his actions are unreasonable and unrealistic. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: "I never loved you."” (125) Gatsby had expected Daisy to be the same girl she was five years ago, but the truth is that she isn't. Many things had happened to the both of them and he had set up a foolish expectation that Daisy was willing to leave Tom for him. Gatsby’s foolishness originated with Daisy.

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Gatsby has never once let go of the past he and Daisy shared before he went off to war, he has also never left behind his hopes and dreams of the future that he and Daisy would have together someday. Gatsby has dedicated his life to getting back together with Daisy, but Daisy’s relationship with Tom has always been in the way, that is, until Daisy decided that it wouldn’t be in the way anymore. “ Daisy comes over quite often in the afternoons.” (Fitzgerald, 114). Daisy’s marriage to Tom that has been falling apart has overtaken her emotions and is causing her to impulsively throw herself into an affair with Gatsby.

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When Gatsby loses everything, we see that wealth not only fails as a means of fulfillment but actively participates in the destruction of this goal. Fitzgerald suggests that wealth cannot lead to happiness, rather it undermines the existing and potential good in life. It should therefore should not be used as means of attaining fulfillment. The first mentions of Gatsby’s character reveal a personality who has sacrificed morality to achieve a

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The American Dream Doesn’t Equal Happiness If the phrase “money can’t buy happiness” was written into a full story, that story would be The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and has countless examples of the phrase “money can’t buy happiness” suggesting that the American dream and loads of money doesn’t suddenly make your life perfect and all your problems are gone, in fact, the story suggests the complete opposite. In the story, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows that every character who has money or character that is around the people that have money end up in more trouble and having more problems than the average person.

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The correlation between money and the pursuit of happiness can be seen throughout the novel. An example is when Gatsby was throwing colorful shirts down at Daisy. She breaks down in tears, about how pretty the shirts were. “They’re such beautiful shirts, she sobbed.

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Some people say money can't buy you happiness. I think that that statement is very true and in the great gatsby there is a quote that proves that money and status don't make you happy. “His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night when we hunted through the great rooms for cigarettes. ”(147) Even though gatsby has a big home, money, and a bunch of other fancy things he isn't happy.

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Beginning with becoming rich and buying the house across the Bay he developed an obsession with her. Unable to live his life, searching the papers everyday hoping to catch just a glimpse of her name to see what she was up to, Gatsby was setting himself up for failure. He never opened up to the idea that things could change and that Daisy could love someone else. Daisy pushed Gatsby away in the end because of the person Tom had made him out to be. She saw Gatsby as damaged which only damaged him more, leaving him to feel unloved by the person he loved

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2355 Words | 10 Pages

As American business man, Richard M. Devos, once said, “Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none.” In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott, Fitzgerald, Daisy, an elite socialite, is blinded by dollar signs and makes multiple decisions based on class, ultimately leading to the destruction of those who she claims to love, and without a doubt love and idolize her. Jay Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for five years, and supposedly she is with him, but she’s too impatient to wait for Gatsby while he is at war and decides to marry an arrogant, racist, and rude former college football star, Tom Buchanan, for money. Daisy is a self-absorbed, vacuous socialite whose decisions lead to the destruction of Gatsby.

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1931 Words | 8 Pages

They nearly got married years ago but Gatsby did not have any money at that time and decided to wait. After meeting Daisy for the second time, they have an affair. After awhile, Tom is wary of Gatsby and tries to prove that the famous Jay Gatsby is not who he appears to be. Daisy becomes angry at her husband’s chauvinistic attitude and decides to leave her husband for Gatsby. However, she later discovers that her lover, Jay Gatsby is not the respected man he claims to be.

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Daisy choose not to go with gatsby for variceal reasons, but sometimes you have to realize that everyone don 't get their happy ever after fairy tale. She has to think a bit about her daughter and the big change for her new life. They both had an obstacle in front of them stopping them from their happiness his name is Tom Buchanan. Money can also be a big impact on those that want a fancy lifestyle ,some they just want the money so they live like a unhappy married couple or a family with many problems. The only thing gatsby want was daisy to himself but according to daisy “he asks for too much”.

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