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Theme Of The Rich Brother By Tobias Wolff

683 Words3 Pages

Money Can Buy Happiness
The theme of Tobias Wolff’s story “The Rich Brother” is that money doesn’t buy happiness and that someone without any money can be happier that someone with plenty. It tries to portray this shows its two main characters Pete and Donald. Pete is realistic and has money while Donald is optimistic but poor. This raises the question who is the “rich” brother? Pete is the rich brother because despite Donald’s natural optimism Pete’s money plays a role in his happiness. My definition of richness is an amount of happiness instead of money. Happiness is mainly derived from things that cannot be bought such as family, friends, and experiences. This leads people to believe that money cannot buy happiness, but this gets complicated if you …show more content…

Money makes it easy to be selfless since we do not have to worry about ourselves and instead take care of others. Money can be an important factor in happiness but only if used right. If you use your money on useless material that only benefits you it will not help. Money is only helpful when you have someone to spend it on. Happiness also can come from success and setting realistic goals. When we set a realistic goal and succeed it makes us content.
While Pete may not be as optimistic as his brother he has a family and people who love him. He gets his happiness from his family. For example, he offers up his home as a place to stay for Donald and helps him in his time of need. Not only does he have family, but he has the money to spend on them. He has the consistent income to be able to maintain a family and take care of the ones he loves. For example, he loans one hundred dollars to Donald, so he can pay off some debts. Pete has both factors of happiness money and the family to spend it on. The opposite end is Donald. Donald is single has no money or way to make money. He is unable to take care of people despite his

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