The Great Gatsby Happiness Analysis

Is money truly the key to opening the gates of happiness? Happiness is a feeling maybe nine out of ten people are lucky enough to feel. Even the grumpiest man at some point of his life was blessed with the gift of happiness. Society being so diverse has so many solutions to achieving the glorious feeling of happiness, however, the most common solution is the accumulation of money. With happiness being so highly favored, society often links money to it. In fact, it is believed that having wealth automatically qualifies you to be showered with the happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s text “The Great Gatsby is often used as a source to conclude whether money affects happiness. Happiness being a feeling and not some material thing, should not be classified …show more content…
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” directly and indirectly highlights this notion through some character throughout the novel. Characters like Tom and Daisy are examples of wealth creating happiness. Maybe happiness isn’t so hard to grasp when you have an abundance of green bills. However, money still doesn’t buy true happiness since happiness is an emotion and not a material object. How can we consider something happiness if it doesn’t last? If the end result isn’t happiness, then money defeats its sole purpose. Many say that Tom Buchannan is happy because he has a beautiful wife and a lovely mistress but how long did these last before they began to crumble? For instance, Nicks described Tom as being sad after Myrtle’s death, “In a little while I heard a low husky sob and saw that tears were overflowing down his face” (7.14). Nicks description clearly doesn’t describe Tom as being happy. Tom could not swipe a card or exchange bills to bring back Myrtle. It’s evident money couldn’t bring back his happiness from the dead. Likewise, in Daisy’s situation money did not buy happiness for her. It is seen in the following phrase, “As he left the room again she got up and went over to Gatsby and pull his face down, kissing him on the mouth”. Someone doesn’t have an affair because they felt like, there is always a reason for doing so. In most cases, people cheat because their marriage or relationship isn’t fulfilling its purpose of providing happiness. It’s quite obvious that Daisy wasn’t cheating because the lack of wealth in her marriage for Tom was as wealthy as Gatsby. She was cheating because her marriage wasn 't bringing her happiness. Daisy was surrounded by money but could not find happiness. Both Tom and Daisy’s wealth had no merit when it came to buying happiness for