Pursuit Of Happiness In The Great Gatsby

Pursuit of Happiness
What is happiness and how do we measure it? We mostly know when we are happy and when we are not happy. But, is there a way to achieve happiness if we are not? People define happiness in so many different ways and also prescribe variety ways to achieve happiness (Taber). Are there some specific ways that make human in general happy or the way might work not depends on the individual? Different individuals pursued happiness in different paths in these movies Groundhog Day, Wolf of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby. In Groundhog Day, Phil Connors learned he can achieve happiness by living consciously and valuing others and actively involving in the community. Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of the Wall Street lost what he had …show more content…
He was pessimistic toward everything except himself. Even in the celebration day, he assumed all the people, who were excited and happy, were just unintelligent or in his own words “hicks”. He got stuck on one day which means he kept waking up the same day over and over. After realizing that he wasn’t mentally or physically ill, he decided to use the advantage of his situation to gain pleasure and when he didn’t succeed on that he tried to kill himself. After unsuccessful several suicide attempts and realizing he is immortal, he started to accept himself and start living in the moment. Phil noticed that though he was waking up at the same day, means he was given chance to live the day better, he kept making the same mistakes and having the same life style over and over. So he became aware of his surrounds, the people he meets and how his words and action affect others. His life started to change once he starts living the conscious life. He learned life just doesn’t happen, he has to actively participate in the world and work on it. He needs to try and learn new things. For example, when he was initially talking to the woman he liked, she described the kind of guy she likes and he thought he had to pretend to be …show more content…
The desire of having more and more changed his character to the point where he had to do unethical things. His bad action caused guilty conscious and to numb his conscience for those guilty conscious he started to take drugs, and have sex. Though he was trying to numb his pain or gain happiness, the path he was taking brought him more disturbance. The desire to have more money blinded him that he couldn’t see when it affects his family and friends. He lost his inner peace or happiness and also his family. “Happiness is not external” (Dr.Henry