Content.
Yasmin Kamarudin
A1 Literature
Mr. Pangier
21 April 2015
Does success bring you happiness or is it the other way around? Most people often believe that by achieving success, they will be happy, but is that really the case? According to Sonja Lyubomirskya study, people who are more happy accomplishment their aim in terms of maintaining their relationship, money and identity (Pembroke). Even divorced couple, the happier person would remarry. The effort we put in pursuing success sometimes become futile as as soon as we achieve that success, we are wanting for more and what is beyond the success. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the chase for success is evident, yet the characters such as Nick Caraway, Tom Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby portray how by having their own successes, they were never content with what they have.
Nick Caraway embodies intellect as his success, due to his platitude observations throughout the book, but his loneliness is distinct. He is living an average life with a house that only costs “eighty dollars a month” compared to the “twelve or fifteen thousand a season” houses in his neighbourhood (Fitzgerald 5~6). He was never complacent with what he has done rather with his observations and what he has, through his old wealth. Nick gives the impression that he “reserves all judgement” as he follows his father’s “advice” but by the end of the book, he came to a conclusion that everyone: Gatsby, Jordan, Daisy and Tom, were shallow and self-absorbed (Fitzgerald 1). Nick’s opinion gives the notion that he is satisfied with his life, but he reveals his need to be loved by someone, even if it is just another girl: “I had no girl… so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms” (Fitzgerald 52). After Gatsby died, he is left all alone, with no one by his side. This supports the conviction of how even when he has his life all together, he is lonely.
Tom Buchanan is successful in a way that Gatsby could ever achieve, which is the connection he has with Daisy yet he has trouble maintaining the relationship. Tom and Daisy have a loveless marriage where love is not palpable between them. Money and wealth is what ties their relationship together as it is prevalent in the day they were married. However, having Daisy as a wife, and a little girl, he had chose to have a “woman in New York” showing his dissatisfaction with his life (Fitzgerald 12). Not only that, the fact that he insisted on Nick to “meet [his] girl” depicts his pride in having the affair (Fitzgerald 17). Although, they have their fractious days, he has his truculent manners at times as well with Myrtle, where he “broke her nose with his open hand” at one point. His love for Daisy could only be perceived when he loses Myrtle, and was worried he might lose Daisy to Gatsby. So, he “told [Wilson] the truth” knowing the consequence would harm Gatsby’s existence (Fitzgerald 114). The action itself proves his attributes as a man with a good relationship, decided to ruin it just to feed their selfishness with ego.
Jay Gatsby exemplifies that having wealth as a form of success does not bring you happiness. A man with a luxurious mansion set with a “marble swimming pool, forty acres of lawn and garden” and all for the use for “gleaming [and] dazzling parties” still is searching for the hypothetical hole which can only be filled with Daisy’s presence (Fitzgerald 6 / 114). Gatsby’s entire existence was constructed in his wistful pursuit of Daisy. He believed that by having his riches, he can finally be with Daisy as he “bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” of his mansion. However, Gatsby sees Daisy as just a prize, tagged with a price that no money can buy, a representative of wealth as “it excited him […] that many men had already loved Daisy”, revealing his attempt to gain more wealth (Fitzgerald 94). He wanted Daisy not because he loved her, but because everyone loved her. He was keen on getting something in demand and hard to get, in this case, Daisy. The aspiration he had set for himself to attain Daisy, made him become unaware of his unprecedented failure.
All in all, the successful of successful people, still strive for more ways to fill the gaps they have, leaving no room for the sense of satisfaction. The inevitable truth about how achieving success is elusive, still remain within the vessels of Nick Caraway, Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan in their perpetual desires to pursue something, even when there are residues of their current success. These characters even when they are equipped with wealths and prosperity that "no one else have", they dismiss the opportunity that they have to fill the hole with happiness (Fitzgerald 1). As Sonja Lyubomirsky states, that it doesn't matter "how successful we are, but perhaps what we do with our success" (Lyubomirsky).
Bibliography
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1993. Print.
Lyubomirsky, Sonja. "7 Myths About Happiness We Need to Stop Believing." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 09 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Pembroke, Galina. "Happiness Equals Success." Happiness Equals Success. Alive Publishing Group, Oct. 2006. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
A1 Literature
Mr. Pangier
21 April 2015
Does success bring you happiness or is it the other way around? Most people often believe that by achieving success, they will be happy, but is that really the case? According to Sonja Lyubomirskya study, people who are more happy accomplishment their aim in terms of maintaining their relationship, money and identity (Pembroke). Even divorced couple, the happier person would remarry. The effort we put in pursuing success sometimes become futile as as soon as we achieve that success, we are wanting for more and what is beyond the success. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the chase for success is evident, yet the characters such as Nick Caraway, Tom Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby portray how by having their own successes, they were never content with what they have.
Nick Caraway embodies intellect as his success, due to his platitude observations throughout the book, but his loneliness is distinct. He is living an average life with a house that only costs “eighty dollars a month” compared to the “twelve or fifteen thousand a season” houses in his neighbourhood (Fitzgerald 5~6). He was never complacent with what he has done rather with his observations and what he has, through his old wealth. Nick gives the impression that he “reserves all judgement” as he follows his father’s “advice” but by the end of the book, he came to a conclusion that everyone: Gatsby, Jordan, Daisy and Tom, were shallow and self-absorbed (Fitzgerald 1). Nick’s opinion gives the notion that he is satisfied with his life, but he reveals his need to be loved by someone, even if it is just another girl: “I had no girl… so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms” (Fitzgerald 52). After Gatsby died, he is left all alone, with no one by his side. This supports the conviction of how even when he has his life all together, he is lonely.
Tom Buchanan is successful in a way that Gatsby could ever achieve, which is the connection he has with Daisy yet he has trouble maintaining the relationship. Tom and Daisy have a loveless marriage where love is not palpable between them. Money and wealth is what ties their relationship together as it is prevalent in the day they were married. However, having Daisy as a wife, and a little girl, he had chose to have a “woman in New York” showing his dissatisfaction with his life (Fitzgerald 12). Not only that, the fact that he insisted on Nick to “meet [his] girl” depicts his pride in having the affair (Fitzgerald 17). Although, they have their fractious days, he has his truculent manners at times as well with Myrtle, where he “broke her nose with his open hand” at one point. His love for Daisy could only be perceived when he loses Myrtle, and was worried he might lose Daisy to Gatsby. So, he “told [Wilson] the truth” knowing the consequence would harm Gatsby’s existence (Fitzgerald 114). The action itself proves his attributes as a man with a good relationship, decided to ruin it just to feed their selfishness with ego.
Jay Gatsby exemplifies that having wealth as a form of success does not bring you happiness. A man with a luxurious mansion set with a “marble swimming pool, forty acres of lawn and garden” and all for the use for “gleaming [and] dazzling parties” still is searching for the hypothetical hole which can only be filled with Daisy’s presence (Fitzgerald 6 / 114). Gatsby’s entire existence was constructed in his wistful pursuit of Daisy. He believed that by having his riches, he can finally be with Daisy as he “bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” of his mansion. However, Gatsby sees Daisy as just a prize, tagged with a price that no money can buy, a representative of wealth as “it excited him […] that many men had already loved Daisy”, revealing his attempt to gain more wealth (Fitzgerald 94). He wanted Daisy not because he loved her, but because everyone loved her. He was keen on getting something in demand and hard to get, in this case, Daisy. The aspiration he had set for himself to attain Daisy, made him become unaware of his unprecedented failure.
All in all, the successful of successful people, still strive for more ways to fill the gaps they have, leaving no room for the sense of satisfaction. The inevitable truth about how achieving success is elusive, still remain within the vessels of Nick Caraway, Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan in their perpetual desires to pursue something, even when there are residues of their current success. These characters even when they are equipped with wealths and prosperity that "no one else have", they dismiss the opportunity that they have to fill the hole with happiness (Fitzgerald 1). As Sonja Lyubomirsky states, that it doesn't matter "how successful we are, but perhaps what we do with our success" (Lyubomirsky).
Bibliography
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1993. Print.
Lyubomirsky, Sonja. "7 Myths About Happiness We Need to Stop Believing." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 09 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Pembroke, Galina. "Happiness Equals Success." Happiness Equals Success. Alive Publishing Group, Oct. 2006. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.