Happiness In The Great Gatsby

Gatsby tells Nick about how

Great Gatsby essay Gustavo pd 6 Happiness: a state of well-being and contentment (Mariam Webster dictionary). People pursue wealth trying to find what they believe is happiness, however the story "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald clearly shows that money cannot buy happiness and if anything leads to people living unfulfilled lives. The story revolves around wealthy characters and their lives, but it is shown throughout the book that relationships cannot be bought. Examples of people attempting to "buy" relationships are shown in the multiple occasions where upper class members socialize with each other despite not always liking each other but simply because they are upper class members. Another example of a "bought" relationship is the relationship between Tom and Daisy because she fell back on him when Gatsby went off to war because he was an upper class member even though she did not truly love him.

This quote proves that Daisy had been lying to her husband, and to Gatsby through all of this mess. She had constantly been telling Tom that she loved him, and she had been telling Gatsby that she hated her life and she wanted to leave Tom to be with him. This argument causes a lot of distress, tension, and unhappiness between all of the characters. The next events all lead to the examples of materialism in the falling action. The first example of materialism in the falling action is when Gatsby’s father shows up for the funeral and Nick observes something that his father did.

The Jazz Age of America happened in the 1920s, begun by the end of the Great Depression. The richer classes in America lived an American Dream of wealth, freedom, and never-ending entertainment. This sometimes led to corruption from people seeking more money, more fun, more love, and more. The Great Gatsby is a prime example of this phenomenon. F. Scott Fitzergald’s

Gatsby believes that money can buy him whatever his heart desires. Gatsby’s misunderstanding of the way money functions in the society he lives in results in the failure of his attempt to gain both status and the

“James Gatz — that was really, or at least legally, his name… The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God.... So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.” ( 99) Gatsby was just a ideal, a dream that was conceived from James Gatz , a poor boy. He changed everything, lied about his past and truly believed that he was Jay Gatsby.

There are two words that properly describe Mr. Jay Gatsby; a phony and charismatic person. Gatsby has a very strong personality and will not give up on his so called “American Dream”. However, nobody knows the real Gatsby, not even Nick Caraway at first who later we see as Gatsby’s one and only true friend. Jay Gatsby is a man in his mid-thirties who lives a more or less of an extravagant life which he is financing by the great deal of money he miraculously came about in some way that nobody is for certain of. In all reality nobody knows much about him at all, they only know him from the extravagant, lavish parties that he throws in hopes that one day his true love, Daisy will show up.

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s smile as a symbol of the ambiguity and duplicity his character inspires. This Quote from Nick at the first of Gatsby’s lavish parties that he attends is one of the first bits of real characterization that we see of Gatsby. His smile encapsulates the extravagance of the party as well as the thoughtfulness that he seems to exude. Nick seems to be one of the only guests that had been hand-picked by Gatsby, leaving Nick with the feeling that there is nobody more important in the world, and Gatsby’s smile does just that. Before Nick can even bask in the smile vanishes, and he becomes just “an elegant young rough neck, a year or two over thirty.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows how everyone wants to be happy, but effort must be put into actually achieve happiness. At first, all of the characters are portrayed as happy people who enjoy where there lives are at. As more is revealed about who the characters actually are, it is made apparent that none of them are actually happy with their lives. When Daisy finally makes her decision on who to stay with it is confirmed that neither her nor Tom are truly happy, but aren't unhappy either. Fitzgerald allows for inferences on Gatsby’s happiness in the upcoming chapters through his description of how he watches over the house.

Gatsby knows that Daisy is a high-class individual who cares very much about status and wealth, so his entire life has been dedicated to being the best so that she will notice him. When Daisy, Gatsby’s one desire, and Nick, Gatsby’s

Gatsby has spent his whole life trying to prove to Daisy and everyone around him that he is worthy of her. The only way to be on the same social level as her is to turn himself into new money. Since this is not possible, he has to try to convince to others that he truly is old money. To do this, he becomes rich, and lies about his past, but the only way for him to complete this idea is if he is with Daisy. She is the final piece in his American dream.

Aaron Teng Marina Litushko English 10 19 May 2023 Lost Happiness of the American Dream As an exaggerated, yet realistic depiction of the Roaring twenties in America, the Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald highlights the flaws in people and society. While Gatsby, the main character, is the one of the most obvious followers of the American Dream, nearly everyone in the book chases after some form of that dream, with the same unrealistic expectations of perfect relationships and reputations. The classic American Dream includes a family of four, a dog, a nice house with white picket fence, and other imaginative things that paint a fantastical image of happiness in life.

This was very signatance to Gatsby because along with Gatsby Nick had hope. Nick father teaching taught him to have hope in people. Sharing hope in Gatsby he had reassurance “Gatsby turns out to be alright at the end,” Fitzgerald uses this in the beginning to give hope. Fitzgerald also use “creative temperament” then later on say “it is what preyed Gatsby, what a foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams of temporarily closed…” Throughout the novel Nick shows his native of his Midwestern terms in his hope for Gatsby.

In the story "The Great Gatsby" Nick has a favorable opinion of Jay Gatsby. In the first chapter of the book Nick states "When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction- Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. " The book gives many examples of Nick thinking of Gatsby as the "Great" such as Gatsby 's smile, what Gatsby was willing to do for Daisy, and what Gatsby did for himself.

If one is honest, they are to be free of deceit and untruthfulness; sincere. The quality of being honest is honesty. Although characters in The Great Gatsby are quite sincere, they fall short in the possession of honesty. The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which depicts how American life was during the Roaring Twenties.