By Mariyah Gillis
One time or the other in our lives, one will experience happiness. People often assume that money, ideas and other people are the result of their happiness. In the Great Gatsby, Nick uses the characters; Tom and Gatsby, to teach the reader that material possessions are not reliable sources of contentment and only bring temporary happiness. Some people live their lives going mad chasing after money, hoping that money will bring them joy. Others use make-up in hopes that it will show their beauty and in-turn creates happiness. The realization is happiness is an internal emotion, only controlled by ourselves and inner being. No one or nothing can create happiness. Thus, we are in control of our emotions. Nick shows this lesson through the actions of the other characters in the novel.
Objects, fade, shrink, die, break or are misplaced. Items do not last forever. Tom low in self esteem and unhappy with the life he already had and the marriage he was currently in, needed a pedestal to make himself feel better. No matter where he was whether it was in Paris, Chicago, or New York, he needed something/someone to give him the same feeling of importance he once had, when he reached his “acute limited excellence” at twenty-one. He yearned to be on a pedestal, the pedestal he once was on in college. As a result, he found another woman to give him the attention that he desired and make him feel important once again. When he received the news from her husband, the news that she was planning to move away, he was devastated. Later the same day, his mistress died in an automobile accident and his pedestal obliterated. The emotions that he invested with the mistress were negatively impacted because she was an unreliable source of happiness.
Gatsby, a once poor farmer from the States invested his happiness in past memories of Daisy. He lived his life trying to relive those once happy moments. Since she was wealthy and was considered highly affluent. He trusted that wealth, parties, and big houses and bright lights will attract her once again so that he could relive those memories. He spent his entire life trying to attain the very riches that he thought would attract her. However, she never noticed the grandiose parties he had and the bright lights went unnoticed. Daisy did see Gatsby, and his memories were now reality for a moment. But after a while, Daisy departed from Gatsby, and moved away. Nick shows how Gatsby uses material items to try and draw Daisy back to him. In the end, she doesn’t go back to Gatsby, and he’s left alone in the world purposeless. He put all his faith in riches, objects, and memories and they were unreliable sources of satisfaction.
Basing your joy on objects and unreliable possessions only bring brief satisfaction. Nick tells his story at a time, in American history, where our nation dramatically reduced moral and values, and focused on riches and assets. Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a used auto salesman, yearned to be rich. Money and wealth was the foundation of her happiness. She met a man (Tom) who provided her with the material objects that made her feel prosperous and distinguished above those around her. “I want to get one of those dogs,” she said. And Tom provided her with a dog. The apartment they shared was small, and “crowded to the doors” with things she didn’t necessarily need, nor want. For her, Tom was her way out. She was happy with him. But it was only momentary happiness, because she had to go back home to her husband the next morning.
The characters in the book, “The Great Gatsby”, based their pleasure on commodities which solely gave them temporary happiness for the moment. Nick presents this lesson throughout his retelling of ‘The Great Gatsby’.
