Why Is Happiness Important In The Great Gatsby

The 1920s is an era where many people believed that wealth could bring them happiness. Because of this mentality, excess materialism was widely rampant during this decade, due to a rise in mass consumerism and a post-war economic boom that seemed to have no limits on its prosperity. Being wealthy didn’t just come with being able to possess a lot of material goods; it also helped to elevate one’s social status. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald captures the importance of how wealth plays a role in people’s motivations to be happy, during this time period. Much of the book centers around the main character, Gatsby’s desire to rekindle a love for woman named Daisy Buchanan, who unfortunately is married to Tom Buchanan. Daisy’s “voice [being] …show more content…
But we must see that there are parallels between fiction and the real world. Looking into our modern time period, the belief that wealth can bring happiness continues to persist. A study conducted by Angus Deaton and Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University has found that in today’s society, $75,000 is the benchmark salary for anyone to be happy. What the study concluded was that the happiness stemming from a higher income was a result of the person feeling that their quality of life was greater, as a higher income means more freedom to do things that you enjoy. For ourselves, how do we get that satisfaction that our life is great? We compare ourselves to others. We feel better when we make more than our peers. We feel better when we are able to afford to travel to expensive places. We feel better when we are able to go to fancy restaurants. Often, we feel the need to broadcast our privileges out to the public. Social media serves as a great medium for communicating this out. By only showcasing the aspects of our life that seem good, we are able to build up this online persona of high status, especially if the posts are coupled with tons of likes and the account itself with thousands of

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