The Role Of Happiness In The Great Gatsby

"Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has, the more one wants.” ~ Benjamin Franklin. Happiness can come from several different aspects in life, and many say that happiness is given through the way you live life and how one receives it. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald written in 1925, portrays what seems to be a love story between two individuals displaying the American dream of wealth and happiness while it actually displays the fading traditional values of the people and distrust.
In the novel, a character Tom Buchanan, created by Fitzgerald, was created to be the center of wealth as a back shadow of wealth to Jay Gatsby. As Buchanan learns about his
Once Daisy accidently murdered Myrtle, it seems she once again went back to Tom for safety and security, leaving Gatsby (who she just confessed her love for) to wait outside her house in the dark. Being married to Tom, Daisy had known she would not be held accountable or convicted of the crime. In everyday society because there are people that have wealth handed to them because of who they are, they usually seem either happy or are unhappy. "First, the relationship between happiness and money only holds for a certain kind of happiness."(Lyubomirsky). While there are several relationships or actions that can be taken to receive happiness, it is stated that the only way to achieve true happiness is to find it in a person. Tom and Daisy did not think twice about spending money, whether it was for expensive champagne or the luxurious clothes, they were careless with money, "they were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up thing and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and they let other people clean up their mess they had made." (Lena). Tom and Daisy are created to illustrate the wealth one percent by being careless with their money. The
Though love can seem to bring people happiness, Tom’s love for Daisy can’t be enough because of his constant need for attention from other women. Tom’s mistress Myrtle, also married, is more in love with Tom than he is with her, "And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in awhile I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back,and in my heart I love her all the time"(131). Tom knows that he is in love with Daisy, but still feels the need to cheat on her with Myrtle. Several studies that show when a partner in a marriage commits adultery, it is because they want the other partner to notice them or give them attention. In the novel, Myrtle demonstrates that she is in love with Tom and wants both of them to separate from their partners to be with one another, "Although she believes that she and Tom will marry, he clearly has no such intention"(Wyly). While Myrtle knows Tom is actually in love with Daisy, she had beliefs that he may actually be in love with herself. Myrtle’s husband who is a garage mechanic and does not make very much money, may have been one of many reasons for her love affair with Tom Buchanan. All the while, the love that Daisy and Gatsby used to share was started to be rekindled through the acts that Gatsby created through summer such as: filling Nick's house with flowers, Gatsby shows her his estate, and the throwing of expensive shirts from his closet. Daisy and Gatsby began