True Happiness

One of the several underlying themes in The Great Gatsby is that people who rely on materialistic items for happiness are just as hollow on the inside as the books in Gatsby’s library. Nearly every character in the novel acquires this kind of “happiness”, and by the end each of these characters finds out that life without the item he or she depended on for happiness is rather hollow. The books in Gatsby’s library represent the characters in the novel. When Owl Eyes is in the library looking at the books he admits that he thought the books were hollow, when in actuality they were real. The expectations of people in West Egg are shallow; they are nice on the outside and hollow on the inside.
There are many characters that represent this underlying theme. Klipspringer, the freeloader who is almost always at Gatsby’s mansion, exploits Gatsby’s money. When Gatsby dies, Klipspringer vanishes and fails to attend Gatsby’s funeral. As soon as the materialistic item he was feeding off for happiness disappears, Klipspringer disappears as well. Without the money, he is completely empty. The characters in the novel don’t all rely on items for happiness; several of them rely on other people or ideas for happiness. George Wilson lived entirely behind the shadow of his wife, Myrtle. He didn’t have his own identity; instead, he found his identity through Myrtle. When his wife was killed in the car accident, Wilson killed himself as well. Once his wife died, his identity and reasons for living died also. The main character, Gatsby, is the greatest example of the idea that emptiness resides in the people who rely on one specific person or item for their happiness. Gatsby fully relied on Daisy for his happiness and well being. His whole purpose in life was to achieve the dream of having Daisy to himself and making her his wife. Gatsby had admired and desired Daisy every day of his life ever since he met her. A short period of time after he lost Daisy to Tom at the end of the novel, Gatsby was shot and killed instantly. The woman he depended on for his happiness caused him not only to die emotionally, but also, ironically, to die physically. True happiness cannot be found in one’s materialistic or personal desires.

No More Regrets

You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. This is a saying that we have all heard, but has anyone ever really thought about it? The more I think about this saying, the more I agree with it. Everyone is constantly taking things for granted, whether it is something materialistic, an ability one has worked for, or even a relationship with a person. All my life I have had things I love and adore slip through my fingers so fast I could hardly believe it was gone. The feeling of regret is what seems to accompany a loss the most. A materialistic person who has lost an item may think, “What am I to do now? How can I ever be accepted without this? If only people could have seen that before I lost it…” An athlete who has lost their ability to walk could possibly be thinking, “Why didn’t I just use my head instead of constantly being so reckless? My whole life was based around this. How will I ever be happy again?” A person who has just lost a family member would probably be thinking, “If only I could have said one more thing to her…if only I could have seen her one last time…if only I could have let her know how much I loved her…” Lastly, the person who has lost the support of friends might be thinking, “I never knew how lonely things could get without friends…I sure do wish things could go back the way things were.” All the thoughts that come with having something ripped out of you fingers are regretful. We feel like we could have or should have done something different or taken advantage of what we had while we had it. Wouldn’t it feel great to have absolutely no regrets? Wouldn’t it feel great to seize every opportunity and run with it? Wouldn’t it feel great to live in the moment and pour all of our blood and sweat into everything we did? I think the greatest thing of all would be to love others like we have never loved before. Love not only brings the most emotional regrets that are much harder to forget about, but it also brings the most meaningful and worth while regrets. One positive motive that I have personally taken hold of from experiencing this type of regret is to love unconditionally the people you are surrounded with, because you will never even begin to fathom the magnitude of what you had until they are gone.

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

For all of the people who have regrets that they just can’t seem to let go of, I would like to tell you to let go of them now. Easier said than done, right? You will never completely forget about your regrets, and I don’t think you should forget. My piece of advice is don’t let your regrets take control of your life. Use your regrets to your advantage by applying what you learned to your life, and by never making the same mistake again.

"When one door closes another one opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

The American Dream

The 1920’s was the period in time in which distractions took place of the “American dream” that all Americans were striving for. Instead of focusing on this “dream”, people of the 1920’s began taking more interest in jazz music, parties, drinking, smoking, and many other things. This revolutionary decade brought new ideas and lifestyles to the American culture. Although this was a time period when people seemed to have lost their morals and focus on achieving the “American dream”, I believe it was a necessary step America needed to take towards modernization. This was a period of great advance for the nation. It is even “often characterized as a period of American prosperity and optimism”. If optimism and prosperity are two words used to describe this era, people couldn’t have possibly lost sight of their American dream. Americans seem to be the most hopeful and have the most desire to succeed in this decade. If you think Americans lost sight of their American dream, how did the “distractions” of the roaring twenties cause this to happen? Did people truly lose sight of their dream?
By definition, the American dream is “a national ethos of the United States of America in which democratic ideals are perceived as a promise of prosperity for its people”. In other words, it is a dream every American has in which they strive for prosperity and happiness. I don’t think Americans completely lost sight of their dream during the 20’s. During this decade, people were simply changing with the times. Drinking, smoking, going to parties, and listening to jazz music were some of the characteristics that were hard to get past. These were just a few of the things that Americans took a part of in this era. The American dream is not necessarily the same for every single person, or in this case, time period. It shifts as the American lifestyle changes. Therefore, I do not believe Americans lost sight of their dream; their dream just changed.