About a Boy:
About the Ideal American Happiness
By Nabil Bakri
American Studies 2018
Created in 2019
§
The
rising tension between the US and Germany after the U-20 sank the British liner
Lusitania in 1915 finally got its
highest peak in 1917 when German submarines started to attack and sink more
American ships. This tension made the US, after three years pledging
neutrality, join the war (History, 2010). Approximately a year later, in 1918,
the First World War was permanently terminated. Even though the US had only
(officially) fought in the war for a single year, the country also experienced
difficulties in adjusting with a new post-war world. It was not just about
adjusting the economy since the US was quickly becoming the new power as old Royal
Families started to crumble in paving the way for democracy, but it was also
about adjusting the new culture as the war certainly had brought powerful
impacts in people’s life to the deepest psychological level since such a
massive nationwide-scale of war had never been occurred prior to 1914. Two
years after the termination of World War I, America saw the rise of its youth
energy in the period of time glamorously called the Roaring 20s. It was the Jazz
Age, the economy boom, the rise of women’s power, a time in which “Post-war
ideals about immigration, religion, piety, and sexuality were all contested,”
(Kelly, 2019)
As
is usually the case, one facet of society desired a different way of life than
the rest. In the case of the 1920s, the older majority pined for the post-war
"return to normalcy" that Warren G. Harding promised. In contrast,
young people shunned the rigid Victorian lifestyle in favor of independence,
open-mindedness, and decadence……………………………………………………………………
Often the stereotypical vision of youth in the 1920s
is the flamboyant, bob-haired flapper girl, but there was also those of whom
after World War I ended desperately balked against this vision and instead
looked to increase the country's morality. As one way to stop crime,
corruption, and abuse, a variety of groups managed to make it illegal to
produce, transport, or sell alcoholic beverages. (Kelly, 2019)
 |
| (The Roaring 20s from Our Wonderful World Media) |
The Roaring 20s, similar to any shifting paradigm, saw the clashing of ideas and ideals between the liberals and more conservative people, between the younger and older generations. The parents simply wished the world to return to its original state before the war, but the children saw the situation as a new opportunity to build something new and different from the ashes—instead of building the exact same world, it would probably be better if it is built based on a new design since the old design had been proven faulty with the First World War as the proof of its dangerous defect. Similar to the Flower Power in the 70’s, younger generations were actively thinking about having fun instead of having quarrels, by any means necessary—even if that fun requires a massive dose of liquor and drugs. The Roaring 20s, according to Erin Kelly, was the time when “The parties were bigger, the pace was faster, the buildings were higher and the morals were looser," (2019). It was the pinnacle moment for consumerism and it boosted the economy not only for the White Americans, but also the Blacks with their renaissance, the Harlem Renaissance. The Jazz music and artistic works by African Americans started to gain momentum and eventually defined the decade of prosperous, loose, and whimsical life. Soon, however, the newly-made millionaires should face one of the biggest economy and market crash that would make them as penniless as broke farmers unable to pay the prize for farming machinery. One of the most famous author at the time, Scott F. Fitzgerald, published his celebrated novel The Great Gatsby in 1925—a novel that would question the essence of the Roaring 20s and the very correlation between wealth and happiness.
§
B.
The
Great Gatsby
 |
| (picture belongs to etsy.com) |
The
Great Gatsby (1925) is generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s finest
novel. It is a consummate summary of the ‘roaring twenties’, and a work of
great originality…………………….
The plot brilliantly brings out Fitzgerald’s central
theme of the dark surrounding the brightest light, the shallowness of many
human friendships, and the eerie silence as the syncopated rhythm of the jazz
fades. It is from its razor-sharp portrayal of the wealthy East Coast American society
of the day, and as a devastating exposé of the ‘Jazz Age’, that the novel
achieves its great power. Written in an easy style, without complex literary
experiment, at the height of the author’s maturity, it is now an undisputed
classic of American literature and is one of the great novels of the twentieth
century. (Wordsworth (Editors) in Fitzgerald, 1993: (n.p))
The novel is written in plain English as the writer
himself, back in 1923, claimed that he wanted to write “something extraordinary
and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned,” (Canton. et al, 2016:233)
and so, The Great Gatsby perfectly
captures the straightforwardness of intricate pattern of the modern age, a time
in which the complicated works of humans were gradually replaced by the
stiffness and straightforwardness of machinery as seen in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. The result of this
well-patterned writing style is a rather short and (arguably) easy to
understand novel. The Great Gatsby
works as a reminder that all of the glittering wealth is a sham (Canton. et al,
2016:230) and the promise of a new life—a prosperous one—is plagued by
defective moral values and emptiness. The novel, somehow, reminds the world
that all the money in the world can buy anything but one thing, that is,
happiness. Jay Gatsby’s life shows the readers that there is no clear
correlation between wealth and happiness and that living a glamorous life is
never going to fulfil a person’s pursuit of happiness. Happiness lies in small
things such as simplicity, family, and togetherness. Jay Gatsby falls for
Daisy’s beauty and forever be in love with her before he becomes as rich as any
Sultan and Daisy was happy with the poor Gatsby long before all the glittering
parties and imported linens. The novel demonstrates that happiness built solely
on wealth is nothing but a fake one, as fake as Gatsby’s failure to understand
the simplest concept of friendship, that is, giving and receiving a favour form a friend without any debt
necessary to be paid.
Fitzgerald
saw the Jazz Age as an era of miracle and excess. A new post-war prosperity was
centred on Wall Street, where huge factories were made trading in stocks and
bonds. The ideal of the self-made man was an attractive antidote to the power
of old money passed on by inheritance and marriage among the “best” families.
The 1920s in the USA seemed to offer a new social mobility, healing class
wounds and challenging snobbery…at the same time gave rise to a culture of
surface glitter that was morally and spiritually empty at its core. Fakery of
all kinds abounded and snobbery still existed—it had just found new targets.
(Canton. et al, 2016:231)
Before the First World War and certainly before the Roaring 20s, the wealthiest people on
earth were those belonged to inherently wealthy families—the bourgeoisie—Royal
families with long family lines and history with massive lands spanning endless
acres across different countries and continents. The war brought an end to such
design of society with the most tragic example be the Romanov family massacre
perpetrated by the Bolsheviks in Russia. Powerful royalties started to lose
their powers, even the great British Monarchy. There was no kingdom in America,
but there were old money and that was
exactly what the people desired to challenge. The new generations in America
(and the Western world, for that matter) have had enough of the snobbery of the
old money. Daisy and Tom Buchanan
belong to the old money and indeed,
their lives are also unhappy. Similar to the portrayal of Rose DeWitt Bukater
and Caledon Hockey in Titanic (1997),
arranged marriage was nothing but a plain sight. The new money meant to challenge the old ideals to pursue pure
happiness, but it eventually became the very entity it pledged to combat. The new money became as snobbish and fake as
the old money and this is exactly
what the novel tries to convey. The novel might be a dusty piece of literature
written nearly a century ago, but its movie adaptation released in 2013 shows
that the message of the story is still relevant to this day.
§
C.
The Great Gatsby
the Film
 |
| (picture belongs to Warner Bros.) |
The 2013 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire is not the first adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Previously, it was adapted to a 1949 film in black and white (because colours were used for epic-scale or colossal-historical films instead of drama). The interesting point of the existence of the remake or reimagining in 2013 is that it existed because the essence of the novel remains valid even in the contemporary interconnected societies of online users. The film, once again, reminds the society that the search for fortune or wealth is not synonymous or in line with the search for happiness. Gatsby decided to temporarily leaves Daisy in search for money so that he can woe her and they both live happily ever after. However, his quest eventually makes him loose Daisy and his pile of money can never bring Daisy back to his arms and therefore, his fortune tortures him even more than makes him happy. Gatsby does portray a successful gentleman perfectly, but in the end, it is all just an exaggerated way of acting to conceal his agony and emptiness. As vividly narrated in the film, Gatsby was a very poor guy and just like many other young generations at the time, he thought that money shall bring him closer to the state of happiness because happiness is the promise plastered in the faces of wealthy families.
If
only it’d been enough for Gatsby just to hold Daisy. But he had a grand vision
for his life and Daisy’s part in it. It
wasn’t until the end of that summer, on the last night I saw Gatsby, that he
told me of the life he had dreamed for himself since he was a boy. You see,
doctor, Gatsby’s real name was…James Gatz. His parents were dirt-poor farmers
from North Dakota. But he never accepted them as his parents at all. In his own
imagination, he was a son of God, destined for future glory. Chasing this
destiny, a sixteen-year-old Gatz ran far-far away. One afternoon, off the coast
of Lake Superior, he spotted a yacht in peril. He rowed out and rescued the
vessel and its captain alcoholic millionaire Dan Cody. (Interrupted by a dialogue)
This was his opportunity and he seized it. (Interrupted by a dialogue) He sailed
the yacht out of danger and into his future. Gatsby showed skill and ambition.
And for 5 years, they sailed the world. (Interrupted by a dialogue) Gatsby
hoped to inherit Cody’s fortune. But when Cody died, Gatsby was cheated of his
inheritance by Cody’s family. He’d been left with the ability to play the
gentleman. But he was once again dirt poor. By mid-summer, Gatsby was
front-page news. (Nick Carraway in The
Great Gatsby, 2013: Disc One, mins 01:07:41-01:09:49)
Based on the narration, it is clear that Gatsby was not
happy in his life as a poor child of a ‘dirt-poor’ farmer. Even after he
manages to receive Daisy’s unconditional love, it is still not enough for him
because living a regular life is not ideal for a happy life. Little did he know
that pursuing his fortune will cost him Daisy—costs him his own happiness. Money is never the source for Gatsby’s
happiness, its Daisy’s presence. This narration exposes the human mentality to
want more and never settle in the
state of contentment—never enough. This narration was true nearly a century
ago, and it is true today, even truer
than it used to be. In the documentary Don’t
Sweat the Future: Happiness released by Discovery Channel in 2000, the
emergence of consumerism constantly makes people think that “if they get one
more”, they would be happy, but it is actually a never-ending crave for wealth
because people have been deceived by the notion that being rich is equal to
being happy while happiness actually lies on simple things in life (Discovery
Home and Health, 2000/2006). The story of Jay Gatsby has been told over and
over through different cases in different Hollywood films. One of their crucial
messages, however, is similar to that of The
Great Gatsby—that wealth is not synonymous to happiness and people should
cherish every little moment in life.
§
D. Hollywood
Films and the Mask of Happiness
The message in The
Great Gatsby specifically concerning the ideal happiness (that money is not
everything) is synonymous to repetition
in Hollywood. The film industry seems to never eager to stop portraying the
agony or complicated problems of wealthy characters. It is a situation as imaginative as real life when actress
Winona Ryder confessed her agony to the media in an ABC interview with Diane
Sawyer in promoting Ryder’s latest film, at the time, Girl, Interrupted in 1999. Sawyer claimed that Winona Ryder is one
of the most celebrated actress and yet, she is depressed. In a way similar to
Gatsby, Ryder was not an heir to a multi-million dollar company and her fortune
just started to change when a talent seeker saw her performance and opened her
way for a stable career. Winona Ryder was also experience rejection from the
Hollywood community before she became famous and that the rejection did not
stop her from pursuing a career in Hollywood. Ryder eventually became an
international superstar after being cast in popular films such as Beetlejuice, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Alien
Resurrection. Beyond all these glamorous spotlights, she was a broken self.
In her own words, she confessed:
I
used to drive around at night and listen to music cause I couldn’t sleep. And I was driving around, and I was wishing
so badly, that I had someone to talk to. A friend, someone…and I didn’t. And I
saw this magazine stand, and outdoor magazine stand, and I saw myself on the
cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and it
said something like ‘Winona Ryder: The Luckiest Girl in the World’. And…it
broke my heart because there I was, you know, in so much pain, and feeling so
confused, feeling so lost in my life, mmm
I wasn’t allowed to complain because I was ‘so lucky’, you know, and I was ‘so
blessed’ and I made a lot of money and, you know, my problems weren’t real
problems and if I, I mean, I was…I’m as nauseated as the next person when
actors complain about their lives, you know, we are blessed, we are lucky, but
the stuff that I was going through was difficult. (Winona Ryder in an ABC
interview with Diane Sawyer, 1999)
Winona Ryder’s confession somehow captures Gatsby’s agony
of being surrounded by money and influential people, and yet still feels empty.
It shows that wealth, as Winona claimed that she made tons of money from her
film projects, is not the source of happiness and that wealthy and influential
people are usually fake—they will be all round you if you are rich, but they
are not your friend. There is always hidden agenda between every meeting of
every influential people. This point is in line with Gatsby’s assumption that
Nick Carraway would never want to help him meet Daisy if he does not offer Nick
a steady job or tons of money. The moment Nick Carraway sees Gatsby’s seemingly disbelief expression when Nick
says that helping Gatsby to meet Daisy is merely a favour like one among
friends, Nick realizes that Gatsby has no real
friends and always surrounded by people bearing certain intentions and none is
sincere. This kind of story is always repeated by American films from the early
days of film industry to the digital age of the 21st century.
In Gone with the
Wind, it is described that Rhett Butler’s wealth can only bring pain to
Scarlett O’Hara (or the wealth is not the answer for her search for happiness).
In the 1953 version of Titanic, it is
told that Julia Sturges does not feel happy with her marriage with a gentleman
and eventually seeks for a romance with a spirited young nobody—surprisingly similar to the 1997 version of Titanic concerning the romantic tale
between Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt. An aging wealthy superstar who is unhappy
appears in the characters of Margo Channing and Norma Desmond in All about Eve and Sunset Boulevard, respectively. The
Bucket List (2007) shows a more contemporary version of the message through
its contrasting characters portrayed by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. The
film shows how a wealthy businessman, no matter how happy hey may look, is actually
unhappy, while a simple mechanic who looks pathetic is actually way happier
than the businessman. Even in comedy, this message of real versus fake
happiness is boldly shown with Are We
There Yet? as an example of a comedic rich man sacrifices everything he has
for the warmth of a loving family because ultimately, this is the message that
these stories try to convey. The search for happiness, looking back to The Great Gatsby, is not synonymous to
the search for money because happiness lies within small warm interactions in
life that usually slips away unnoticed just like Nick Carraway says, “He did
not know that it (the dream of happiness with Daisy) was already behind him…”
(Fitzgerald, 1993:163).
§
E. About
a Boy
 |
| (picture belongs to Universal Pictures) |
In
my opinion, all men are islands. And what’s more? Now’s the time to be one.
This is an island age. 100 years ago, for instance, you had to depend on other
people. No one had TV, or CDs, or DVDs, or Videos or home espresso makers. As a matter of fact they didn’t have anything
cool. Where now, you see, you can make yourself a little island paradise. With
the right supplies and more importantly the right attitude, you can be
sun-rich, tropical, a magnet for young Swedish tourists. And I like to think
that, perhaps, I’m that kind of island. I like to think I am pretty cool. I
like to think I’m Ibiza. (Will Freeman in About
a Boy, 2002: Disc One mins
01:26-02:11)
Will Freeman, because he is rich without have to do
anything, tends to think that he does not need anybody and considers himself as
an island separated from the mainland. With all the money he owns, he can
afford a sport car, an impressive set of home theatre which was undeniably
expensive at the time, and becoming a playboy. So far, his character has lots
of Tom Buchanan traits. Moving half-way through the film, however, situations
start to force him to re-evaluate his life. A boy comes to his life and he is
faced with situations that would awaken his sense of fatherhood—something he
despises entirely. Through the boy Marcus, Will changes his own rules and for
once letting a friend to enter his island, much like Gatsby is letting Nick to get
close to him and eventually becomes his only true friend. Will, just like Gatsby, is ecstatic when Marcus, his
only true friend and Rachel, the only woman he actually and deeply cares about
are within his reach. He is so sure that buying Marcus expensive goods and
showing his charm to Rachel shall win their hearts. When none of his plans work
and both Marcus and Rachel ditch him, Will finally look closer into the mirror
and re-evaluate his entire existence. He
starts to realize that none of the things he own or activities he perform on a
daily basis, mean something to his life—his life is actually meaningless.
My
life is made up of units of time. Buying CD: two unit. Eating lunch: three
units. Exercising: two unit. All in all I have a very full life. It’s just
that…it didn’t mean anything. The fact was, there’s only one thing that meant
something to me. Marcus. He was the only thing that meant something to me. And
Fiona was the only something that meant to him, and she’s about to fall off the
edge. (Will Freeman in About a Boy, 2002: Disc Two mins 30:39-32:01)
Once everyone he cares about is leaving him, he plays the
CD album of his father’s celebrated Christmas song and he realizes how he
misses to be in a family again. Since Marcus and Rachel are the only family he
has, he determines to win their hearts back by all means necessary, even if it
means he must humiliate himself in public—something he would never had done
previously. About a Boy once again
reminds the audience that wealth is not synonymous to happiness, that money is
not everything. It underlines the appeal of living a simple and purposeful life
through love and sacrifice, strengthens the notion of family and how the pursue
of wealth or perfection should never come at the expense of the people he loves
and undermines simple things in life. About
a Boy shows the contrast of Will’s private
property in the beginning of the film to its ending in which it is no
longer a lonely island.
Will Freeman: By the next Christmas, things were back
to normal. Every man is an island, I stand by that. But, clearly, some men are
part of island chains. Below the surface of the ocean they’re actually
connected. (About a Boy, 2002: Disc Two mins 44:10-44:29)
Marcus: I used to think two wasn’t enough. Now there
were loads of people. And that was great, mostly. I don’t know what Will is so
upset about. All I meant was, I don’t think couples are the future. You need
more than that. You need backup. The way I saw it, Will and I both have backup
now. It’s like that thing he told me Jon Bon Jovi said, “No man is an island.”
(About a Boy, 2002: Disc Two mins 44:48-46:20)
About a Boy and The Great Gatsby are never meant to be the same story and they are,
essentially, different in many ways. All films and stories mentioned previously
starting from Gone with the Wind, All about Eve, Titanic, Sunset Boulevard,
The Sound of Music, The Bucket List, and so on, are not
variations of stories capturing the Roaring
20s—none of them specifically refers to the Jazz Age. However, the notion that money is not everything seems to
be resonating over and over again in works of art specifically novels and
films. It is true that Americans long for the fulfilment of the American
dreams, but they continuously remind themselves about the importance of
simplicity and togetherness. The
Godfather trilogy shows how a corrupt family, no matter how corrupt it is,
should maintain the bonds to remain strong and to survive the test of the cruel
world. Once a member of the family decides to walk on his own path by
sacrificing his own family, it will destroy not only the family but also
himself. This seems to be a ubiquitous theme, or at least an additional theme,
to many Hollywood films. Even in a nonstop action film like Die Hard shows the peril of a successful
career that comes at the expense of the family—if the wife chooses to stay at
home with her family over the high salary job in Nakatomi Plaza, she should
never be harmed by the criminals. In American superhero films, rich characters
such as Iron Man and Bruce Wayne (Batman) are often depicted as broken
while Clark Kent (Superman) who was
raised in a farm and Steve Rogers (Captain
America) who was a down-to-earth soldier are usually depicted as having
more meaningful lives because their simplicity resonates with contentment and
contentment resonates with happiness.
§
F. Happiness:
A Conclusion
 |
| (picture belongs to Universal Pictures) |
American psychologist Martin Seligman proposed the idea that “happy people are extremely social”. It is rather interesting because he proposed the idea of happiness and its relation with human nature as social being instead of the idea that “happy people are those the wealthiest among us”. According to Seligman, happiness has nothing to do with wealth but there are three kinds of happiness: (1) the good life—pursuing personal growth, (2) the meaningful life—acting in the service of something greater than the self, and (3) the pleasant life—socializing and seeking pleasure (Collin. et al, 2012:200). The documentary Don’t Sweat the Future: Happiness claims that the best way of life is the simple-meaningful life and shows that wealthy people are more likely to experience the lack of meaningful human connections thus lead to less happy life (Discovery Home and Health, 2000) as seen in the case of Winona Ryder. Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Robin Williams, Brad Renfro, Jonathan Brandis, Lady Diana Spencer, and perhaps the most tragic of them all, Bobby Driscoll were celebrities and influencer with luck far greater than the average people (Sir David Attenborough in the BBC documentary The Human Face claims that most famous people were famous because of luck (BBC, 2001)) and yet they were unhappy and many other American celebrities are often commit suicide or die from drugs overdose. Over and over American films portray the similar situations resembling the Roaring 20s, the age of glamorous life, and its downfall.
Seligman noticed that extremely happy, fulfilled
people tend to get on with others, and enjoy company. They seemed to lead what
he called “the pleasant life”, one of three distinct types of “happy” life that
he identified, the others being “the good life” and “the meaningful life”. The
pleasant life, or seeking as many pleasure as possible, appeared to bring
happiness, though Seligman found this was often short-lived. Less obviously,
the good life, or being successfully engaged in relationships, work, and play,
gave a deeper, more lasting happiness. Similarly, the meaningful life, or
acting in the service of others or something bigger than oneself, led to great
satisfaction and fulfilment. (Collin. et al, 2012:201)
It is clear that based on Martin Seligman’s argument,
Americans do not necessarily reject the idea of seeking for pleasure in
pursuing happiness. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with economic boom and
people able to afford expensive goods they could only dreamed of, previously.
Not all new money was bad in the Roaring 20s as not all gold seeker in
the Gold Rush were crazy for dreaming
a better—wealthier life. However, such a fulfilment is merely temporary because
it seeks comfort from the outside.
Discovery Home and Health informs people that it is normal to be happy from
receiving tons of money, shopping, partying, and many other
pleasure-seeking-oriented activities. However, it should also be noted that
none of these activities are permanent or have longer impacts in people’s lives
as fully as seeking the pleasure from within.
In There will be Blood, Daniel Day
Lewis is cast as a cunning oilman Daniel Plainview who is able to change the
course of his life from a poor American to a wealthy oilman. The film
celebrates and salutes Daniel’s efforts to fulfil his dream, a very American
way of life. This once again shows that Americans do not necessarily despise
wealth. The problem, however, starts when the dream is already fulfilled but
Daniel fails to realize it—there is no such thing as ‘enough’. The moment the
wealth controls the self, there will be high moral corruptions and more
sacrifices need to be made—more people need to be destroyed to become the
pavement of the wealth. This is exactly what being criticized by There will be Blood and other films
bearing similar theme. It is not about the money they received from stock markets back in the 20’s, it is about how they spent their money and what it did to
them.
§
References
The list is currently unavailable online. Contact the author for the complete references and bibliography list
supported by Skywalker Hunter ARCHIVE:
