The meaning of life is something philosophers have questioned for centuries, and many of them have touched on the concept of happiness in the process. Whether it be in culture, life, fiction, or philosophy, happiness plays a role. The criticality of happiness is determined through a person's values, views, and attention to media.
Happiness being such an abstract concept, it is hard to determine its vitality. In relation to culture, many people have done whatever they deemed necessary to obtain this deep rooted happiness. As for American culture, the majority of its citizens have some subconscious idea of what “happiness” is: the “American Dream”.
Media and advertisements are to blame for this ideal of wealth and success, especially with
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With this, his life became an endless cycle of useless habits that only led to depression and eventual suicide. These three fictional characters’ stories can succinctly be paraphrased as “seek and you shall not find,” speaking in terms of the pursuit of happiness. Another character in Death of a Salesman, ironically named, is Happy Loman. Happy is almost a replica of Willy Loman, and his competitive nature is directed at pursuing women rather than business successes. On page 23 of Death of a Salesman Happy says “And it's crazy. It's what I've always wanted. My own apartment, a car, plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I'm lonely.” on page 25 he says “You know how honest I am, but it's like this girl, see. I hate myself for it. Because I don't want the girl, and still, I take it and- I love it!”
Similarly to Willy with business, Happy’s attempts at happiness fail to satisfy him. Happy has the same arrogance as Willy and belief that being well-liked and indulging in shallow acts will bring him success, inevitably leading to happiness. The same tragic pattern that occurred with Willys suicide is reoccurring with Happy with his refusal to see things as they truly are and break out of the same dissatisfying cycle as his
The Economic of Happiness Some people in this world say we are attracted and find our happiness towards things we find most important to in our lives which are considered Economic Concepts. In the book, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it shows great examples with multiple types of Economic Concepts that make up the book as a whole. Without these concepts being used in the book, the story couldn’t be told the same. Even though the book is a fairytale, it can still relate to the real world.
However, pursuing this goal came with a price. Since he was highly motivated to becoming a successful salesman, he rarely stayed at home. Instead, he spent most of his time travelling around the country to conduct sales. He became a workaholic, forcing himself to make sacrifices in his family life in order to seek his own ambitions. Therefore, Willy’s perfectionistic ideals led to his demise.
Living The Reality Rather Than Chasing The Impossible Willy Loman ultimate dream was to achieve perfection By Turki Al-Al-Suwailem Rational Throughout my report I have chosen to illustrate how Willy Loman in the story of Death of a salesman has lived by all his life by searching for perfection rather than reality. Willy lived to chase his unachievable dream rather than living the reality. His unrealistic connection between his reality and what he dreams to be has led him to death. His wrong judgments’ that are based on materialism and capitalism are a symbol of Willy’s dream to become a wealthy person.
This leads to Willy’s demise because if Willy could have just admitted to his kids that he needed their help and that he isn't what he used to be, maybe he would not have had to end his life. “‘You named him Howard, but you can’t sell that. The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman, and you don’t know that.”’ (97)
The American Dream Doesn’t Equal Happiness If the phrase “money can’t buy happiness” was written into a full story, that story would be The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and has countless examples of the phrase “money can’t buy happiness” suggesting that the American dream and loads of money doesn’t suddenly make your life perfect and all your problems are gone, in fact, the story suggests the complete opposite. In the story, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows that every character who has money or character that is around the people that have money end up in more trouble and having more problems than the average person.
All his life he had the same big dream of becoming rich but never gotten anywhere. He makes the same salary as he did when he was younger and now that Biff and Happy are older he wants them to reach his dream. When Biff comes home out of work Willy immediately tries to
Charley’s humility leads to his success, and the contrast of these two characters highlights Willy’s arrogance and impracticality. Charley is humble, realistic, and knowledgeable. His self-confidence allows him to live a happy life without needing to boast. In contrast, Willy constantly brags about his life to boost his self-image. Furthermore, he criticizes others to feel better about himself which comes as a result of his jealousy and insecurity.
Willy often has hallucinations and get lost in his negative and depressing thoughts. Willy has many misperceptions, he believes that in order to succeed you need to be popular. The way Willy approaches life is one that sets him up to fail, and as a result he is unable to face reality. He constantly slips into illusions about his past because it is a way for him to escape reality. Right before Willy commit suicide he hallucinates about talking to Ben, “Ben: Time, William, time!
One study revealed that money was an essential need for happiness, but it was not what made the people happy. They established satisfaction in close relationships with loved ones, community work, fulfillment and pride from their work and accomplishments (Diener and Biswas-Diener 162). The highest life satisfaction was found in societies of wealthy nation while the unhappiest nations were the extremely poor ones. When it comes to materialism, it does not matter if someone is rich or poor, all that matters is that “your income is sufficient to your desire,” and that “differences in aspirations lead to very different amounts of happiness” (Diener and Biswas-Diener 170).
In order to save his pride, Willy lost himself in lies in order to cope with his shortcomings, which lead to his downfall and the obsession of fulfilling this impalpable dream. This trait is just one of many used to describe a tragic
Willy wanted the 'Death of a Salesman' like Singleman - "and by the way he died the death of a salesman" [Willy concerning Singleman: Act 2]-. And he struggled to achieve that dream, only to tragically kill himself. Which reaffirms Miller point that a tragic hero is a character " who is ready to lay down his life... to secure one thing".
He usually talks to himself about Biff and his troubles. Biff has not been very successful, he works on a farm and has never really made that much. It really stresses Willy out and it causes them to constantly be in a fight and argue. On the other hand, Happy has his own apartment and a stable job in the sales industry.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller portrays the last 24 hours of the life of a common man, Willy Loman, as he reflects on the failures of his life. Loman’s success as a salesman has passed now that his old loyal boss, Howard, has died, and he now works as an unsuccessful traveling salesman, scraping by on commision from Howard’s son. Loman goes to the neighbor, Charley, often borrowing money for household payments, but refuses to take a job-offer from him. Willy Loman’s spouse is Linda and they have two boys, Happy and his older brother Biff, who are now middle aged men who live back at home and are trying to find where they belong in life. Bernard is a childhood friend of the Loman boys, and is Charley’s son.
Everything Willy does is a reaction to the other characters, who act in a response to Willy’s actions. Linda is the wife, she makes sure everything at home is running, like the fridge that broke, and handles the bills. Yet she also knows that Willy is more than irrational and suicidal, but she allows herself to play along Willy’s fantasies as a means to protect him from those who criticize him, like the other salesmen, even his own. Linda’s persona is driven the fear of losing her husband, accepting him and everything going on with him instead of getting him help like he needs, wanting to keep him around. In turn, Willy makes sure that Linda has the money to pay said bills with the sales he does on his job, which become increasingly more and more difficult.
A collection of philosophical, religious, psychological and biological approaches had attempted to define happiness and analyze its connections. Researchers have found that about 50% of people happiness depends on our genes, based on studies of identical twins, whose happiness was 50% correlated even when growing up in different houses. About 10% to 15% is a result of various measurable life circumstances variables, such as socioeconomic status, marital status, health, income, and others. The remaining 40% is a combination of intentional factors and the results of actions that individuals deliberately engage in to become happier. Studies have also found that most of us are born with a fixed “set point” of happiness that we fall in throughout our lives.