Money Can’t Buy Me Happiness?
The idea that monetary success cannot
buy you happiness has been circulated through popular culture, spanning from
the Beatles popular song, “Money Can’t Buy Me
Love” to a quote from Rousseau, a philosopher of the 18th century. In
Wright’s Novel, Native Son, the reader is faced with the question of the
meaning of happiness. In Bigger’s case, he
thinks that being part of the “real world” will allow him to experience this
emotion. Not only is Bigger effected by concentrated poverty, but due to lack
of education, racial segregation, redlining, and racial bias in the working
world, his hopes of joining the people in what he sees as reality, have become
impossible. The environment in which Wright places Bigger Thomas is crucial to
the plot of the story, as is implied by the author himself. The city of Chicago
is dazzling with all the opportunities it seems to offer its community. Bigger
encounters the “real world” through newspapers and movies, seeing the idealized
version of the world and not being able to partake.
While preparing for his speech in
court, Max has a lengthy discussion with Bigger about his aspirations for the
future. In response to Max’s question of what he wanted to do, Bigger replied, “Nothing.
I reckon I didn’t want to do nothing (…)
Why should I want to do anything? I ain’t got a chance. I don’t know nothing. I’m just black and they
make the laws.” In this segregated society, he has begun to admit defeat,
because every time an opportunity presents itself, something goes wrong and his
hopes are dashed. Bigger does mention some of the jobs he considered pursuing,
but with each example came an explanation as to how that path was not available
to him.
In the first book, Wright describes
Bigger’s feelings regarding his family, because Bigger can’t express or realize
them himself. Bigger “hated his family because he knew that they were suffering
and that he was powerless to help them. He knew that the moment he allowed
himself to feel to its fulness how they lived, the shame and misery of their
lives, he would be swept out of himself with fear and despair. So, he held
toward them an attitude of iron reserve”. It is impossible to expect someone in
Bigger’s position to attain happiness and therefore somewhat hypocritical to
believe that money can’t buy you happiness. However, there are certainly
wealthy people who haven’t experienced this emotion because monetary value has become too important in their lives.
Bigger and his family live under the constant stress of worrying
about how they will have enough food for dinner, and where the money for their
next rental payment will come from. In a sense, it is much more expensive to be
poor than rich, and in the case of this novel,
it is also costlier to be African American. In the book, the reader is informed
of redlining practices and unequal rental payment, depending on race. Bigger’s family
pays at least twice as much for their apartment as a white family would, and
the services offered are insufficient, at best. Housing in white neighborhoods
isn’t even an option to those who live in Bigger’s community. Similar problems
still arise today due to concentrated poverty. Reverse redlining, the practice used
by insurance companies to target predominately African American residential
areas, in order to drive up prices and avoid competition, has made these areas
very expensive to live in. Food deserts are another problem that many still
experience today, forcing residents in impoverished communities to buy more
expensive goods and products.
Money can buy you happiness, but
only to a certain extent. Just as importantly, opportunities can also buy you happiness.
Relating specifically to Native Son, it
is clear that without the chance to rise up in society, it is extremely
difficult to be happy in your environment. There seems to be a threshold that one
must cross to even begin to argue that money can’t buy happiness. If one does
not have to worry about placing food on the table or having a roof over one’s
head, the idea might become a bit more realistic. Although it might be poetic and
popular to believe this idea, it
certainly requires an amount of privilege to argue that money won’t generate
the emotion we call happiness.
Your blogpost is really deep. I like this idea of money being able to buy happiness and how you tackled it. Happiness is something that varies person to person and in this case, perhaps money could be of use to Bigger. Whether or not money would bring a smile to his face, I can't say for sure, but it would've definitely helped his family. I think the opportunities you mention would be the more likely things to bring happiness to him. Being able to do what you love and making money for it is the true meaning of- something. Happiness is really complex, thanks for making me think. Nice blogpost! :)
ReplyDeleteThis post makes a lot of sense to me. There is a certain level of privilege that allows you to announce that money doesn't buy happiness. People who believe that probably have a steady food supply, place to live, job, etc. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to hear that money can't buy happiness when you can't even afford the basics. It's kind of like saying, "you should be happy without the resources you need to survive," which doesn't make sense. Great work!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I like how you considered Bigger's happiness since in class we mostly discussed Bigger's physical outcome (his death). I agree with you that money would have helped Bigger's happiness. For one thing, he wouldn't have had to take the job at the Dalton's. Since a lot of Bigger's fear and anger comes from feeling trapped, generally the opportunities offered by having money might have given him more of a sense of control. But even if Bigger had money, he would still be constrained by a racist society. So Bigger would probably be happier but there would still be a lot of factors working against his emotional wellbeing.
ReplyDeleteLoved this post. I don't think Bigger could do much even if he had the money to buy a plane or leave his families' cramped apartment. Bigger can't release himself from the constraints that racism in the country at the time imposes on him. The life which he lives though isn't supported by a stream of money that can create a non-toxic environment for Bigger. The obvious affect that having money would have would be the prevention of Mary and Bessies death, but would the racism at the time stop some of Bigger's tendencies like wanting to be a powerful "alpha" male or would money fix that too? Who knows.
ReplyDeleteI like this a lot. I actually had a conversation with someone about this idea that money can't buy happiness. My personal opinion is that money can buy things that make you happy. For example, with money, I was able to play park district and play soccer, which something that I love. However, you need money for the equipment and stuff. Now for your post.
ReplyDeleteBigger can't find happiness because he has the stress of his family and the oppression that society, or the "white" world, has placed on him as a black person. He can't really better himself because, like you said, the wages and opportunities are limited to him so food and housing are things he, as the man of the house, must worry about. However, if his family had money, they could live in better conditions and Bigger could have finished his education, pursuing a career that could have made him happy and bettered him and his family. Great post :)
This is a really cool point! It points out how even though money technically buy you the emotion of happiness, it facilitates the things that either make you happy or allow you to be happy. Without money, there is too much stress involved in trying to survive without it to be happy. Bigger Thomas is unhappy because he both literally doesn't have enough money to go the movies and do other things that he enjoys, but the fact that his family lacks money has put him in a relationship with them that he hates. He feels useless and trapped, but if he had money he would not have this relationship with his family, so he would probably be happier.
ReplyDeletePeople have said a lot about this idea. "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a Ferrari and that's close enough," say people with a lot of money. "You need money to make money," say bitter people with no money. The happy medium, then, is that money buys happiness when you don't have to worry about having it. Being able to pay off your house is a moment of happiness. Going to college, seeing movies, and buying a beer for your friends make you happy in simple ways that just buying a Ferrari in cash won't.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting take on Bigger's family's situation. I never really thought of any of his issues as purely money issues (without the addition of race). But I do agree that Bigger is put into a situation where he has so little money that regardless of what he tries to do, he will be met with resistance in terms of his happiness. Also I know that there are a lot of things that most people (including me) at a school like uni take for granted that Bigger is simply unable to do because of how little money he and his family have.
ReplyDeleteYes! I agree with everything you're saying here. I also have strong opinions on the phrase "money can't buy you happiness", and I really don't like when people say it. I think you summed it up exactly at the end, that you need a certain amount of privilege to be able to relate to the saying. Like you said, you can't be happy if you're constantly worried about starving. Also, having money can open up a lot more opportunities, socially and economically, and it can help you do things that make you happy. This wasn't an especially insightful comment, but it's just because I feel like you hit every point I would have made in this post, so good job!
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