It wasn’t until lately that I had a chance to watch The Great Gatsby. It interestingly reminds me of a classic movie that takes place in the same glamorous New York City during the 90s, and shares somewhat a similar message about materialism – Breakfast at Tiffany’s. So I decided to watch it again and after that movie marathon, I couldn’t help but fall into a minor depression about humanity’s endless pursuit of happiness. The two movies amaze me in how much we as humans like to think of ourselves as the entity of control in the world, and that we are freely making decisions to achieve contentment, yet ironically we are never really free from the bound of materialistic attraction.
To illustrate my point of view, let’s take a comparative look at the pursuit of happiness between Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby and Holly Golightly from the one and only iconic motion picture – Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
“The Great Gatsby” based on a novel of Fitzgerald, talks about Nick Caraway – our narrator as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg king. In the novel, Caraway tells us about the love tragedy of Jay Gatsby – a billionaire social climber with Daisy Buchanan – a beautiful woman of the elites who lives for attention and materialistic satisfaction. In the words of the author, she promises more than she gives and oftentimes does not tell the truth.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a Hollywood adaptation of Truman Capote’s novella of the same name. It describes the life of Holly Golightly – an escort like social girl and her love story with Paul Varjack – a one time wonder writer who at the time was in a relationship with a wealthy decorator in New York City.
In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is portrayed as a noble girl who is born and raised in the elite class, at the time, thirsting for stimulation and excitement from the outside world. She craves for an adventurous, and extravagant lifestyle; one that Gatsby has to offer.
Holly Golightly, on the other hand, is a country girl from Texas, who married to an older man at the age of 14, later climbed her way up to the sophisticated, privileged circle of wealthy men and women in Manhattan.
The two polarized characters were placed under the same the setting of a glamorous New York City, and in that land of promises, the two girls relentlessly thrive for change. Changes that supposedly are going advance their life, and liberate them from their manacles. For Daisy, it was her heartless husband and the futile wealth; for Holly, it was her poverty and lack of social status. Against all odds, moral or social disciplines, both of them eventually managed to reach their goals to some extent. Daisy was rescued by Gatsby and Holly was engaged with Jose – the soon to be president of Brazil.
But the stories didn’t end there…
It’s interesting how Daisy, Holly and all of us are all drawn into the journey of finding happiness, that we forget to prepare for it, and when the so-called happiness actually comes, we collapse in the confrontation between the reality and what has always been a dream.
Daisy wants a life with Gatsby because she is sick of her own life, yet she fails to prepare for the life that she wishes for. She fails to accept the unconditional love of Gatsby, simply because she never has that compatible passion to begin with, she never loves Gatsby as much as she loves herself. She was eventually scared by the reality of her own dream, and decided to go back to the glittering life with the husband that she once disgusted who likewise has more affection for his reputation and social position than just about anything.
Happiness, as it turns out isn’t so easy to hold; at the end of the day, there are things better left unaccomplished, because it’s human nature to dream of possession but not preserve or appreciate, and to dream but not to live.
For Holly Golightly, in the movie, she eventually does not marry Jose because he is afraid of the complications Holly brings along that might ruin his image and presidency. Holly finally ends up with Paul – the writer – because she realizes that the calmness and attraction of a diamond ring can distract her from sadness, yet its sparkle is not bright enough to light up her life, and that the engraved ring from the box of Cracker Jack itself or the love of Paul gives her the joy that is beyond any of her fancy dream of contentment.
However, Breakfast at Tiffany’s takes a different end in the novel. At the end of the book, Holly decides to go to Argentina. The last word the narrator heard from her is from a postcard in which she describes how she falls in love with a married man with kids, and she doesn’t have a place to live. Whether Holly is happy or not is subject to the interpretation of the readers. Holly could have had a happy life with Paul, she instead decided to take off, and pursue a happiness that is nowhere to be found. She does that simply because she was drawn to her belief of a far away happiness that she finds impossible to perceive anything else with such satisfaction. This again proves the fact that it’s in human nature to pursue elusive dreams rather than to appreciate reality.
More than 40 years has passed between the first time people were introduced to Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the premier of The Great Gatsby, almost everything has changed except for New York City and its exotic, superficial yet charming and irresistible lifestyle. New York City – an iconic city of the American Dream – will and always be attractive to people from different corners of life who thirst for the happiness that the material world promises.
by Michael Hoang
Michael Hoang 