Money and Hapiness

Many people think that the phrase "money doesn't buy happiness" is false. people will think that just because they feel happy when they make a purchase or obtain money that money will make them happy in life. I directly oppose this idea, and agree with the statement that "money doesn't buy happiness". The dream of striking it rich has become almost an obsession with many Americans, as consumerism and greed consume us. Just this black Friday, at least two people have died trying to get a slight discount at malls or stores, showing how dedicated we are to money and material items. Despite this obsession with getting richer and getting more "stuff", studies, such as one from Huffington Post, show that happiness actually begins to decrease with income after about $70,000 a year (In Michigan), even though the median income for Michigan families is around $64,000 a year. This means that in actuality, it isn't the richest of the rich that are happy, but instead, it is the middle class are marginally happier than the rich, and shows that most of us have the potential to be very happy despite how much money we have. In The Great Gatsby, despite him being in a very nice house with lots of money, Tom still seems unhappy, to the point where he even cheats on Daisy with another woman. He also says, "Civilization's going to pieces", showing everyone how pessimistic and upset he is despite his very good financial standings, conveying the concept that happiness is much more complex than just having lots of money (Fitzgerald 12).

Sources:
Huffington Post
Department of Numbers

Favorite Bluest Eye Passage

My favorite quote in the whole book is, "Wicked people love wickedly, violent people loved violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe" (Morrison 206). I really like this quote because it explains why a lot of the terrible things in this book happen. most people perceive love as nurturing and good, but Morrison introduces the idea that love is only as good as the lover, and that just like people, love can be evil too. While Cholly's actions are seen as disgusting and sinister, Cholly, who has never been able to truly comprehend love, is trying to display his love for Pecola in the only way he knows how. In a similar fashion, Soaphead Church thinks that his molestation of kids is "love". Soaphead is a sinner who thinks of himself as better than god, so his love cannot be good, in accordance to the line previous to the quote, "love is never any better than the lover" (Morrison 206). In addition to that, love can also be destructive, in the sense that people often think that being beautiful equates to being loved. We see throughout the book, examples of the self-destructiveness of beauty standards, and love only heightens the desire to be beautiful. Though we all know love is usually positive, in the entire book there are no relationships in which the participants truly love each other, which would bring one to believe that Morrison is trying to show how negative love can really be

To Pimp a Butterfly

Racism in 20th century America is the main topic of Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye. Though the book is able to depict the scene of racism in the 20th century very well, the book was written over 40 years ago. In 2015, 45 years after Morrison wrote her book, Kendrick Lamar released his second studio album "To Pimp a Butterfly", which was incredibly successful. Much like in Morrison's novel, one can coast through the album, listening to the words, but not really thinking about them and trying to figure out what they mean (as I did my first time listening to it). After deeper analysis into both, it is clear that both works are centered around the common theme of racism in America from the perspective of a black person. The idea, of "pimping a butterfly" is that Kendrick was a caterpillar in Compton, as he was looked at as just another ugly, poor, black man, who was able to turn into a butterfly and become a world famous hip-hop artist. Now that he is the butterfly, the industry is trying to "pimp" him, or make it look like he beautiful now that he has money and material things, to satisfy the standard that a black man cannot be appealing unless they have money and success. In the novel, the most detrimental part of racism to young Pecola is the fact that she feels like she is ugly, and can never be beautiful because she is black, "they stayed there because they believed they were ugly", while in Lamar's album, his friends hate themselves because they think that because they don't have money like Kendrick, they are looked down upon by society. (Morrison 38). At the end of the track "u", Kendrick pretends to be one of his friends from back in the ghetto, who is drunk and telling Kendrick how mad he is that he left behind all his friends in Compton to be rich and successful. This album contrasts a new kind of money driven racism, to the old kind of racism in The Bluest Eye.

Mary Jane

In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, Pecola goes to the store with three pennies to buy candy. The name of the candy is "Mary Jane" and it serves as a distraction to Pecola's ugly and violent life at home. The candies, which have a picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed white girl on them, give Pecola a feeling of happiness she has not felt in a while. When humans eat sugar, it causes a rush of dopamine to the brain, a chemical that causes a feeling of euphoria and happiness, and will also cause that person to associate their circumstances with that feeling of happiness. Because Pecola is eating the Mary Janes, she now associates the white, blue eyed girl with happiness, and feels that this is the only way she can be happy. Another reason Morrison may have chosen the candy "Mary Jane", besides the fact that it has a picture of a white girl on the wrapper, is because the phrase "Mary Jane" is often associated with marijuana. Marijuana has the same purpose as the sugar has for Pecola; Marijuana is a drug often used by people to escape their temporary problems or situation, but in the long run, just ends up hurting them. Marijuana also causes the same dopamine influx that sugar causes, which makes the user feel a temporary "high" (sort of like a sugar high). Mary Jane may have also been selected because it even without the picture, the phrase "Mary Jane" invokes the image of a pretty girl. The name Mary Jane has been used to represent feminine and beautiful women many times in the media, from the girlfriend in movies like "Tarzan" or "Spider-man", to the subject of Tom Petty's hit "Last Dance with Mary Jane". All these connotations associated with the simple name "Mary Jane", make a great name for the candy that, while providing a temporary escape from reality, "Three Pennies had bought her nine lovely orgasms with Mary Jane", the happiness is only temporary, because soon, she will go back to hating herself and desiring to have blue eyes (Morrison 50). (Fun fact: orgasms also work by creating a rush of dopamine in your brain, just like the sugar and marijuana)