Rag$ To Riche$
The average person in our class can understand the running motif of immense wealth being the downfall of us all, starting with The Song of Solomon and ending with The Great Gatsby we've been introduced to people who came into this world without nothing and near the end of their respective journey's they acquire "everything" but sadly are left with nothing. Sure Milkman becomes wealthy and well off during the story, but then he ends up getting murdered by a man that he referred to as a brother, Gatsby comes from dirt poor farmers and evolved into a legend only heard of through rumors and gossip but ends up shot to death after changing himself into what he though mattered for other people. Daisy didn't want to wait for Gatsby to come back from the war and start a relationship with him, so she left and ever since then he built himself into what he thought true happiness looked like.
Level with me here devout reader, when you're in a car and you stare out the window and see some grizzled old man wearing torn ratty material with a poorly made cardboard sign asking for cash, do you think to yourself "wow he's living the dream". Here's where I found the glitch in the matrix, we see those people on the side of the street as children and grow up thinking because they are poor that means they are unhappy so obviously the only answer to true happiness is to be wealthy. This preprogramed horse manure is slowly destroying our society generation by generation, if you stop and listen in the hallway to anyone's conversations about their future you'll here something along the lines of "it's either XYZ university or nothing, i'll literally die if im rejected by them". We are victimized by this mindset that if you aren't getting into a near ivy league schools with a 4.0 or higher then you'll end up living on paycheck to paycheck on a slow decline until your most certain demise.
The scary thing about this is that im willing to be half of you that read that last paragraph didn't see a single thing wrong with any of it. To you androids, let this be your wakeup call to reality. Set aside the fancy cars, girls, and the money aspect of The Great Gatsby and take a moment to pay attention to the Jay, the real Jay. A man who was denied his chance in the world because of his social class and spent half of his life trying to be what he thought happiness looked like just so he could be with Daisy and he's left alone, unhappy, and... well dead. Turning pages to The Diamond As Big As The Ritz, it says nothing in the story of John being poor, but compared to Percy's family who are created to be richer than God make the town of Hades seem like a hut made out of animal dung. Getting a chance to live how the other half does makes him think "golly gee so this is what ive been missing" and he ends up back where he started, i'll be it with a rather psychotic significant other but even then he is still shown longing for the lavish life of luxury that he'll never get back.
Before you sharpen your pitchfork Im not saying lets all stop being the try hards that troy high is known for housing,no ones saying that being successful is a bad thing but maybe, just maybe, there could be more to life then a number a decimal and then another number. School is important but we've seen in countless examples that people ho chase what they think is living the good life ends with them having mansions filled with mountains of cash and jewelry but empty on the inside. Craving the one thing their money and 4.0 GPA cant buy them, whether that be love, family, or friends.
yours truly
-Connor
Level with me here devout reader, when you're in a car and you stare out the window and see some grizzled old man wearing torn ratty material with a poorly made cardboard sign asking for cash, do you think to yourself "wow he's living the dream". Here's where I found the glitch in the matrix, we see those people on the side of the street as children and grow up thinking because they are poor that means they are unhappy so obviously the only answer to true happiness is to be wealthy. This preprogramed horse manure is slowly destroying our society generation by generation, if you stop and listen in the hallway to anyone's conversations about their future you'll here something along the lines of "it's either XYZ university or nothing, i'll literally die if im rejected by them". We are victimized by this mindset that if you aren't getting into a near ivy league schools with a 4.0 or higher then you'll end up living on paycheck to paycheck on a slow decline until your most certain demise.
The scary thing about this is that im willing to be half of you that read that last paragraph didn't see a single thing wrong with any of it. To you androids, let this be your wakeup call to reality. Set aside the fancy cars, girls, and the money aspect of The Great Gatsby and take a moment to pay attention to the Jay, the real Jay. A man who was denied his chance in the world because of his social class and spent half of his life trying to be what he thought happiness looked like just so he could be with Daisy and he's left alone, unhappy, and... well dead. Turning pages to The Diamond As Big As The Ritz, it says nothing in the story of John being poor, but compared to Percy's family who are created to be richer than God make the town of Hades seem like a hut made out of animal dung. Getting a chance to live how the other half does makes him think "golly gee so this is what ive been missing" and he ends up back where he started, i'll be it with a rather psychotic significant other but even then he is still shown longing for the lavish life of luxury that he'll never get back.
Before you sharpen your pitchfork Im not saying lets all stop being the try hards that troy high is known for housing,no ones saying that being successful is a bad thing but maybe, just maybe, there could be more to life then a number a decimal and then another number. School is important but we've seen in countless examples that people ho chase what they think is living the good life ends with them having mansions filled with mountains of cash and jewelry but empty on the inside. Craving the one thing their money and 4.0 GPA cant buy them, whether that be love, family, or friends.
yours truly
-Connor
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