Summary:
Discusses whether or not poverty can allow happiness. Uses literary sources to demonstrate the premise, including A Christmas Memory, A Christmas Carol, The Pearl and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Explores the main theme in each of the literary references, people and values are more important than material goods.
Money makes the world go round, a famous phrase, but is it true? A person can be happy even if they are poor. In stories such as A Christmas Memory, A Christmas Carol, The Pearl or The Grinch Who Stole Christmas this is very evident. The above examples will be explored in the following statements to explain this thesis.
The first notion that comes to mind is the short story A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote the reality of the story is that Buddy (a child) gets nothing for Christmas but hand me downs from unimportant relatives and a subscription to a religious magazine. He does however receive a prized kite from his special friend. In spite of this he is still satisfied to go out on that warm windy Alabama morning and fly their kites. (Last year they exchanged homemade slingshots) Another time in this story that money proved to be worthless compared to contentment, was when they where offered money for their Christmas tree but they declined because they believed that theirs was the best and nothing could replace it. These are two wonderful examples that Creativity, Friendship, and Happiness prevail over poverty.
Charles Dickens exemplifies another literary example of this theme in A Christmas Carol. The Cratchet family who have very little material assets are not deterred from the joys of Christmas. Bob's insensitive employer Mr. Scrooge does not help this matter. Ebenezer Scrooge himself should take a few instructions from his employee because his own wealth destroyed his love life. At the time, Scrooge was working for Mr. Fuzzywig who preferred to live by the values and work ethics of Victorian time over the modern worlds views and opinions. Young scrooge had made a promise to Belle, a beautiful young girl that he was courting, to love her and live together even though they could hardly afford it. Needless to say money factored in to the scenario, when the crooked businessman Jacob Marley offered a quick gain of fortune. This pushed his love aside. In this case, happiness did not surmount until it was to late.
Thirdly another instance not unlike Ebenezer Scrooge's situation is the novella by John Steinbeck The Pearl. Money is also designated to a secondary role. Kino hears the song of the family and is very contented with the sounds in his head and is pleased by his Mexican heritage. However as in the case of Mr. Scrooge things change when monetary gains supercede the needs of the family (Juana and Coyotito)
Lastly this paper would not be complete with out mentioning the incomparable holiday favorite "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr Suess. Cindy Lou Who, and other people of Who Ville would always triumph over material gain and realized that the joys of Christmas does not come in a package marked from Santa Clause.
Other then The Pearl, the stories I have selected deal with Christmas. This paper has as much to do with the socialistic and material views on Christmas as it does on poverty deterring happiness. Throughout literary history the human experience has supported a very unselfish view of Christmas. Nevertheless the present day reality does not always place an emphasis on this theory. Even though society has not always followed this, I myself have thankfully grown up in a family that has taught me to support the equality of the human condition whether it be Socially, religious, financial, racial, gender or moral values. In conclusion, Leo Rosten was right when he suggested that, "The purpose of life is to count to matter or to stand for something, and have it make some difference that you ever lived at all.' People and values make the real difference not money.
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