Introduction
Point of Comparison
The first point of comparison between a happy pig and depressed human can be observed in the major character of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. After Gatsby’s meeting with Daisy, there was an apparent change in him. It seems that Daisy has a strong characteristic that changed Gatsby from a happy pig into a depressed man. The mere fact Gatsby has the materialistic possessions that only the intellectual individuals would have attained made Daisy believe that Gatsby is in fact a person of intellect. On the other hand, Gatsby’s blooming interest on Daisy opened him up to a profound change. Gatsby is formerly a happy pig that does not have an ounce of care for his actions, but all of that changed since he met Daisy, he became a depressed human. "For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of unreality of reality” (Fitzgerald 106). This passage from the novel depicts the emotional battle that Gatsby is dealing with inside of him. Before he met Daisy, he does not care for anything, but after the meeting, Gatsby’s ghostly heart was challenged by his emotion, which in return created the transition into a depressed human where reality seems so surreal.
The same transition of change is also evident in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 through the character of Professor Faber. The professor used to be a happy pig before the books are illegal; then something happened that changed him into a depressed human. There are several evidences in the novel that satisfies this assumption particularly when the professor cannot seem to forget the past and often sit in the park alone everyday. Professor’s life of a happy pig starts when he was young when the books are still allowed; he showed ignorance to the people. However, when books became illegal, sadness and recollection of the past visits him like a nightmare, thus made him a depressed human haunted regretting the past with the realization of the present. Professor Faber mentioned, “You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by. Man, when I was young I shoved my ignorance in people's faces. They beat me with sticks. By the time I was forty my blunt instrument had been honed to a fine cutting point for me. If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn” (Bradbury 104).
Given the changes that Gatsby and Professor Faber from being a happy pig into a depressed human signifies that while a happy pig makes one to worry less about the word he live in, a depressed human on the other hand will try all efforts to prove his existence.
The changes that happened to Gatsby and Professor Faber are also apparent in other characters of the two novels. In Great Gatsby for instance, Daisy appears to be emotionally attached to Gatsby, but in the end she chose Tom over Gatsby after realizing Gatsby’s secret identity. These twist of fate resulted to imminent change in Daisy from a former happy pig into a depressed human. She is a good example of a woman that belongs in the elite social class. The thing that makes her a happy pig is her diaphanous nature that enraptures men and privileged upbringing; she was described in the novel as “the king’s daughter, the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 128). All these changed when she chose to be with Tom and runaway with him, at first she never believed Tom about Gatsby’s identity due to her promiscuity. However, she changed into a depressed human after learning the truth. Daisy became a depressed human upon learning her true purpose as a woman. In her mind she is a girl and the world she lives in sees someone like her as beautiful little fool “The best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool “ (Fitzgerald 20). She realized that the world is cruel to women and that made her to change and the former foolish girl turned into a woman who not plainly accept her fate and turn a blind eye on everything that happens around her.
Another example of a character in the two novels that depicts a transitional changed from being a happy pig into a depressed human is Montag’s wife in Bradbury’s novel. She used to be a happy pig for being a senseless member of a society that lives under the rule of control by the government. Montag’s wife still believes that wisdom and knowledge is not attainable in defying the law, which is the law against reading books. After realizing that Montag is reading books secretly, she tried herself to understand the meaning of the books, but to no avail. As a result Montag’s wife burn the books secretly and even told fire Chief Beatty to burn all Montag’s books. Her change a happy pig into a depressed human happened after knowing that Montag starts to read. She is already living the life of peace for abiding the law, as a happy pig, she would rather choose to keep it that way to be shallow, unthinking and unfeeling. The drastic change into a depressed human can be perceived from the results of her action because she lost everything, the house, Montag as her husband and literally everything they had even her life. The actions that Montag’s wife demonstrated in the novel can be perceived in the passage “The keys to the beetle are on the night table. I always like to drive fast when I feel that way. You get it up around ninety-five and you feel wonderful. Sometimes I drive all night and come back and you don't know it. It's fun out in the country, you hit rabbits, and sometimes you hit dogs” (Bradbury 68). This passage from the novel signifies how Montag’s wife wants to clear her head an act that resulted to her change into a depressed human.
Montag’s wife and Daisy demonstrates how a person change from a happy pig into a depressed human would result to broken dreams and immense losses. Daisy lost her dreams when she learned about the truth about Gatsby. The same thing with Montag’s wife, whose discontentment resulted to the loss of her own life, there is nothing left for her for redemption. Similarly, Daisy’s radical change from being a happy pig made her to run away and avoid the problems that emerged from her previous mistakes.
Each character in the novels demonstrates personal battles within themselves that made the apparent changes on their life’s perspectives from being a happy pig into a depressed human being. On the other hand, some of the characters in the novel appear to have being living a life of purely as a happy pig. For instance, Myrtle in the Great Gatsby has been a happy pig in her entire life encompassing materialism and affairs with Tom. Her sense of happiness is fed by the desire to experience the high social life through having affairs. These actions portray an example of obtaining fake happiness, something that does not constitute great contentment. Her decisions and perceptions are clouded with such desire for materialistic experience of luxury, not noticing that Tom is not the person she thought he was. It is evident in Myrtle’s description of Tom when she first saw him “It was on the two little seats facing each other that are always the last ones left on the train. I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes, and I couldn't keep my eyes off him, but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head. When we came into the station he was next to me, and his white shirtfront pressed against my arm, and so I told him I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn’t know I wasn't getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'you can't live forever; you can't live forever” (Fitzgerald 121). Myrtle’s impression of Tom as a sophisticated man belonging in the upper class is a deception she failed to decipher due to her distorted perception of life, which makes her a happy pig with a wrong definition of happiness leading to her death in a car crash.
This kind of characteristic is also evident in the normal citizens in Bradbury’s work. The citizens in Fahrenheit 451 can be described as happy pigs because the people in this society live the life mediocrity. They do not read books, spend time in meaningful conversations, enjoy nature and think independently. People do not see necessity of the books in the society an example of that is the Beatty’s statement to Montag about books being worthless “The man who loved books, the boy who was wild for themI ate them like salad, books were my sandwich for lunch, my tiffin and dinner and midnight munchI carried so many home that I was hunchbacked for yearsand thenwhy, life happened to me. I opened the pages of my fine library books, and found what, what, what?!Blank! The words were there, all right, but they ran over my eyes like hot oil, signifying nothing. Offering no help, no solace, no peace, no harbor, no true love, no bed, no light” (Bradbury 170). This excerpt demonstrates how the people come up with their own definition of fake happiness by means of suppression and control.
The citizens in Fahrenheit 451 and Myrtle from The Great Gatsby are symbols of individuals that choose contentment from fake happiness. For instance, Myrtle died in a car crash because of her pursuit for materialism while the normal citizens sprawls in a meaningless life of ignorance and despise of wisdom that books provide.
Long-term happiness and meaningful existence are among the things that a depressed human would be able to attain. For example, Nick the narrator in the novel by Fitzgerald describe himself as “Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (Fitzgerald 64). Nick is someone that went through changes from a happy pig to a depressed human and ended up as a happy human. This changes manifests in his statement of honesty as a person, that through his virtues of honesty he was able to obtain the life he wants and high pleasures in life without being a happy pig. It enabled Nick to have long-term happiness and a meaningful life. Nick understands the nature of the people around him, being the narrator in the novel, he exemplifies an individual that observes people around him and determines their true nature by means of emphasizing what they are as a person. Nick’s life of a happy pig manifests in his pursuit of glorification and wealth for the purpose of impressing women. On the other hand, he also represents the person with reason, reflective and quiet. The thing that makes him a depressed human is his tolerance, open-mindedness, temperament and a good listener. This allowed him to become the person in the novel that the other characters would choose to reveal their secrets with. As a result Nick was able to gain trust of the people and lived to his virtue of honesty.
Nick is synonymous to the main character in Bradbury’s novel, Montag. The character is an example of someone with a happy pig kind of attitude because of his role in the society as the destroyer of wisdom by means of burning books. However, he apparently changed into a depressed human because of the struggle that he faces in his society, and the feeling of urgency to be free from that society. Montag sought for long-term happiness and meaning in life by joining the resistance and this decision made him find the people with similar ideology and fought to rebuild the society of knowledge. One of the passage in the novel demonstrates his profound idea about life and humanity “But that's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing” (Bradbury 153). Humans have the common trait of stubbornness, in Montag’s life, there would have been a story to tell if weren’t stubborn enough to seek for changes. If he remained accepting and complacent, then there would have no changes perceived in him at all, that he would remain a happy pig. Tenacity is a natural trait that defines human being, Montag knows too well that he need to fight for what he knows is right. The consequence of resisting the system is his idea of seeking for long-term happiness and purpose in life.
It is apparent that the two main characters in the novel exemplifies the definition of happiness and contentment, that happiness can be obtained by finding purpose and meaning to ones existence. They understood what it is like to be a happy pig that rolls in the mud and eats as they pleased, there was no meaning and purpose in it, unless one chose to change himself to experience the harsh reality of life and finding meaning in it through experience.
Conclusion
Going back to the question whether being a depressed human is better than a happy pig, the answer to that is yes. Living the life in peace and being thoughtless at the same time does not constitute true happiness. One may obtain all the wealth in the world, but he can never call himself happy because of the hollowness in the heart and lack of contentment. Such hollowness cannot be filled with false happiness because the fact that such happiness is unreal, the sense of fulfillment will also be unreal. Once can choose to be a happy pig, a pig can be happy by simple things such as food and rolling in the mud all day, but the only purpose they serve is to become a delectable meal on the table and a centerpiece for a feast. Unless one chooses to be a depressed human, it may be difficult, but at the end of the day, it is the sense of purpose and meaning that serves true happiness.
Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York, USA: Simon & Schuster, 2012. Print.
Fitzgerald, F S. The Great Gatsby. New York, USA: Scribner, 2004. Print.
