Amos Owens, an extremely anxious man in Susan Glaspell's book, Her America, really reassured me that money isn't everything. With society today, you have to have money to do pretty much anything or go anywhere. Also, society sees rich people as happier because they can afford all these luxurious and nice things. However, I truly believe that money is not the key element to happiness. Amos Owens did everything he could to be filthy rich, which he did succeed in doing, but he was never truly happy. Owens was constantly paranoid and anxious about having money and even got upset when he saw that his wife and children were spending his money. He grew up this way thanks to his mom making him provide for her. Even when he finally bought the fish company and then sold it for a great sum of money he was still paranoid of losing his money. He was still waking up at 3:30 in the morning and still wandering the streets after his work was finished. One sentence that really stood out was how the numerous number of houses with their shades pulled down does something to you (135). Owens was lonely because everyone was sleeping but he was awake because of being so worried about money.
Amos's story struck home because he reminds me of my boyfriend's father. He is an extremely well-off man but he is the most narcissistic and lonely person I know. He created this because of how in love his is with his money. He had no true and loving relationship with his now ex-wife and has no true and loving relationship with his children. That relationship is strictly money. Just like Amos, he is lonely. He is happy with his money but always wants more and is constantly thinking about it just like Mr. Owens. Society in 1918 and 2014 seem to be similar in thinking that money will buy you happiness and give you all that you need. In reality, money can take over someone's mind and completely control and destroy you. The anxiety of money had literally killed Amos and has also figuratively killed a father.
Mr. Owens also struggled with conforming to the times that other people woke up. He woke up so early but others slept in. This made him extremely lonely and like I said above, even the shades being closed on houses was a bad feeling. However, because he was so used to and grew up this way, it made sense to him. He couldn't sleep in even if he tried. People thought him to be strange and weird just because of the time that he woke up. He was so obsessed with money that it made sense to wake up at 3:30 in the morning but others didn't see it that way such as his wife and children. He couldn't conform and this is one of the reasons why he ended up killing himself.
I pitied Mr. Owens for the most part. Money does buy happiness I feel like, but in his case it was a curse. I feel like his mom did ruin him a bit by not teaching him better values, like money isn't everything. It's good to have money but he took it to the next level. Conforming to certain things, such as waking up at appropriate hours could definitely impact a person's life for the better. I bet if he could have conformed to the business idea that you gotta spend money to make money and truly believe it, he would have been much better off.
ReplyDeleteAlexa,
ReplyDeleteYour Blog post was really interesting. I wrote about Mr. Owens' story as well, but never thought of it in the way that you did. I do agree with you 100% because it did seem that all he worried about was money because like you said, his mother was making him care for her at 10 years old. When I read that, it struck me because I thought, "Shouldn't it be the other way around? The mother taking care of the child, not the child caring for the mother?" I couldn't even imagine waking up at 3:30 am every morning. That would just throw me off. Also, as soon as I saw your title, I agreed with you on that too. Money is not everything and it certainly cannot buy you happiness, love, or anything else for that matter. Anyways, you did a fantastic job! I really enjoyed reading your post!