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The Joneses

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Submitted By binni11
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1. How is the concept of happiness displayed in the movie?

2. How does the idea of the American Dream come into play in the film?

3. Compare the text “But will it make you happy?” from the compendium, with the movie The Joneses. Account for the different points of view and discus your own opinion.

4. How is the film, and your findings above, related to the idea of consumerism.

The Joneses
They say that happiness is fleeting. You have to enjoy it for as long as it lasts. But what is true happiness really? And can someone achieve happiness if they’re alone? In the movie “The Joneses” from 2009, we deal with a fake family whose job is to persuade other rich families to buy products. In return they will get paid with money and expensive stuff. This fake family consists of a mother, a husband, a daughter and a son. Personally they do not share anything with each other, except their job of course. Trough out the movie we see how money and marital stuff is not the answer to true happiness. Even though the characters are paid really well, they are all alone, with no family or friends. Meaning that they do not have anyone to share their wealth with. Even those in the movie who are married and have money are not happy. This is because of the fact, that they live in an illusion were money equals happiness. Secretly none of them is happy. We also see how some families do all they can just to look wealthy and happy in front of others, which eventually in the movie led to suicide.

The moral of the movie, is that money does not equal true happiness. This contrasts with idea of the American dream, because the American dream is the dream of having all you could ever imagine, though hard work you will eventually succeed, resulting in having a big fancy house, money and success. But success does not always lead to happiness as we saw in this movie.

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