The Necklace And Greed

Greed in the Necklace

Since time immemorial, the desire for wealth has been a natural and ubiquitous feeling. This is apparent in The Necklace. While Malthilde is attractive, lives in a middle class home, and has a caring husband, her desire for wealth destroys any contentment she might have. When she goes to a party, she borrows a diamond necklace from a rich friend so that at least she will look rich. Tragically, she loses the necklace. To cover up, she buys her friend a new necklace, but has to spend the next 10 years in poverty paying off the expensive diamond bauble. At the end of 10 years, she meets her friend, who she has not seen due to her lamentable state. She tells her friend all, and is shocked to find that the necklace her friend
lent her was a fake.

Though The Necklace is fictitious, there are many real life examples that show how little wealth truly satisfies. Indeed, in many cases, it actually hurts people’s lives.
Take John D.
Rockefeller. Raised in a middle class home, he got a job as a book clerk at 16, and announced that he was “bound to be rich!” He became that way too! By middle age, he had a net worth of $11 Billion! This failed to make him happy, even though he gave large amounts to charity. Instead it made him paranoid. He became consumed with living a long life, which kept him from enjoying the life he had now. He went to drastic measures, which included eating orange peel and drinking olive oil for breakfast. Despite his riches, he died rather miserable. A more recent example of the corruption of greed is Martha Stewart. Beloved cook, interior decorator, and TV host, she was sent to prison for selling drug shares that she knew the FDA was going to ban. Why did she do this? She did it for money. She was already rich, but her desire for more wealth compelled her to break the law, and landed her in jail. Though having enough money obviously didn’t satisfy these two, wealth is alluring, it looks like it could give you everything you want, and some people are willing to hurt others to get
it.

Al Capone.
He was one of the most ruthless drug dealers and smugglers of his day. Capone was even convicted of several murders. He was the boss of the Mafia, and it paid well. He died in prison with a net worth of $100 million. He is quoted as saying: “you can get more with a kind word and a gun than a kind word alone.” He was rich, he was famous, yet he died wretched in prison, because he did whatever it took to get him the money he desired. For thousands of drug dealers and gangsters, this is true today. Drugs are always in high demand, because they are seen as something else that will satisfy, and dealers are happy to supply… for the right price. Yet these reprobates lead lives full of fear, threats, and a constant pressure to get enough patrons to stay afloat. They are repulsive to moral society, yet so many “good people” do legal things for the same reasons. America, and the world, has purported that the only way to be happy, is to have lots of digits on your paycheck.. Yet in a country full of bounty, suicide and depression rates are higher than
ever.

Drug trafficking is not the only harmful thing people do for money. In 1932, two year old Charles Lindbergh was abducted from his family’s home in hope for ransom money. The police were unable to find him, so no ransom money could be offered. Charles’s body was found several months later, mangled. It was determined that he died from a blow to the head. This kind of atrocity is unfortunately not so uncommon. Why did it happen? A man named Bruno Hauptmann was determined to get money, and would stop at nothing to get it.

A more moral form of greed is found in many televangelists. People like Benny Hinn claim that they can heal people, if they get paid to do it. From a distance, it would seem that they just want to help people, right? That’s a terrific thought, but nobody has proven that Benny Hinn or others like him have actually healed people. The only ailments he has cured have been invisible ones, like deafness, or people supposedly getting up out of wheelchairs, nothing with valid evidence. Yet these healing preachers make millions of dollars with their TV shows, businesses, and “healing” services. Even in moral, “Christian” society, the desire for money has corrupted us. Many people are convinced that it, not God, will make them happy.

In the Bible, Christ tells a parable about a rich man, who loved money. When he was finally so rich he had more than enough, he declared that he was going to build big barns to store his possessions, and live a life of ease, enjoying his wealth. That night he died. All his money, all his stuff, meant nothing to him now. Scripture also warns not to lay up material “stuff” sown here, because it won’t last. It will rot, or break, or be stolen. Instead, lay up treasure in heaven, rewards for when we glorified God on earth. Those things will never be taken from us, and they are the only things that will make us happy. Laying up treasures in heaven, is dying to our hopes of happiness here on earth, only to find that it was the only thing that could make us happy. In the Necklace, Malthide is convinced that if she only had the expensive house, gorgeous gowns, and stunning dinner parties that her peers had, her life would be fulfilled. She would look so much better in front of others, and everyone would love and respect her. What she eventually found out, was that looking wealthy was not worth the trouble it caused her and her husband. She spent ten years in poverty learning that she was much happier when she was content with the nice things she did have. This a very hard lesson to learn, but one that is absolutely necessary for a full, truly rich life. As Socrates so aptly put it, “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”