"Super Rich Kids" Forever: Eternal Youth With a Price

Money Can't Buy Me Love: Contrasting Extravagance and Happiness 

The key to eternal youth is simple: money. Whether inherited or earned, wealth can effectively extend one's longevity like nothing else. With money, one can live larger (have bigger homes, more expensive "toys"), party harder (ability to afford vast amounts of narcotics), and even extend one's lifetime (access to medical care and cosmetic surgery). The carefree superficiality of youth is also extended. With endless resources and no rules, nothing needs to be taken seriously. However, if everything is a joke, then nothing is funny. Happiness can be hard to find amongst all of the material possessions wealth brings. R&B artist Frank Ocean poignantly points out this hard truth with his song "Super Rich Kids." It is a powerful story of affluent young adults struggling to find real connections in an artificial world, much like the lives of those at the top of the social pyramid in The Great Gatsby. 

Are these well dressed girls truly enjoying themselves? 

Our story begins with the opening line of the first verse, with Frank as our narrator:

"Start my day up on the roof,

There's nothing like this type of view"

The "roof" in this scenario is Frank's penthouse apartment, the first of many images of his well-to-do lifestyle. In this context, the roof does not only embody his economic prosperity, but also his status at the top of the social hierarchy. By being born into a wealthy family, he has obtained a name to go with his riches, solidifying his ability to live freely. His "view" from his apartment lets him look on at those less fortunate than him if he wishes, all while residing safely above any real hardship. This elevated imagery parallels the introduction of Daisy and Jordan, in which they appear to be "buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon" (8). These women too are floating through life, "rippling and fluttering" about the social pyramid yet always safely secured at the top (8). 

Nice clothes and nice cars: the epitome of the high social class. 

Ocean also comments profusely on the superficiality of the wealthy, something the Roaring '20s is notoriously known for.  F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby, describes America during this era as a time when "the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser and the liquor was cheaper." Though set in the present day, Ocean's lyrics echo this period, particularly in the hook:

"Too many bottles of this wine we can't pronounce"

Here the lack of sophistication parallels that of the wealthy guests commonly featured at Gatsby's parties. Ocean's inability to pronounce the name of the wine shows a lack of sophistication as well as extreme intoxication. He has more than he needs of something he mentally can't comprehend. This too rings true of those at the party, where the atmosphere is full of "casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names" (40). All of this frivolousness is expected among the demographic that Ocean describes: the young, high-school/college crowd. In Gatsby's world, though, this shallow lifestyle is one that every adult pines for and only an elite few achieve, signifying this sort of eternal youth money brings about. 

An extravagant scene of a superficial Gatsby party.

However, there is a major drawback to this seemingly perfect lifestyle. Ocean first hints at it in the hook with the statement, "parents ain't around enough," implying a lack of stable love and care. The idea is outrightly stated by the bridge, which repeats the same line over and over as if it were a mantra:

"Real love, I'm searching for a real love

Real love, I'm searching for a real love"

His world has become so fake that he longs for a real human connection, one of the few things money can't buy. The Gatsby equivalent of this search is embodied in the character of Daisy, for her many searches for love have left her "pretty cynical," in her own words (16). Her old wealth upbringing has given her a carefree existence in which she's never had to work a day in her life, but it has left her empty of feeling anything fully. She has had many love affairs throughout her life, including two with Gatsby, but she is still never satisfied. Perhaps the most vivid image of her instability is the scene in which Jordan finds her before her bridal dinner to Tom in bed, drunk, rejecting the three hundred and fifty thousand dollar pearls he had given her. She sits there and talks to Jordan like a child: 

"'Here, deares,' She groped around in the waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out a string of pearls. 'Take em downstairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em Daisy's change' her mine'"(76). 

This moment marks the only time in the novel when Daisy acts in a non-collected manner. Her rejection of the pearls is a rejection of the wealthy lifestyle that has trapped her. She eventually returns to it, but her drunken act of rebellion is a tell-tale sign. Her true emotional turmoil finally comes to the surface, and her juvenile behavior signifies that beneath the wealth, the upbringing, the name, and the status, Daisy is still a scared little girl. As Ocean so expertly phrases, she's a "super rich kid with nothing but loose ends, super rich kid with nothing but fake friends."

Our story ends with a return to the beginning:

"We end our day up on the roof

I say I'll jump, I never do"

No matter what troubles were faced, by the end of the day, Ocean and his friends are still at the top of the social/economic hierarchy. He says he'll "jump," meaning he'll leave his pedestal of wealth and search for something meaningful, but he knows he'll never leave the security his superficiality provides him. This rings true of Daisy at the end of the novel, and how she is capable of just moving on after the deaths of Myrtle and Gatsby. She can afford to be careless, and nothing truly painful can ever reach her. However, she can never be truly happy. It is a sad existence at the top, having everything you can imagine except what really matters. As the song fades out, Ocean repeats his mantra from before, signifying a dying dream:

"Real love, ain't that something rare

I'm searching for a real love, talkin bout real love

Real love, yeah."

Sources Not Linked: 

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.