Money Can’t Buy Happiness: Tito’s Tragedy in Christina Garcia’s “Tito’s Goodbye”
“Tito’s Goodbye” is basically a tragic story because Tito died in heart attack. He made a lot of money, but he was not happy, and the money was useless. Tito had a terrible condition on health with many stresses in mind. Many people believed that he deserved to die because he was very cruel to his family. He sent his own son to orphanage without showing any care in their relationship. He disrespected his daughter’s wedding, which she valued the wedding, and it was very significant to her. In addition, he wanted to separate with his wife. With all the relentless acts, he forced his family to abandon him. To treasure and cherish what you possess is what I have learned from this story.
Tito is a very wealthy lawyer. He made a lot of heartless money from all the poor immigrants from New York City. He believed that earning money is a pleasure, and as long as he is making tons of money, then he is happy. He strongly believed that money could produce happiness. He was paying too much attention on wealth and he ignored to take care of the family. He thought his family would come back eventually if he had enough money to persuade them, In fact that his wife only treated him as a money tree without paying any love to him. Until his heart attack caused his death, he finally found what he really wanted in his life, but it was too late to regret and there isn’t much time to make up to his family.
Haydee, she was a very cold-blooded wife of Tito. She separated from Tito but she refused to divorce with Tito. She treated her husband as a money tree. She was able to locate her husband because she can smell Tito’s money three miles away from her apartment. She managed to get more money to from him. I think Tito and Haydee are the same type of people because the most important thing in their life was money. The difference between them was they earn money in different ways. Although Tito complained about his wife, I believe that his wife played a very important role in his life. She was one of the main reasons why he wanted to earn more money, in order to satisfy her. He knew that this was the only way to keep a relationship with her.
The plot of Tito’s goodbye begins with Tito’s heart attack. It is a cold winter afternoon; Tito is alone in his office because he asks his secretary to leave early because it snows outside. He can as well deduct secretary’s salary every week. Tito’s whole life is making profit out of everyone. He makes a lot of money from forging employment records, doctoring birth certificates, securing sponsors, thwarting deportation, applying for political asylums and producing legitimate green cards.
His wife appears when his business is in success with his advertisement on television. His wife is a very greedy woman who always asks her husband to give her more money to spare. Although she does not love her husband any more, she still refused to divorce her rich husband.
The last moment of his life he begins to have a brief luxury of nostalgia. He remembered the warmth of his mother’s cheek, Smelling faintly of milk, the sight of his father’s hand and the girl that he loves so much. He regretted he did not treat his family very well. He should not miss his daughter’s wedding and he should apologized to his son for sending him to an orphanage. Yet, he should earn more money to keep his wife happy. He was dying with uncountable regrets and alone on a snowy winter afternoon in little Italy; all he can say is “Cono”!
This story has many internal conflicts. The last moment in his life he found that he should get busy to earn money for his whole life and ignored his family. He found that he does not want to die without completing the things that he wanted. He regretted and feet sorry to his family, and he wishes he had enough time to make up his mistakes. However, it was too late to finish everything he wanted to say. He can’t even show a short goodbye to his family.
There are three climaxes in this story. The first climax is at the beginning of the story that was describing Tito’s heart attack to bring the reader’s attention and pay attention to the rest of the story. The second climax was talking about the peak of Tito’s business and he finally met his wife. The last climax was when Tito knew that he is going to die, and he found out he doesn’t want to die without say sorry and goodbye to his family.
Christina served this story to imply Tito’s selfishness and shows the human natures in our society. I believe that there are many people like Tito. Thus, Christina wishes to use Tito’s life to evoke people. Yet, she wants to show that there are always advantages and disadvantages. Although Tito is a very cruel person but love still exist deep inside his heart.
Tito’s story reminds me that we should treasure and cherish what we have possessed now. I feel sorry for Tito because he finally finds the real value of life at the moment he dies, so he ran out of time. I wonder if Tito would do what he is thinking if he didn’t died of a heart attack. On the other hand, it may just be an idea in his mind before he dies. Many People think that money is equivalent to happiness, having more money will share an equal amount of happiness. But Tito’s story implies the fact that money cannot be compared with happiness and money can’t buy happiness. If you know what you want to get in your life and you know how to treasure and as well cherish what you possess. You will find happiness in your life.
