Happiness, Consumerism, and Guilt Theme Analysis

Anthony’s family prioritizes money and what it can buy—large houses, fancy food, expensive gifts—over personal relationships. At the family Christmas party that takes place during “Static,” Anthony’s wife, Marie, and his mother talk and act in ways that suggest they look to material goods for happiness, and that they value what the media tells them they should. Yet Anthony is unhappy despite having achieved an affluent lifestyle and being able to buy anything he wants—in fact, his wealth and success make him feel empty and guilty rather than fulfilled. With this, the story suggests that consumerism is a poor substitute for genuinely engaging with other people, and that money can be a source of stress and shame rather than happiness.

Characters like Marie and Anthony’s mother seem to think that money can buy happiness, and that emulating what they see in the media will give them the sort of life they want. At the Christmas party, Marie is fixated not on connecting with Anthony’s family, but on creating an elaborate, multi-course meal that will impress the guests. She gathers recipes from “a pile of magazines hawking sunshine and patios and people in uncrushed white linen shirts,” suggesting that these magazines are peddling not just recipes, but an entire lifestyle brand that Marie is trying to replicate. But Anthony warned her ahead of time that his “hyper-conservative” parents wouldn’t like the fancy appetizers and cocktails she was planning to make, and indeed they don’t. In this way, Marie is buying into a manufactured ideal of what advertisements suggest her life should look like, rather than accepting her life for what it is and catering to the people in it.

Similarly, Anthony’s mother harps on the expensive price of the gifts she bought Anthony’s niece and nephew, Hannah and Tom, rather than viewing Christmas as an opportunity to be generous and genuinely connect with her grandchildren. It’s possible that she, like Marie, bases her buying decisions on the media (in this case, advertisements for toys) because she assumes this will make her and her loved ones happy. After she gives Tom a walkie-talkie set, she lectures him about how much it cost and accepts his thanks and kiss on the cheek “without even looking at him, not really.” This shows that Anthony’s mother views gift-giving as a way to buy love and affection in lieu of genuine care and emotional involvement in her grandchildren’s lives.

But money certainly doesn’t buy happiness in Anthony’s case, as his affluent lifestyle actually makes him miserable. During the party, Anthony thinks back on signing the mortgage for his and Marie’s new house. He’d felt “a brief swooping dizzy spell of nauseated disbelief, and he thinks of that title document now stacked away in some bank vault somewhere, his signature slumping below the dotted line like a failing ECG.” This language, evoking physical illness and a flatlined heartbeat, likens buying the house to a kind of death for Anthony. He also remembers how Marie used to affectionately call him “Ant” before they got the new house, but now she calls him Anthony—“a new name […] to go with the new granite-topped Italianate kitchen bench and the whole brand spanking new house.” Rather than making him happy, his wealth and material possessions have only made him feel empty and disconnected from who he really is. It’s also clear that Anthony and Marie have a broken marriage—at one point in the story, Anthony wonders if Marie loves him at all. Anthony’s “high-powered job” and Marie’s career as a lawyer don’t seem to have given them anything besides material items like their large home and upscale furnishings. And these things don’t create lasting happiness for the couple—their beautiful environment only makes their unpleasant relationship all the more apparent.

Anthony’s wealth even makes him feel guilty, and it drives a wedge between himself and his loved ones. At several points in the story, Anthony’s mother makes subtle digs at Anthony and Marie’s lifestyle. For instance, she tells Marie that she got her a “funny little present” for Christmas because “you're so hard to buy for, the two of you—I mean, my goodness, there's really absolutely nothing else you need, is there?” Anthony has previously described his mother as being full of “contempt” and “puzzled faux-innocence,” so it’s likely that her comment is meant as a passive-aggressive insult rather than a compliment. In this way, Anthony can’t seem to win: he tries to appease Marie by buying her what she wants, but this makes his mother resent him for his perceived success. Anthony also feels guilty because he knows his sister Margaret and her husband, Ian, “are in some dire financial straits.” This makes him feel like he has to “overcompensate” by giving his niece and nephew an expensive Christmas present (a Nintendo Wii console) and even offering Margaret and Ian one of his many plasma TVs to replace their outdated set. From this, it’s clear that Anthony’s affluence doesn’t guarantee him happiness—in fact, it just seems to strain his relationships and make his life more complicated.

At one point during the gathering, Anthony looks through his digital camera’s viewfinder as he prepares to take a snapshot of his family. Through the camera, he notices how Margaret looks “overweight and worn and dowdy” next to the beautiful Marie. But from another angle, she looks “kind and comfortable, touching Ian’s arm and smiling warmly,” while Marie looks “cold” and unhappy by comparison. In essence, Anthony can see both “how [Margaret] sees them and how they see her, this life and that life.” With this, the story suggests that people like Anthony and Marie, who have all the material trappings of success, may not be as happy as they seem. And by the same token, lasting happiness and fulfillment is found through meaningful connections, like the one Margaret and Ian seem to share, rather than money and consumption.