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The American dream through hard work
The American dream through hard work
Tje American dream and literature
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The American Dream can be defined as the set of ideals that include the freedom to succeed and prosper through hard work. This dream is one that many people dream of achieving and living, including Willy Loman. What Willy Loman does not realize, however, is that he has been living the American Dream all along. Willy had a job as a salesman and got a steady income. He purchased a house and a car and would have paid everything off if he had not committed suicide. And lastly, he had a wife and two sons. Living like this is something many people dream of doing, which is where the name American Dream comes from. Willy’s troubling past is the main cause for him not realizing the blessed life he was living.
As we learned from the play “Death of a
...needs a little salary” (Miller 137). Willy needed more than just money to realize his dream. The struggle of human beings to achieve their goals by idealizing of an unrealistic goal which is all about the American dream is too far to reach leads the many downfalls.
Both stories present the American dream as having wealth, property, to be respected and have many materialistic belongings. Some argue that the American dream was to only have some land, to be free, happy and to be an American. Willy Loman perceived the dream very differently as his aim was to gain lots of wealth and to have a high social status. This view is complemented by the final words in the play by Linda, the repeats of “we’re free, free”. She implies that they are free because they no longer are in debt or owing money as they have just repaid the mortgage on the house but is also implies that the family live in a free society. This compares to the international political situation at the time Miller was writing, and the play was being performed, was changing. The democratic, capitalist USA was in conflict with the communist, state controlled Soviet Union and relations were strained to the point that the era was called the Cold
The American dream clouded both Willy and Gatsby’s mind. It changed their personality and changed the way they saw things. They were too set on what their heart wanted. You have to earn it, you can’t just expect to achieve it. Gatsby’s and Willy’s American dream made them clueless. “He presents it in Gatsby as a romantic baptism of desire for a reality that stubbornly remains out of his sight” (Bewley). They both ended without the lives they dreamt of, and without lives at all. The authors of these books are trying to show the American dream is not what its made out to be. It ruined their lives instead of them actually achieving
In my opinion, Willy Loman did not attempt to keep-up-with the Joneses as he never made enough money to incorporate that lifestyle. His wife was repairing hose for herself and they had a cheap refrigerator in constant need of repair. Mr. Loman perhaps dwelled on a lavish lifestyle in his mind but he was extremely far from it at all. He wanted to be able to live that way but his job did not allow for those things. He expected his sons, Biff and Happy, to be successful as to compete with those around him and that did not happen either which cause Willy lots of stress, anxiety, and sadness. He consistently thought back into his boy’s younger days when they were energetic and popular as that brought him comfort. He looked at his boys as failures
What is the "American" dream? The American dream is being treated with respect and have joy of being able to be free to do whatever people desire. In the book Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses prejudice to manipulate the plot. Crook's character in the book represents the unfair life and the living of some people back in 1937.
The American dream is an ideal that most people are often left wanting. To be able to essentially rise from nothing and grow to be financially stable and live life in excess after a great deal of hard work. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the American dream is represented in different ways by the characters, though most of the plot centers around Willy’s failed aspirations for the American dream. Miller shows that the American Dream may not actually be reachable by everybody or that it may not even be a relevant dream for everybody in America.
This belief of the American Dream, creates the idea that everyone can succeed through hard work, honestly, talent and intelligence. But, this isn’t the full truth. The American Dream also expresses the happiness in this time was linked to wealth and possessions. Willy Loman throughout the play, forms two different realities. The second reality is ultimately an illusion, as Loman twists and conveys the disappointments in his real reality, to the believable delusion by having regular flashbacks of the happier times with Biff and Happy as teenagers, also thinking that his brother, Ben is still alive. He created the illusion basically because of his overwhelming pride and he doesn’t want to be seen to be unsuccessful in his failing career to his family. Furthermore, this results in a negative consequence as Willy is lying, to cover up the real truth of this
Willy is so passionate about achieving the American dream that in the end it killed him.
... he loses himself along the way. Tom and Daisy Buchanan protected their reputations in order to keep their American Dream alive. In the Death of A Salesman, Willy and Happy Loman do not realize that their dreams are wrong, and they are delusional about their status in society. All of these characters portray different types of people in the 1920’s, but they are connected because they all believe that they are owed the American Dream and they tried very hard to achieve it. Some resorted to crime and some dishonesty. Anyone who believes in the romantic version of the American Dream cannot fulfill it, and all of their superficial American Dreams would never occur. The real American Dream is being happy with what you have, and to chase your dreams to an extent. Dreams are essential, however theses characters show that dreams should not be the foundations of our lives.
The American Dream is what every US citizen desires to live their life which is the opportunity that every individual gets an equal chance at life such success. Willy Loman is a salesman who believes that someone's life will be successful if you have a popular stance socially, have a personality that everyone loves, or just pure luck. Willy was materialistic and he worried so much about providing for his family such as luxuries that he believed he deserved even though he did not have the sufficient funds to be able to afford these luxuries he still attempted his hardest to try and give his family everything he could.
The American Dream is something everyone strives for, it's different for everyone. The only important part is how they achieve it, some people try to take the easy way out which can lead to them getting in more trouble than they bargained for. In the memoir Hole in my Life by Jack Gantos, it is about how he grew up striving to be a young writer then his life took a turn for the worst. When Jack was in high school he moved to an island called St. Croix for his father's job, it turned out to not be such a good deal, his family ended up struggling to pay for rent, food, and other basic necessities. He needed to find a way to get off this island and make money for his family and quick, like too many people he decided that he would take the easy
Willy had quite a few ‘wrong’ dreams and they could have turned into ‘right’ dreams if his perception of the American dream was right. Dave Singleman was the man who sowed the false umbrella dream in Willy’s mind. This umbrella dream was the American dream, for all the smaller dreams Willy came up with, started with the pursuit of the American dream. However Willy’s perception of this dream was warped and therefore the rest of his dreams turned out wrong. His version of the American dream was to be able to achieve success and wealth through being well liked and popular, and not through hard work and skill.
An American dream is a dream that can only be achieved by passion and hard work towards your goals. People are chasing their dreams of better future for themselves and their children. The author Arthur Miller in Death of a Salesman has displayed a struggle of a common man to achieve the American dream. Willy Loman the protagonist of the play has spent his whole life in chasing the American dream. He was a successful salesman who has got old and unable to travel for his work, and no one at work gives him importance anymore. He is unhappy with his sons Happy and Biff because both of them are not successful in their lives. Moreover, Biff and Happy are also not happy with their father Willy because they don’t want to live a life that Willy wants them to live. The heated discussions of Willy and his older son Biff affect the family and the family starts to fall apart. However, Willy is unable to achieve the American dream and does not want to face the reality that his decisions for himself and his family have lead him to be a failure in the society. In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the protagonist Willy Loman spends his whole life to achieve the American Dream by his own perception and denies facing the reality, just like nowadays people are selling themselves and attempting to find success in life.
Almost all texts have a hero in them. Many texts also have a tragic hero. Aristotle had is own ideas about tragedies and tragic heros. Gerald Else tells us that Aristotle believed a tragedy should depict, “the downfall of a noble hero or heroine, usually through some combination of hubris, fate, and the will of the gods.” William Shakespeare is very famous for his tragedies and tragic heroes in many of his plays. Another play writer that is famous for his use of tragic heroes would be Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller has written many famous tragic plays such as Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman, in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, is a tragic hero because of his aspirations to be great, his tragic flaws, and his tragic downfall
The Image of the American Dream presented by Arthur Miller in Death of a Salesman clearly shows how negative the dream is and how its detriments to Willy Loman in his personal and professional life, lead to his downfall. Even so, the American Dream is still alive in our society today. The modern American Dream consists of going to a good college, getting married, finding a good job, and raising a family. As a high school student, I have been conditioned to follow this path.