“Willy Loman and Gatsby both are epitomes of failed American dream”. Justify.
Both Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby had a similar dream they wanted to accomplish, ‘The American Dream.’ But the pursuit of a dream based on deception and false illusion can be the cause for tragedy. Reading Miller’s ‘Death of a salesman’ and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, we can know that both of these characters had a goal of achieving an unrealistic dream which later leads to their downfall. Willy Loman is so much determined to achieve success and happiness that he isn’t satisfied with his present state. He loses his mind out on the road selling. He doesn’t earn the way he used to and the lifestyle is wearing him out. The dream has so much of significance in his life that his actions are justified in a wrong way to achieve it. It comes down to when he commits suicide not specified for which
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It isn’t an American Dream if you’re not happy. He truly was unhappy because he wanted Daisy. “The American dream is not about the materials like everyone thinks it is. To In the sass Gatsby is living the American dream but he knows he is not. All Gatsby wants is love, love from Daisy (FItzgerald, 1925).” Similarly in the book ‘Death of a salesman’, Charlie says,” no man only needs a little salary.” There’s more to an American Dream than wealth and money. Money and power isn’t everything. Money can’t buy you love, money can’t buy you self-esteem , money can’t buy you respect nor can it buy you true happiness. Charley is someone who has been successful in his life and has been successful to produce a successful child, which is what Willy wanted as well but was left as an empty dream. Charley was living in reality whereas Willy was declining it and was living in a false illusion of the dream he could’ve never fulfilled. Charley knew what Willy was going through as he had lived the American Dream and was well
In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, both text creators use their main character to display how to attempt to overcome the inevitable adversity that comes with the pursuit of self-fulfillment. The quote “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” by John F Kennedy greatly resembles the ideas proposed by the text creators through Gatsby and Willy Loman. Throughout the sources, both Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby pursue the American Dream relentlessly to the brink, where they ultimately drown in the relaxing pool of self-fulfillment that is death. However, in their attempt to secure the satisfaction of self-fulfillment, the main characters are used by the
The novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, deals heavily with the concept of the American Dream as it existed during the Roaring Twenties, and details its many flaws through the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and ambitious entrepreneur who comes to a tragic end after trying to win the love of the moneyed Daisy Buchanan, using him to dispel the fantastic myth of the self-made man and the underlying falsities of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s close association with the American Dream, however, Fitzgerald presents the young capitalist as a genuinely good person despite the flaws that caused his undoing. This portrayal of Gatsby as a victim of the American Dream is made most clear during his funeral, to which less than a handful of people attend. Gatsby makes many mistakes throughout the novel, all of which Fitzgerald uses these blunders as a part of his thematic deconstruction of the American Dream.
Imagine. You are sitting in complete silence, even the nearby crickets won't dare to let out even the slightest of croaks. You stare down at your cluttered, dimly lit desk. Your hand grasps your pen, and the other rubs back and forth across your temple in angst. Your eyes pass over each paper, containing each incomplete thought, and your mind floods with memories of your past. Trapped by writer’s block, you are all alone with only your experiences, surroundings, and philosophy aiding you in the fall that is the dark reality of alcoholism and depression. For renowned authors F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, these influences all played a crucial role in identifying their style techniques, as well as determining similarities and differences
Living the American dream was a goal that most families were attempting to reach. Living the dream included simple things such as being true to your spouse, raising your family with love and earning an honest living. At points, this goal may have seemed out of reach and this is where the lies came in. The blatant disregard for honesty, eventually leading to destruction, can be seen in both literary works, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gasby. Both novels touch upon similar themes regarding the instability and ignorance of the two main characters, Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby. The two find themselves living in fantasy worlds, Willy is still convinced that even at his age and stature he is capable of obtaining the American dream, where as Jay is very much in love with a woman just beyond his reach but still insists on creating a life for the two of them. Over excessive pride, adultery, and false material security are some of the issues that our protagonists are bothered with, all causing bitterness and disappointment. Relying on their imaginations instead of reality is something both Willy and Jay struggle with and is directly related to their ability of acquiring their unique versions of the American dream.
While everyone has a different interpretation of the "American Dream," some people use it as an excuse to justify their own greed and selfish desires. Two respected works of modern American literature, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, give us insight into how the individual interpretation and pursuit of the "American Dream" can produce tragic results. Jay Gatsby, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, built his "American Dream" upon the belief that wealth would win him acceptance. In pursuit of his dream, Gatsby spent his life trying to gain wealth and the refinement he assumes it entails. Jay Gatsby, lacking true refinement, reflects the adolescent image of the wealthy, and "[springs] from his Platonic conception of himself" (Fitzgerald 104).
were not of a very high standard. In Act 1 we see him stealing a ball
Linda, his wife, thought that it was because he did not have enough money to do what he wanted to, but, as Charley stated, “no man only 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 an unrealistic goal which is all about the American dream is too far to reach leads to the many downfalls. In conclusion, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Miller’s Death of a Salesman shows how dreams can be made and destroyed. By having the American Dream dominate one’s way of life, it can lead to death, just like Gatsby’s and Willy’s.
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
No two people are going to share the exact same goals, and while many people’s dreams run along the same pathways towards security, money, love, and companionship, the route by which to get there and the destination should be left entirely to the dreamer. By creating an institution such as the American Dream, goals become oversimplified. The American dream boils happiness down into two or three facets, which everyone seems to try desperately to conform to, but people cannot be told what to like. As conformists, though, everyone will attempt to seem perfectly happy with a lot they never chose as they live a dream they never wanted. Nothing showcases this more clearly than the rampant unhappiness of the characters in The Great Gatsby. None of the people the world would consider ‘successful’ end the novel happy; instead they are left either emotionally hollow or entirely dead. Their failure at achieving real and true happiness is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s way of criticizing the relentless pursuit of a phony American
Now that Gatsby’s entire life’s work is purposeless, his death is easily foreshadowed. Fitzgerald uses this dismal realization to reiterate that the American dream is impossible and the closer one comes to achieving it, the closer they bring themselves to death.
Thematically, Fitzgerald offers a powerful critique of a materialistic society and the effects it can have on one’s hopes and dreams. He also reveals that the American dream cannot always be obtained, no matter how determined you are. The American dream, Gatsby, is killed both physically and mentally to demonstrate that only temporary happiness can be obtained through sacrificing what you hold to be moral, not true lifelong happiness.
The concept of one’s journey to reach the so called "American Dream" has served as the central theme for many novels. However, in the novel The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays the American Dream as so opulent it is unrealistic and unreachable. The American Dream is originally about obtaining happiness, but by the 1920's, this dream has become twisted into a desire for fame and fortune by whatever means; mistaken that wealth will bring happiness. Fitzgerald illustrates that the more people reach toward the idealistic American dream, the more they lose sight of what makes them happy, which sends the message that the American dream is unattainable. The continuos yearning for extravagance and wealthy lifestyles has become detrimental to Gatsby and many other characters in the novel as they continue to remain incorrigible in an era of decayed social and moral values, pursuing an empty life of pleasure instead of seeking happiness.
Since the early colonization of America, the American dream has been the ultimate symbol for success. In retrospect, the dreamer desires to become wealthy, while also attaining love and high class. Though the dream has had different meanings in time, it is still based on individual freedom, and a desire for greatness. During the 19th century, the typical goal was to settle in the West and raise a family. However, the dream progressively transformed into greediness and materialism during the early 20th century. The indication of success soon became focused on wealth and luxury. The Great Gatsby is a story focused on the deterioration of the American dream. Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby is shown with a desire to achieve his dream by all means. Utilizing the Roaring Twenties as part of his satire, Fitzgerald criticizes the values of the American dream, and the effects of materialism on one’s dream.
“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. The American Dream, a long-standing ideal, embodies the hope that one can achieve financial success, political power, and everlasting love through dedication and hard work. During the Roaring 20s, people in America put up facades to mask who they truly were. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream is simply an illusion, that is idealist and unreal.
Arthur Miller's, "Death of a Salesman," shows the development and structure that leads up to the suicide of a tragic hero, Willy Loman. The author describes how an American dreamer can lose his self-worth by many negative situations that occur throughout his life. The structure and complications are essential because it describes how a man can lose his way when depression takes over.