Comparing The Great Gatsby And Death Of A Salesman

Most feel the need to change who they are in order to be successful in life. This issue is addressed in both The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller. Each main character faces different situations in which they believe the best way to become successful is by abandoning their true identities. In The Great Gatsby, the main character, Jay finds himself abandoning his identity in order to become successful and win the heart of his love, Daisy. He turns into someone he is not and loses all aspects of his true identity. This can also be seen in Death of a Salesman with the main character, Willy, who leaves behind his identity in order to achieve his dream of being a well-liked successful salesman.

Each of these characters loses their sense of self throughout their journey which led them to sacrifice their true identity.

The only way one could change into a different person is if they reject their true identity. Not only are they creating a new persona, they are also forced to forget their self-hood and change the way they are seen by themselves and others. In The Great Gatsby, the first step for Jay when he was becoming a new person was to literally change his name. Changing his way of life was not good enough for him. Gatsby wanted to start over and become the person Daisy wanted him to be. This can be seen in the sixth chapter of the book when Nick says, “James Gatz- that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career. . . he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end ” (Fitzgerald 98). In Gatsby’s opinion, the best way to reject your true identity is by creating a completely new one which even includes a different name. He would be able to start again and live the life he thought he should have had. By doing this, it is known that in the end it was never really worth it since he left behind his true identity and created a new identity that lacked individuality. The need to change into a different person by rejecting one’s true identity can also be seen in Death of a Salesman.Willy’s main goal in life is to become a well-liked and successful businessman. The only problem with this dream is that almost everyone in his life knows that he will never become the man he hopes he will turn into. Not only does Willy fail to notice that he had no control over whether or not people like him but he is oblivious to the fact that in order to become a success salesman, there is a specific lifestyle you need to previously have. This problem can be seen by the way Willy describes the death of a successful salesman he looks up to, by saying to his wife:
Cause what would be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people? Do you know? When he died- and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven and Hartford, going into Boston- when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral (Miller 81)
The biggest problem that Willy does not seem to understand is that the easiest and most likely way to become a successful salesman is without a family. In Gatsby’s case, he was able to completely start over but Willy is still held back from his dream due to the fact that his true identity included a his family. This is one aspect of Willy’s original identity that is forced to stay with him and in the long run keeps him from achieving his dream. In order to change into a new person, it is necessary to reject one's true identity.

If someone is in favor of changing their true identity to alter the way they are seen by others to fulfill a fantasy, their downfall will be spotted earlier on by outsiders than the person themself.

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Jay’s sole goal is to win the heart of Daisy Buchanan which forces him to completely reject his identity and create a new one. Once he legally changed his name and began to bootleg, Gatsby made a choice that he would dedicate his life to impress the love of his dreams even if it means forgetting who he is as a person. When Jay decided that the only way he would get Daisy was by becoming wealthy his new identity was dedicated to that and that only. Jay’s biggest focus at the time was being able to become rich so that he could show off his new money to Daisy and hopefully steal her heart. With this being the case. Gatsby became too fixated on the way things looked and not enough on if Daisy would still like him as a person. This obsession over the way things looked can be seen in a conversation about Gatsby between Jordan and Nick when he starts by asking her, “‘Why didn't he ask you to arrange a meeting?’ ‘He wants her to see his house’ she explained ‘And your house is right next door’ ‘Oh!’ ‘I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night . . . but she never did’” (Fitzgerald 79). Gatsby is so focused on making sure Daisy notices his wealth he forgets to remember the parts about his old self that she originally fell in

love with. The parts of him that she fell in love with all made up his original identity that used to be known by other people as well. When Gatsby believed that rejecting his identity would lead him to his fantasy life with Daisy, his downfall became evident. This can also be seen in Death of a Salesman when Willy’s fantasy or becoming a well-liked successful salesman destroyed all of the aspects of his true self. Willy’s idea of the man he wants to be is extremely far from the person he actually is. He was always good with his hands but he wanted to be seen differently by people. By rejecting his true identity in hopes of appearing like a completely different man, Willy loses the parts of him that express who he really is as a person. He denies the fact that he enjoys working with his hands in order to become a “successful” salesman. In the play it can be seen that Willy is rejecting his true self when Biff says, “There were a lot of nice days. When he'd come home from a trip; or on Sundays, making the stoop; finishing the cellar; putting on the new porch; when he built the extra bathroom; and put up the garage. . .there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made” (Miller 138). This shows that it was clear to others that Willy becoming a salesman meant he was losing his self-hood. Willy continued to deny the fact that he enjoys hands-on work even though it is clear that in his life he was meant to work with his hands instead of struggling to become a well liked salesman. Even Willy's children knew he was his happiest whenever he got the chance to fix something, but instead he rejects his identity and struggles to become something he is not and will never truly become. Willy’s downfall is mainly focused on how other people see him instead of who he really is as a person.

When someone rejects their identity, a sense of emptiness tends to surround their new life.

In The Great Gatsby when Jay recreated himself, it was obvious that he felt alone. He lived in a mansion by himself and the only day to day social life he had was amongst him and his butlers. Gatsby became the man he had wanted to become but at the cost of being alone. After his change in heart to become a new man, the people around it found it hard to know who he actually was and what his true story was. Due to this confusion, people felt like they had no clue who Jay Gatsby actually was, all that they knew was that he threw extravagant parties. Even at the parties, it was rare to see the face of the host. Most guests were left wondering who he was since he stood in the shadows and watched the party goers from afar. Since Gatsby left his old life to become a new person, he failed to make friends or learn to properly socialize with guests since he himself was also a stranger to his new identity. This can be seen at the end of the book when Nick is planning Gatsby's funeral to find that no one has shown up:

A little before three the Lutheran minister arrived from Flushing, and I began to look involuntarily out the windows for other cars. So did Gatsby's father. And as the time passed and the servants came in and stood waiting in the hall, his eyes began to link anxiously, and he spoke of the rain in a worried, uncertain way. The minister glanced several times at his watch, so I took

him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn't any use. Nobody came (Fitzgerald 174).
When Jay rejected then created a new identity, he lost the ability to socialize since no one truly knew who he was. He became empty inside since his old identity was forgotten and no one really knows who he is now. Those who attend funerals are both from the person’s past and their current life and since no one showed up it is clear that the rejection of his true identity led to the destruction of both. The sense of emptiness caused by the rejection of an identity can also be seen in Death of a Salesman. Since Willy tried to turn himself into someone that he is not, he becomes very distant from his friends and family. His main focus in life is to become a very well-liked, successful salesman which led him to become a distant father and husband. He believed that the most important thing in life was to be well-liked which could be seen by the way he treated his children. Willy seemed to be dismissive with Happy since he is what Willy wanted himself to be. He resents him because Happy is living the life that Willy wanted and because of this, Willy continuously forces Biff to turn into a well-liked, successful businessman. The reason that he chose to try and turn Biff was because he represents who Willy actually is. Biff likes working with his hands and that happens to be the very thing Willy is trying to change about himself. Throughout the book, Willy’s sole focus on being liked causes him to push his friends and family away even though they are trying to help him understand the truth that being well-liked is not important. After Willy’s death, Linda was shocked by the lack of people who attended the funeral when she questioned, “‘Why didn't anybody come?’. . . ‘where are all the people he knew? Maybe they blame him’” (Miller 137). After Willy rejected his identity and tried to change who he was as a person, he became empty inside. He no longer had a personality or an identity. He became a person whose only goal in life was to be well-liked and that was it. In both The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, when the main characters reject their true identities, they are left behind as a person without any identity at all. No one truly knows them anymore and that can be seen by the lack of people at their funerals.

The first step to becoming successful is rejecting one’s true identity. In both The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman the main characters strive to reach their dreams by abandoning their actual identities. By changing who they are as a person, their focus is too concerned with the way people see them. Also, once people reject their true identities, they are left with a sense of emptiness since they no longer live the lives they were meant to have. Although Gatsby and Willy are in different situations, the two of them believed it was necessary to reject their identities in order to be successful. Between these two pieces of writing, it is clear that many who find their true identities unhelpful in achieving their goal find it necessary to create a new persona.