Differences And Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Willy Loman

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Willy Loman is a poor salesman. Jay Gatsby is a rich partier. While there may not be a lot of seeming similarities on the outside, when you delve deeper into the stories and the characters you discover they actually are similar in some ways. First of all, they both hoped for the American Dream. They wanted to be successful in their own right and be prosperous. Unfortunately they failed. Willy wanted to be known as successful and provide for his family. He wanted his sons to succeed and make a decent living for themselves. Jay already had the good life, but he wanted to marry Daisy to complete his version of the ideal life. Both characters were over-idealistic about what they wanted and therefore disappointed by what they had or what they got. Willy wanted to die the death of a salesman, in his house wearing his fancy velvet slippers. He wanted to be successful and provide for his family. He also wanted his sons to be able to provide for themselves. Jay wanted Daisy to divorce Tom and marry him. Jay figured Daisy would be willing to drop her marriage for him and when she couldn’t, he was disappointed. Both characters don’t live in reality. Willy hallucinates and just chooses to remember the good things about the old days. He reenacts them like they are happening right now and he dreams up all this success his sons have. Jay had his …show more content…

Willy is prideful in the fact that he won’t take a job from Charley. I think he feels like if he took a job from Charley it would be like he was admitting he was a failure and couldn’t keep a job by himself. It would be a sign of his craziness, his hallucinations that led to his failure. Jay is prideful in the fact that he absolutely refuses to ask Daisy to tea, but her really wants to have tea with her. I think he’s scared that she will refuse him and then his hope of their perfect future together would go down the drain. He might also be a little scared that Daisy has changed since he last knew

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