False Hopes

Almost every moment of their lives, people hope and dream for a better life for themselves or for another person they love. Yet, no matter how hard they try, the hope they had almost never becomes reality. They are unable to reach that hope since the hope is a false hope. A false hope is hope for something to become a certain way, but never becoming the way as it was hoped. False hopes are present in Black Boy by Richard Wright, “Death of a Salesman”, by Arthur Miller, and Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, in the way that the characters don't completely realize that it is false and try their hardest to achieve their “false hope”. Their hopes are their adrenaline throughout their journey and although they turn out to be false, the false hopes strengthen the characters. Therefore, false hopes are a big factor of characters' development and growth.

Hopes, which turn out to be false are the adrenaline for the characters to keep moving on and the motivation for their actions. In “Death of a Salesman,” Willy has hope for his sons, especially Biff, to become successful businessmen like he wished for himself to become. His hope, which he finds out will almost never come true, gives motivation to give even a little more to help his sons to fulfill that life long dream of his. His hope for them was originally the hope for himself when he was young, but since he failed, it is a natural feeling to want his children to have better lives then him. This motivation, unfortunately, is the motivation to commit suicide, ignorant of the fact that it won't financially help his family. His motivation is very different from other American literature characters' motivations. It really shows that he is a sacrificial, yet somewhat ignorant, father who ...

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... of responding in bad ways or not trusting anyone and becomes an overall better person.

As seen in many types of American literature, false hopes motivate many of the characters to keep going for their dreams and hopes. Once they realize that the hopes are false, they try to heal the wounds created through these false hopes, and finally become a different and stronger person as a result. Not only does this relate to many types of literature, but it relates to many lives in present day. Life is a process of hopes, then either not fulfilling it or fulfilling it, which rarely happens at its fullest. It is amazing how it relates to human life and there sure are a lot more themes and terms that relate to out lives as individuals, we just don't know that yet. Or do we know it and just don't apply the lessons learned to our lives? We will just have to find out ourselves.