It is human nature to want or to be something that they are not. The characters from The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman which are Willy Loman and Gatsby are dominated by an American dream that destroyed them. The Gatsby and Salesman’s dreams came from an unreal past and were also in positions outside of their own self. Gatsby tried to go through his past, while Willy attempted to create a satisfactory past. The shortage of control of these dreams provoked both of their downfalls. Gatsby's dream made him want to recreate his past, so he spends all of his time and energy trying to do so. His past was the most content time of his life. Gatsby frequently talks about trying to get back there to find something he lost. Daisy Buchanan, from …show more content…
Louisville, who he meets again in New York, is what he lost that he talks about frequently. In regards to Daisy, Nick describes the past that Gatsby is trying to regain.
“On the last afternoon before he went abroad, he sat with Daisy in his arms for a long, silent time. This was the love they shared in Louisville before Gatsby had to leave and have Daisy fall out of his life. This happiness with Daisy is what fueled Gatsby's dream and his attempt to repeat the past. In the present, Gatsby makes it very clear what he is trying to do with Daisy in a conversation with Nick, the narrator of the novel.” Gatsby is in the right mind that he is in control and has the power to do this. Nick, even though, doesn’t agree and tells him that he can't. Gatsby doesn't bother and continues with his dream to “fix everything”. Gatsby does not want to repeat his past. He only attempts it, he never succeeds. The Death of a Salesman,Willy Loman success is described as being a well-liked businessman. Willie’s American Dream, as he grew up, was to be able to “pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, make his living.” To be respected and well known at such an age, he would still be able to provide for his family, was Willie’s dream. Because his heart was never in it, Willy was never a good …show more content…
salesman. Biff comes to realize that the only time Willy puts his heart into anything is when he worked with his hands.
“There's more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made.” Willy never realized that he cared about being well known than being a salesman. Being above a blue collared worker, is The American ideal of success as Willy sees it. To such an extent, Willy can’t even see what he would be both successful and happy doing. Both of the stories detail the downfall of the main characters, also both stories include the parts of keeping secrets and hiding things from others. The ladies men between the two stories suffer with being upset after trying to hide their affairs, causing hard situations for them. Both of the books are unalike in that the troubles are faced by the main characters are different, but in the end Gatsby and Willy become highly unhappy with the development of their lives and makes drastic, unreasoned decisions. The fact that they both desire something so deeply, that it indirectly, killed them both, teaches a very important lesson. Regardless of social class, wealth, or status, one always has the potential to have a great
downfall. The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman both teach important lessons. The two stories have their similarities along the storylines, although the leeway of the story is a little different. Even with the more important differences of character and the condition, they both approach to teach a well better lesson. It's important that one realizes the causes and effects of events that eventually caused a terrible death for both of the main characters.
“ Its attitude is one of disillusionment and detachment; Fitzgerald is still able to evoke the glitter of the 1920s but he is no longer dazzled by it; he sees its underlying emptiness and impoverishment” (Trendell 23)The story is narrated from the point of view of Nick, one of Gatsby’s friends. The problematic and hopeless romantic, Gatsby, sets out to fulfill his dream in acquiring Daisy, his lifelong love, through his many tactics and ideas. Gatsby is introduced extending his arms mysteriously toward a green light in the direction of the water. Later, Gatsby is shown to be the host of many parties for the rich and Nick is invited to one of these parties where Gatsby and Nick meet. When Gatsby later confesses his love for Daisy he explains she was a loved one who was separated from him and hopes to get her again explained when he says, “I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(Fitzgerald 56). There are several obstacles that Gatsby must overcome and the biggest one that is Daisy’s current fiancé but that still does not get in the way of him trying to recover Daisy’s old feelings. His attempts are made through money and wealth because he tries to buy her love back instead of letting it happen naturally.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, “The Great Gatsby”, and Baz Luhrmann’s film, “The Great Gatsby”, both have similarities and contrasts between the two of them. The Great Gatsby is a novel and film taken place in the 1920s filled with wild parties, mysterious people, The American Dream, and most of all, love. There are several things that can be compared between the novel and film; such as the characters and the setting. There are also contrasts between the two as well; which is mainly involving the character Nick.
Novels are very unique things to read. They contain so much detail and information it’s almost hard to comprehend. Sometimes these unique novels are translated into movies and while most movies disappoint the reader by not capturing the complete essence of the novel, I felt that The Great Gatsby did not disappoint. Sure, there are some differences between the two but not enough to make the movie a complete disappointment. In this essay, I will begin by comparing the two together, the two being the novel and movie, then I will gradually move in the contrast of this essay.
Gatsby’s quest to acquire Daisy was enlarged by his colossal obsession with the idea of being reunited with her, until the time actually came in which something so simple as a tea date was all he asked for in order to meet her. The purpose of acquiring such wealth and an extravagant home seems so pointless when Gatsby decides to meet with Daisy in Nick’s underwhelming cabin. The extravagancy of his vision deeply contrasts the modesty of the acquisition of his goal in this case. This shows a different side of Gatsby and his visions on what he thought would happen when he reached his goal and what actually occurred. Gatsby starts to panic when his visions do not occur when Nick and Gatsby are sat in Nick’s home, waiting for Daisy, Gatsby argues “Nobody’s coming to tea. It’s too late...I can’t wait all day” Fitzgerald 85). Gatsby is clearly very antsy and nervous about seeing Daisy again. He was very deeply in love with her and after 5 long years of waiting to see her again and they are finally reunited. All of his plans will be put into action and all of this planning will make him terribly self conscious
Jay Gatsby is a man of great fortune and power, with only one unobtainable dream. The dream that Gatsby is chasing is Daisy, his love from before the war. Gatsby and Nick are two contrasting characters; this is because while Nick also has one goal his is obtainable in that he wishes to earn his own wealth (albeit on his influential father's dime). Gatsby and Nick contrast in another fashion, and that is that Gatsby believes that if he works hard enough he can relive the past, and erase the past five years of Daisy's life with Tom; Nick on the other hand has, for his infinite amount of hope, the voice of truth that the past is past and only the present and future can be lived in.
Gatsby’s love life has become surrounded by ideas from the past. No longer is he able to fall in love with the moment, but instead he is held up on what have and should have been. He spends his time reminiscing on old times and previous relationships while he has also been building up a new life in order to return to the past. The unreal expectations he has for Daisy prove to us that he has trouble letting go of his old romantic ideas. Gatsby doesn’t want to accept and love this new Daisy, and instead he is hoping for the Daisy he knows to come back. But people change and there can be no expectations for someone to continue to remain the same after a number of years. Instead we must let go of the past and embrace the future for everything it could be.
To reach his idea of what happiness is,Gatsby must go back in time and relive an old dream. To do this Jay Gatsby is a man who does not wish to live in the present because it offers him nothing. He spends the majority of his adult life trying to recapture his past and,eventually,dies in his pursuit of it. The reason he wishes to relive the past is because long ago he had a love affair with the rich Daisy Buchanan,who he fell deeply in love with. However,he knew that they could never get married due to the difference in their economic and social statuses.
Everyone has a dream of their desired future, they dream of the one thing that makes them happy that they do not have now. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman and Gatsby are characters dominated by an American dream that destroys them. Their dream comes from a fantasy past. These dreams were made outside of who they truly are.
Gatsby cannot fulfill that dream, he is too deep in that dream, he thinks she is also in the past with him. She has a life, she has a child, she is married. Gatsby thinks she can just leave that all behind to come and live with him, but she can’t. His love, obsession, and dreams are what led him to his downfall.
In the beginning, Gatsby was a poor army boy who fell in love with a rich girl named Daisy. Knowing from their different circumstances, he could not marry her. So Gatsby left to accumulate a lot of money. Daisy, not being able to wait for Gatsby, marries a rich man named Tom. Tom believes that it is okay for a man to be unfaithful but it is not okay for the woman to be. This caused a lot of conflict in their marriage and caused Daisy to be very unhappy. Gatsby’s dream is to be with Daisy, and since he has accumulated a lot of money, he had his mind set on getting her back. Throughout the novel, Gatsby shows his need to attain The American Dream of love and shows his determination to achieve it. You can tell that Gatsby has a clear vision of what he wants when Nick says, “..he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I gla...
Gatsby has many issues of repeating his past instead of living in the present. A common example of this would be his ultimate goal to win Daisy back. He keeps thinking about her and how she seems perfect for him, but he remembers her as she was before she was married to Tom. He has not thought about the fact that she has a daughter, and has been married to Tom for four years, and the history there is between them. The reader cannot be sure of Gatsby trying to recreate the past until the reunion between him and Daisy. This becomes evident when Nick talks to Gatsby about how he is living in the past, specifically when Nick discusses Daisy with him. “‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ Gatsby ventured. ‘you can’t repeat the past.’ I said. ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’” (110). This excerpt shows how Gatsby still has not learned that eventually he will have to just accept the past and move forward with his life. If he keeps obsessing about Daisy, and trying to fix the past, more of his life will be wasted on this impossible goal. Througho...
Willy Loman equates success as a human being with success in the business world. When Willy was a young man, he heard of a salesman who could "pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, make his living." 8. This salesman is Willy's inspiration; someday to be so respected and so well known that he can still provide for his family, even at an old age. Of course, Willy is no good at being a salesman because his heart isn't in it.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams share and explore themes and techniques of imprisonment, by both mental and physical means. To explore imprisonment, both writers use characters and narration techniques to express themes of illusion and reality by characterisation, the American Dream in symbolism, and entrapment by responsibility through narration structure. While both authors express a story, Tennessee Williams uses play direction, while F. Scott Fitzgerald uses novel structure to convey the ideas of imprisonment.
In The Great Gatsby the theme of past and present is depicted through the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy. Everything Gatsby has created was to impress daisy, his whole life after returning from war was to create a facade for Daisy making her fall in love with him. Gatsby believes that Daisy has never stopped loving him even after he left her when he went to war, this is the main factor that accounts for Gatsby’s drive to win over Daisy. Although Daisy is married to Tom, Gatsby believes that she has never loved him and that her love is in fact has always been for Gatsby no one else. Gatsby’s main drive is his memories from the past, but his visions of a perfect utopia formed around Daisy are impeded because of her progressing into the future.There are several instances that demonstrate Daisy moving forward from the past, the revelation that Daisy has a child with Tom, Daisy’s growing resentment towards the parties Gatsby throws, and the sense of bewilderment Gatsby gets into Gatsby after he reunites with Daisy.
Willy Loman is a firm believer in the "American Dream:" the notion that any man can rise from humble beginnings to greatness. His particular slant on this ideal is that a man succeeds by selling his charisma, that to be well liked is the most important asset a man can have. He made a living at this for 30 years, but as he enters the reclining years of his life, people have stopped smiling back and he can no longer sell the firm's goods to support himself. His ambition was one of greatness, to work hard and to be a member of the firm; and if he could not succeed in this respect, that he should at least be well-liked and be able to sell until the day of his death: When his friends would flock from all over the country to pay their respects.