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Comparing the death of a salesman and the great gatsby
Tje American dream and literature
Tje American dream and literature
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The term American Dream was first coined by James T. Arthur in his 1931 novel The Epic of America, and has since become a famous phrase used widely to discuss the opportunities one is granted in the United States. However, this one simple phrase can be perceived differently among each individual. For some, the American Dream is a symbol of hope for the future, while for others it can be a reminder of failures in the past that set them back from achieving their dreams. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the play Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller the main characters, Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman, strive to achieve their own perception of the American Dream. The American Dream can be described as working hard in the pursuit …show more content…
Willy desires to be a successful salesman, believing it will give him a sense of purpose in life, and he desires the same for his two sons. “I see great things for you kids. I think your troubles are over. But remember, start big and you’ll end big” (Death of a Salesman). Willy’s obsession with his version of the American Dream translates directly to the relationship he has with his children. He believes that if Biff and Happy are ambitious salesman they will be able to attain happiness through money and success. However, Willy’s extreme passion has serious consequences in his relationships. “What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I know who I am!” (Death of a Salesman). Biff’s entire life has been dedicated to living out his father’s version of the American Dream, not his own. When he proclaims to Willy that this is not the life he desires to live, Willy realizes his own failures. As hard as he worked in his life to amount to something, he discovers the small impact he has actually made. “I’ve got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” (Death of a Salesman). Too late in his life did Willy realize all of his hard work would not allow him to achieve his
The American dream is an idea that every American has an equal chance of success. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows us this is not the case. Fitzgerald wrote the character Jay Gatsby as a tragic American hero. Jay Gatsby went from a nobody to a millionaire and most people believe that he had achieved the American dream. However, he did not achieve the American dream because he lost a piece of himself in his pursuit of his supposedly incorruptible 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).
The American dream originated when immigrants came to America searching for new opportunities and a better life. In the early 1900’s all people could do is dream; however, those dreams gave many different meanings to the phrase “American dream”, and for the most part, wealth and hard work play a very large role in the pursuit of “the dream”. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, and Arthur Miller’s drama, Death of a Salesman, both protagonists, Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman, are convinced that the way to achieve a better life is by living the “American dream”. However, the dream does not end up successfully for these two characters. In fact, their ideals and hopes of rising to success cause their American dream to take a turn into a nightmare.
The American Dream is the concept that anyone, no matter who he or she is, can become successful in his or her life through perseverance and hard work. It is commonly perceived as someone who was born and starts out as poor but ambitious, and works hard enough to achieve wealth, prosperity, happiness, and stability. Clearly, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to personify the destruction of the American Dream. Gatsby started out as a poor farming boy, meticulously planning his progression to become a great man.
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 destroyed them. Their dream comes from a fantasy past. These dreams were made outside from who they truly are. Gatsby tried to repeat his past, while Willy attempted to create a new past. The lack of control over their goals and dreams lead to their downfall at the end. The two novels show the various points of the American dream; either to pursuit of happiness, or to pursuit of material wealth.
The American dream has been a tangible idea, greatly sought after by many over the course of American History. The dream has eluded many, to strive for achieving in America’s open markets, and become a self-made man from the sweat of one’s brow. The idea of become self-sufficient, and have limitless dreams that take one as far as they are willing to imagine is captured very differently from The Great Gatsby to A Raisin in the Sun. Both novels seem to have the American dream as their subject, but both end up having very different outcomes to how one achieves it, and if the dream is truly in existence, namely with the characters of Jay Gatsby and Walter Younger. The books mainly brushes upon the idea of what the American dream truly is, how one achieves the dream, and what the real fulfillment the dream encompasses.
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.
The American Dream, “a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.” (Dictionary.com) In both the Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, the American dream is a key concept throughout the book. Although the American dream is not the same for everyone, it still has the same result every time. It is truly just a dream. It is unrealistic and clouds your judgment, yet some still try to achieve it.
The American Dream had always been based on the idea that each person no matter who he or she is can become successful in life by his or her hard work. The dream also brought about the idea of a self-reliant man, a hard worker, making a successful living for him or herself. The Great Gatsby is about what happened to the American Dream in the 1920s, a time period when the many people with newfound wealth and the need to flaunt it had corrupted the dream. The pursuit of the American Dream is the one motivation for accomplishing one's goals, however when combined with wealth the dream becomes nothing more than selfishness.
The American dream is something that has been epically built up in the media and in each individual Americans thoughts. To some the American dream is the pursuit of happiness, to others the shallowness of wealth. In the Novel the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and movie Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen, which is based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. Characters fall short of their own views of the American 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.
The Great Gatsby is a novel about identities, as each of the big characters endeavor to find or create himself or herself as an independent figure in the twentieth century American life. In the 1920s F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" was produced, which also marked the golden age. Jay Gatsby was a man with a lot of money, associates, and not many friends. Although, Nick Carraway narrates the novel, he is a stockbroker in New York, he becomes friends with his rich neighbor Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is the primary character that believes in the American Dream. These attributes are also like the customs of Willy Loman in the short story, "Death of a Salesman" because he too believes in the American Dream, just a tad bit differently. Willy Loman
As a father, Willy only wants the best for his sons. He wants his sons to do better than what he has done with his life and achieve more success. Willy 's dreams for his sons are a source of tension and anxiety for Biff and Happy. Their desire to please their father clashes with what is deemed moral and the right way to act. Willy 's dreams for his sons are seen as added pressure for them to succeed within life. In order to fulfill their father 's wishes, they develop a mindset that they must do whatever it takes for them to succeed. Happy is trying to move up the ranks within the company he works for and in order to please Willy, he acts as if the only way to advance is by neglecting any sort of boundaries. When Happy is discussing his competitiveness
The American dream has been an alluring idea that people from all over the world have been coming to America, and striving to achieve the social mobility that is suppose to come with attainment of the dream. In The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, Francis Scott Key., et al. The Great Gatsby. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009) by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, there are quite a few characters striving for the American dream, with Jay Gatsby (originally named James Gatz) being the foremost character in the race for the realization of the American dream.
Willy is a salesman. Willy believes that success comes from being well liked and popular and has tried desperately to instill his notions to his two boys Happy and Biff, Willy's biggest aspirations in life. His wife Linda is extremely supportive and is Willy's only connection to reality. While raising his boys and trying to instill his "American Dream", he fails to teach them any sense of morality, leading them down to what he feels is the wrong path. At one point, he defended Biff for stealing just because he was an amazing football player.