Compare Death Of A Salesman And The Great Gatsby

In the search for the American dream many things can be lost, this is reflected in the novel The Great Gatsby and the movie Death of a Salesman. Both of these works demonstrate the lengths that some people will go to in order to achieve the stereotypical life of a rich, successful and powerful American, which is often referred to as the American dream. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller illustrates how the character Willy will stop at nothing to achieve the American dream, despite the tremendous costs. Willy is unable to achieve his goal, however, due to his stubbornness. The aspects of the novel The Great Gatsby about the pursuit of the American dream parallel Death of a Salesman, Jay

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

Biff Loman is portrayed as the root of Willy’s mental illness and instability. He is also the only member of his family who acknowledges his own failures in life. On the whole, Biff Loman stands out as the most intriguing and strong character in “Death of a Salesman. He is not a successful man and never will be, he is however able to admit this, even in a harsh society as the one of the 1960s America. Biff knows he is a “nothing” and tries to make his father see that he is “no good. I am a dime a dozen, Pop, and so are you.” He begs for Willy to communicate with him and accept him for who he is. Although Willy is forced by Biff to see some of his own failures, he never

In both, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the main characters Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman manifest themselves in their illusions of success and popularity and are unable to face their bitter realities. Within both texts, this idea of false perceived success is portrayed. First, the character Gatsby creates an illusion of success by lying about his source of wealth. He does not want anyone to realize that he is not actually successful and has relied on illegal business in order to achieve the idea of wealth in the American Dream. This is evident when Tom Buchanan investigates Gatsby’s mysterious wealth and says:

  Charley says something in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman that sums up Willy’s whole life. He asks him, "When the hell are you going to grow up” (Miller 97)?  Willy spends his entire life in an illusion, seeing himself as a great man who is popular and successful.  Willy exhibits many childlike qualities and his two sons Biff and Happy pattern their behavior after their father.  Many of these qualities, such as idealism, stubbornness, and a false sense of self-importance in the world have a negative impact on Willy’s family,

While wealth can be quite alluring, the power associated with it can also shape one's opinions, morals, and overall humanity. Wealth is a significant factor in determining one's position in society, thus the eagerness to obtain more is correlated with the wish to hold a higher status. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, relates to this pursuit of riches and the social hierarchy attached to it. The story takes place during the height of the roaring 1920’s in New York City. Each character represents an economic sphere and has their own ambition for wealth; however, these characters, whether they fail or succeed, lose their humanity in the process. Fitzgerald utilizes the characters Gatsby, Myrtle, and Daisy to demonstrate that the desire for wealth leads to a process of dehumanization, in which morals and identity are displaced.

Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman are both American men in pursuit of the American Dream which is, to acquire wealth, success, and prestige. This quest for money drives modern-day America, but behind our perpetual urge to consume and possess lays a grim motive. It is human awareness of mortality and the subsequent desire to prove we are special and somehow resistant to death that fuels the longing for wealth and possessions. The belief in money and materialism have come to be the primary goal for individuals during this time. Even though we know everyone will eventually die, we strive to attain enough money and objects so that we might be the exception, or at least,

In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald published what is considered to be his most popular novel, The Great Gatsby. Almost thirty years later, Arthur Miller released his play Death of a Salesman in 1949. One of the greatest similarities between these seemingly different works is how their authors portray the American Dream. The American dream, according to author and historian James Truslow Adams, is “…that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” In Death of a Salesman and The Great Gatsby, Miller and Fitzgerald create a critic of the American Dream through the protagonist’s dreams, lies, and their fascination with the past, factors that led to their demise, and then use their protagonists to create a critic on modern day American society.

Ambition. It is a vital characteristic required for an individual wanting achieve their goals. Being ambitious alone is crucial to success as it is the drive that propels one toward it. It is and always will be a human trait. Perhaps that is why the theme of ambition has been so prevalent in literature. It is the dominant theme in The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespeare 's Macbeth, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort. In this essay, I will discuss the two ways over ambition can cause an individual 's downfall. The first is setting unattainable goals which we can see in The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman. The second is trying to achieve your goals unethically, seen in Macbeth and in The Wolf of Wall Street . The idea of ambition and striving for achievement is highly valued by our society today. However, many people forget that too much of anything can be catastrophic.

The pursuit of riches is a vain endeavor, the more money you get the more money you desire. If wealth is your only goal in life, you will soon find out how ineffective materialism aids in lasting satisfaction. This perpetual dissatisfaction is excellently portrayed in The Great Gatsby, a realistic fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel focuses on the downfall of Jay Gatsby due to the moral vacuum generated by his social class status and his inability to recreate an idealistic past, even with the assistance of his massive fortune. Therefore, wealth generates the downfall of the respective people in this story. It is highlighted as a vehicle for recklessness when Daisy doesn’t take responsibility for her crime and within Jay Gatsby’s impulsive choices, this negative connotation of money is proven as a futile attempt when Gatsby’s “friends” are unable to attend his funeral.

Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman follows protagonist Willy Loman in his search to better his and his family’s lives. Throughout Willy Loman’s career, his mind starts to wear down, causing predicaments between his wife, two sons and close friends. Willy’s descent into insanity is slowly but surely is taking its toll on him, his job and his family. They cannot understand why the man they have trusted for support all these years is suddenly losing his mind. Along with his slope into insanity, Willy’s actions become more aggressive and odd as the play goes on. Despite Willy and Biff’s “family feud”, his two sons Happy and Biff truly worry about their father’s transformation, Happy saying: “He just wants you to make good, that’s all. I

Willy is offered help by his friend Charley, a successful Business man, Willies all time friend and only friends he has left, when Charley offers Willy a job, yet willy full of pride and envious of Charley rejects it yet does not rejects it but continues to borrow money from him. This is due to Willies flaw in his desire of being higher in society than anyone else.Willy cannot let go of the past and continuously refers to 1928, when his career was at its peak. His withdrawal into the past is a defense mechanism as he refuses to come to terms with his failure as a salesman. His illusions of grandeur lead to fierce exaggerations of himself. He tells Biff to "Go to Filene's go to the Hub, go to Slattery's, Boston. Call out the name Willy Loman and see what happens! Big shot!" (Miller, 62). He refuses to realize his personal failures and falsely believes that he is successful. Memories of a happier past Willy losing a grip on reality and on time escapes into the past. Despite his desperate searching through his past, The deep probing of dreams and memories in Death of A Salesman where quite important in illustrating Miller's point. Willy is a man stuck in the past reminiscing about times when things where good fabrication of those times really were as good as he imagines them to be? Like his inflated dreams of the future, the past may well be embellished by Willy's wild imagination. It seems

After reading "The Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller and "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it is clear that there are associations that can be made between the two novels. There are many ways in which the life of Willy Loman compares or contrasts with the life of Jay Gatsby. The most obvious and simplest comparison is their pursuit of the American Dream which leads to their ultimate downfall. Although, Willy and Gatsby contrast in the way they pursue the American dream, their stories are very similar because they show us that following this dream one 's entire life will eventually lead to one 's downfall.

Within Death of a Salesman there are many different hopes and dreams between both Willy and Biff. There hopes and dreams at times go back and forth between being realistic and wild hopes that are so out there for them that they will never happen, and then goes on to fester until it drives at least Willy out of his mind because of his secrets as well as the fact that he cannot seem to reach his dream. I think the things that ate Willy up so bad were the secrets that he had been keeping from his wife mainly the affair he had years ago. The affair seems to be the root of a lot of the issues that Willy is facing throughout the play. It

In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, the tragic hero, is an old salesman that has two sons, Biff and Happy. Willy had this dream that his sons would eventually become huge and successful business men and complete the dream that he never achieved. Willy became so set on this dream that if it were to not happen he would feel as if he was a failure as a father. Willy’s dream that he had turned into an expectation was not