Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Willy Loman

This is noticeable when he is talking to Nick. He thinks he can fix everything which we see when he is talking to Nick, “ ‘ I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,’ Gatsby said, and nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see.’ ”(110). At this point in the novel Gatsby sees how close his goal is, but he feels that the only way to get Daisy is to repeat the past and ignore the present, so she can feel the way she did about Gatsby before she met Tom. All the characters in this book will do anything to repeat the past, and do not see all the opportunities in front of them. Yet they are living in the roaring twenties, when everyone was trying to move forward with there lives. This idea from society is ironic to the characters in the book, because society is taking advantage of these opportunities of being wealthy, getting jobs, and living in the moment. Ironically Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom are living in the past, trying to take advantage of of opportunities that have already ended, specifically with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship.

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:

Gatsby is determined to win back the love of his life. He concludes that if he amasses a substantial wealth, he will be able to manipulate time, erasing Daisy’s marriage and fixing her future with him. Perhaps, this is why so many people are able to resonate with Gatsby, he invokes the sentiment of a common man. So many others have believed that if they simply change one aspect of their life and imagine it to be a particular way, the future will fall right into their hands.

Gatsby had not achieved his goal and dream to win Daisy’s heart and have her fall for him again, in order to “fix everything just the way it was before” (The Great Gatsby, p.110), despite the fact that he had won Daisy’s heart back, it wasn’t the Daisy that Gatsby wanted. Gatsby had worked all his life to impress Daisy and meet her standard for wealth, not because he is tremendously attracted towards Daisy, but more because of the idea of having Daisy.

It’s hard to keep moving forward when your mind is so stuck in the past. The Great Gatsby is a story written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, the perspective of this book is written through the eyes of Nick, a middle class citizen that lives next to huge mansions, one of which belongs to a Mr. Jay Gatsby. After being invited to a party Nick becomes friends with Gatsby and he soon learns that Mr. Gatsby is actually in love with Nick's cousin, Daisy. The story continues with Nick observing how Gatsby goes about getting Daisy’s attention and how their relationship plays through. Throughout the story it is made clear that Jay Gatsby is hung up on the past that he once shared with Daisy, and it’s affecting life negatively because he

Daisy and Tom were not interested in his parties. When Daisy’s cousin, Nick, moves to the home next to Gatsby, it opens up a whole new door. Gatsby gets the help of Nick to make them cross paths again. Their first reunion in five years changed Gatsby, “he literally glowed; without a word or gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the room (Fitzgerald, 94).” But his goal would never be fulfilled. Upon asking Daisy to proclaim her love to him in front of Tom but she can’t. Diasy loves Tom and she loved Gatsby but that’s just the point, the past is the past and can’t be relived. Gatsby never got another chance to winning Daisy over. After everything cooled down Gatsby began waiting for Daisy to call him, but that would never happen. He was shot a killed at is mansion before he ever got to talk to Daisy

Willy’s biggest issue with his son is that he let him down by not being any more successful than him. He feels like Biff is failing on purpose just to make him look bad. Although, he has no decent job and is single; Biff has become disoriented about life. Earlier in the play Biff tells Happy, “I tell ya Hap, I don't know what the future is. I don't know - what I'm supposed to want” (Miller266). Biff once looked up to his father as a role model, but lost all faith in him once finding out that he was having an affair. Ever since he has rejected Willy’s commitment of being a husband and also a father. To add to his ruins are Willy’s ideas of how Biff should get ahead in life. Willy taught Biff that popularity was the right way to get to the top, rather than hard-work and dedication. Trying to live by his dad’s standards caused Biff to fail high school and become unable to put forth the effort to become

Gatsby is trying to control his truth because he tries to ignore the fact that their relationship will never be the same as it was in the past. Nick describes Gatsby’s struggle with his accepting this truth saying “he did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city…”(Fitzgerald 189). Gatsby allows his obsession with the idea of being with Daisy to prevent him from grasping reality for what it really is because he is too clouded by this surreal idea of achieving his fantasy life. This ignorance prevents him from identifying or making effort to correct his flaws. Instead, Gatsby childishly decides to use his failure as a motivation to continue his pursuit for Daisy without grasping the consequences of his actions. This ideally makes him not great because he brings about his own demise due to his inability to see that his actions will not bring about the ending he desires,

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 is a theme that many books attempt to touch on, yet very few are truly able to explore it. F.Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby published in 1925 is a prime example of a novel that eloquently presents this theme. The story follows Jay Gatsby, the ambitious self made man. Gatsby 's desire is to be reunited with his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. His ambitious journey toward his green light leads him from poverty to wealth, but in the end, it is also the cause of his untimely death. Gatsby 's over ambition is shown in his obsession

Jay Gatsby illustrates the inevitable fate of dreamers. Gatsby has envisioned a perfect life for himself since he was young, however as he ages it becomes apparent that he will never be satisfied because greed corrupts

Willy foolishly pursues the wrong dream and constantly lives in an unreal world blinded from reality. Despite his dream Willy constantly attempts to live in an artificial world and claims “If old Wagner was alive I’d be in charge of New York by now” (Miller 14). As a result, Willy often ignores his troubles and denies any financial trouble when he says “business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me of course” (Miller 51). Another false segment of Willy’s dream includes the success of his two sons Happy and Biff. Biff was a high school football star who never cared about academics and now that he needs a job says “screw the business world” (Miller 61). Ironically, Willy suggests that Biff go west an “be a carpenter, or a cowboy, enjoy yourself!”, an idea that perhaps Willy should have pursued. Constantly advising his boys of the importance of being well liked, Willy fails to stress academics as an important part of life (Miller 40). Furthermore, Willy dies an unexpected death that reveals important causes of the failure to achieve the American dream. At the funeral Linda cries “I made the last payment on the house today... and there’ll be nobody home” to say that she misses Willy but in essence his death freed the Lomans from debt and the hopes and expectations Willy placed on his family (Miller 139). Very few people attend

American politician Marco Rubio once said,“The American dream is a term that is often misunderstood. It isn’t really about becoming rich or famous. It is about things much simpler and more fundamental than that” (brainyquote.com). This concept is true in the novels The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald. In both novels, the protagonists (Holden and Gatsby) are pushed by society to live up to the stereotypical ‘American dream’. Both Holden and Gatsby have high and unrealistic expectations of themselves. They both share fond memories and their different ideas of the American dream; but in the end, they realize their ideas of them are just fantasies. After realising the truth behind the American dream, it leads them to their tragic end. The American dream is not beneficial because it pushes people in society to be something they are not. Both stories are tragic because the pursuit of the dream, and Holden’s individuality.

Willy’s perseverance to direct Biff into success has resulted to Biff’s desperate acts to earn praise from his father. However, Biff’s dishonest acts of stealing are often justified by Willy through disregard and excuse, even expressing that the “Coach will probably congratulate [Biff] for [his] initiative”. Instead of correcting his mistakes, Willy continuously expresses his belief of Biff’s predetermined success as a result of being attractive and well-liked. These acts effectively exemplifies Biff’s adherence to self-deception as he imagines himself as an important figure in other people’s lives. It can be seen that his belief of being destined for success prevents him from allowing himself recognize the destruction it brings. As a result, Biff has allowed how Willy views him become how he perceives himself. This self-deception has not only affected the actions in his childhood but as well as his decisions when finding his role in the workplace. As stated above, Willy’s consistent beliefs of his son’s predestined success results to Biff’s immense confidence in himself. However, this confidence have provided him a false perception of himself as he struggle to keep a stable job and even faces imprisonment. It can be seen that Biff’s lack of self-perception and compliance to ideals of Willy has only allowed him to restrain and prevent him from recognizing the difference between illusion and reality resulting in the lack of his

It is a technique he uses all of his life. He still believes that his sons will “make it big”, when on the contrary, he did not even teach them the basics of honesty and fairness. Willy’s affair shows his unfaithfulness, which is also an inability to focus on accomplishing at least one thing effectively. He avoids reality and becomes the victim of his own weaknesses, as a result, committing suicide. His death marks the end of his lifelong failures, but does not result in the respect he anticipated from Biff, does not show that he had many friends, and does not help his family in their financial struggles.