The Great Gatsby And Death Of A Salesman

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

Through literature, many authors have attempted to represent the societies in which they live and what they think society may become in the future if things continue to be looked over such as political corruption. This is clear in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel ‘The Great Gatsby’. Fitzgerald tries to encapsulate the corruption that lay beneath the extravagance of society in the roaring twenties. In contrast, Burgess’s novel, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, depicts a futuristic society in which the novelist fears about mankind’s capacity for corruption are explored.

The Great Gatsby is a novel which critically discusses the ideals of the American Dream and recapturing the past. In the film adaptation, producer Jack Clayton stays very closely to the plot and even quotes the novel verbatim but fails to capture the essence of the themes portrayed in the novel. The text did not translate well into film; some facts are distorted, the depiction of the characters are different, the general ambience of certain settings do not match, and the movie is weighted towards the beginning of the book, with half of the movie based closely on the first two chapters of the book.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is told from the perspective of one of the main characters, Nick Carraway. Nick tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, who is his neighbor in the West Egg. Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as a man who everyone wants to know and copy but deep down are very envious of him. Gatsby trusts few people and those whom he trusts know his life story. To everyone else, he is a mystery. Everyone seems obsessed with Jay Gatsby. For this reason the novel revolves about rumors of Gatsby rather than the truth.

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:

Explore the presentation of femininity and identity in The Great Gatsby and The Color Purple, considering the contexts of their production, reception and the different ways in which these texts have been read.

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.

I believe that Holden Caulfield is mentally disturbed and shows many signs of it throughout the novel. Problems in Holden’s life that have led him to this rest home are the death of his brother Allie, his multiple failures throughout his academic career, and his distress about moving on in life. Holden deals with

“You cannot open a book without learning something” (Confucius). Through numerous years of reading and comprehending texts, it’s needless to say that through each text, I overcame another road block. I have learnt to spell simple words, find morals in stories and understanding how important the Australian identity is to its country. Through my experiences of different text types, it has further shaped and moulded my personal attitudes, values and beliefs when a hurdle in my life was encountered, which is inevitable. The opportunities and experiences that I have studied has prepared me for the next stages of my journey. Each challenge and tribulation provides a fundamental foundation for the texts that we enjoy, immerse ourselves in and have further influenced all of us. In particular it has influenced my understanding of my past, present and most importantly my future.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald employs the use of characters, themes, and symbolism to convey the idea of the American Dream and its corruption through the aspects of wealth, family, and status. In regards to wealth and success, Fitzgerald makes clear the growing corruption of the American Dream by using Gatsby himself as a symbol for the corrupted dream throughout the text. In addition, when portraying the family the characters in Great Gatsby are used to expose the corruption growing in the family system present in the novel. Finally, the American longing for status as a citizen is gravely overshot when Gatsby surrounds his life with walls of lies in order to fulfill his desires for an impure dream. F.

“In a decade that roared with social amends” it was often referred to as the Roaring Twenties. Two famous literature pieces are very similar connecting key events and issues from this time period. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Ken Allen’s “Roaring Twenties” both utilize conflict, foil and symbolism to help the readers acknowledge the influence of class and money over the characters during the Roaring Twenties.

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.

The social hierarchy is influenced by the amount of money one owns which determines whether one can attain their dream. By creating apparent social classes within ‘The Great Gatsby’ – old money, new money and no money, Fitzgerald strongly suggests that American society is intensely stigmatised. Daisy, Tom and Jordan represent the elite social class of society where despite their problems and failures they are always protected and immune by their wealth. Tom refers to Gatsby as ‘Mr Nobody from nowhere” and a “common swindler who would have to steal the ring he put on her finger” as he boasts about his hereditary wealth compared to the other distinct elite group of society who acquire their wealth through business deals, which are sometimes corrupt. Although Fitzgerald mainly attacks the rich, by making them look judgemental, superior and selfish, evidently the lower class of society are vulnerable within American society. This is shown where so many, like Myrtle,

Money destroys people as much as wars do. People run frantically towards wealth, without realizing what they have to compromise in order to pursue such prosperity. This theme of reckless attempt to gain wealth is echoed through time both in the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The play, written after the destruction of the Great Depression in 1930s, tells the story of the financially challenged Loman family through the recollection of Willy Loman. The book was written after the First World War, revolving around Jay Gatsby who changed his identity to attain wealth to get Daisy Buchanan. Despite the difference in time frame and wealth, Willy Loman is an echoing image of Jay Gatsby, resonating with the clinging aspiration to the past, the disillusion of the dream, and the tragic ending due to that ideal.