The Man In The Grey Flannel Suit

Through a Marxist’s eyes, Death of a Salesman represents the struggle of middle-class families in a capitalistic world. From an early age, kids are taught to do well in school, be involved with sports and activities, and to go on to college; all in hopes of achieving the American Dream. This dream of obtaining success through hard work leads many into the

Tom Walker is an archetype of greedy husband. “There lived near this place a meagre miserly fellow of the name of Tom Walker” (Irving).

Overall, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of corrupted social and moral values. Fitzgerald supported its corruptness with never-ending skepticism, greed, and shallow pursuit of pleasure that was embedded into the atmosphere. Tom, the Old money, never had to work for his wealth. As a result, he is unable to be fully satisfied. Tom is unconsciously required to be entertained. He seeks after pleasure and entertainment to save himself from realizing how pathetic and pointless he truly is, despite

The first example of society behavior is used through the story of a late thirties white man name Benhard Goetz who shoots four black youths on a subway cart in New York. This anecdote is significant to the novel because it takes place in the mid-80s where society is pointed by drugs, and violent brutality wreaks havoc through the city of New York. Leaving his Manhattan apartment, Goetz hops on the subway and notices four African American youths “horsing around,” and “acting rowdy.” According to the story, Troy Canty, one of the boys, asked Goetz for five dollars. Out of instinct James another one of the boys, “gestured toward a suspicious-looking bulge in his pocket, as if he had a gun in there.”

Tom Walker is parsimony known as stingy. Tom Walker left a great part of unfinished and unfurnished of parsimony (237). Tom was a stern supervisor and censurer and believe every credit belongs to himself. “Let us get hold of the property’’, said he consolingly to himself, ‘’ and we will endeavor to do without the woman’’ (234). Tom was the universal friend of the needy and acted like a ‘’ friend in need’’, that is to say, he always exacted good pay and good security (236). Tom Walker trick people with their belongings by getting other people riches.

In my visual, I have included a backdrop consisting of the town in which he resides. Within the scene, the houses and buildings are colored darker to represent the citizens’ negative feelings towards Tom. Once sold, it can be properly inferred that no one was going to “miss… Tom” (Twain 78). This disadvantage of the deceit in Pudd’nhead Wilson was that Tom’s personality developed for the worse. This is evident in him being sold down the river as his actions and personality, being driven by greed and a false lifestyle given by Roxy, tainted his reputation. His mistreatment of Chambers, his gambling, or “gaming debts,” and drinking addiction, all stemmed from being an imposter; Roxy’s deception moved Tom in the wrong direction, making him an immoral person (Twain 38). In my visual, I have included two rocks on either side of the boat that Tom is in. This represents his wrongdoings and the guilt that he carries as a result of his actions when he should have been a slave. If those rocks were removed then the boat would tip over, sink, and drown him. Despite his misconduct, Tom must live with the consequences of deceit, one of which is becoming a

Tom Walker sat at his bedside feeling rather melancholy for he had not much to do but be chided at by his notorious witch of a wife. They both lived in their humble abode of an apartment in the middle of a city but they had a sublime view that overlooked the scenery of the domicile's dumpsters. They lived poorly, just barely getting by to afford a couple gallons of gas. Tom grew a hatred for almost everyone around and had only a handful of “friends”, he believed that money was the most valuable and important thing in his life.

This film presents a worldview of business that drips with materialism. The late 80’s was a fairly prosperous time for America. For the characters represented in the film, success was measured by how nice your apartment was, what types of suits you wore, and where you had dinner reservations for the evening. According to literary critic Jeffrey W. Hunter (2000), American Psycho is largely a critique of the "shallow and vicious aspects of capitalism. The characters are predominantly concerned with material gain and superficial appearances, traits indicative of a postmodern world in which the 'surface ' reigns supreme.”

The plot structure not only forces people to reevaluate their views on capitalism, the American Dream, and opportunity itself, but furthermore advocates social change. The book implicitly suggests communist ideals through the characters of Tom and Casey. Casey, in his questioning of Christian dogma, begins to reevaluate equality, in the terminology of what is holy.

In understanding the complex nature of the American Dream, Tom is the most egotistical of them all. His family has enormous wealth. Tom represents “old money” and the intergeneration transfer of wealth; which he offensively exploits. He lives in East Egg where the old aristocrats live. Tom is also a hypocrite, and his constant use of racist comments towards other ethnic groups and those less fortunate than himself indicate to me the reader that he feels he is superior.

Even though she is married to Tom, his wealth is not enough to satisfy her. When she sees the shirts she is sad because Tom does not have the luxury of owning such a large collection of clothing. She is blinded by wealth and always seeks more than she has. She cannot fully appreciate what she has because her dream is to always have more, and she will only be happy once she has the best, an unattainable goal that is there to tantalize.

Expressions such as these only distance Tom from benign human tendencies, leaving him less worthy of receiving any compassion from his audience. By creating a character like Tom, Fitzgerald leaves the reader with the impression that one born into and consumed by wealth will become the most unappealing and bland character of all. In this way the author leaves a sense of emptiness associated with Tom and continues to sew the thread of emptiness in all other characters consumed by wealth in his story.

An excellent example of the American dream and its rags-to-riches concept is that of Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby, legally known as James Gatz, grew up on a farm in North Dakota, rather than into wealth in San Francisco, as he claims in the novel. Gatsby’s dream of being wealthy flourishes when he meets Dan Cody, a wealthy copper mongul. Gatsby starts out as a poor farm boy and transforms into a wealthy sophisticated man. Gatsby’s rags-to-riches success story makes him the embodiment of the American dream (Murphy 1). He has risen from being a poor farm boy and having nothing to having a huge luxurious house, servants, and a large social circle and he achieves this goal in a matter of a few short years, having returned from the war penniless (1). Gatsby works very hard

Due to the disillusionment of the First World War and the rapid increase in the economy, Americans decide to ignore their problems and proceed to pursuit for pleasure in the moment with consumer goods. New fashion trends are in town for both the upper class and the middle class, and with their new lifestyle and values staying in fashion is a must. As mention above, fashion is not just a form of clothing, but it is the way of life; therefore, houses, furniture and cars also fits into the fashion category. The prosperity and elegance in the sense of fashion in The Great Gatsby reflect that people really do have an speculated amount of money to spare, pondering about their choice in purchase are no longer necessary. Being the “old rich,” the taste and the sense of fashion for the Buchanan is exceptionally important. For instance, Tom when ridiculously excessive in throwing the wedding and gifting his Daisy with expensive, it was not necessary; however, it was for the enjoyment of himself and in a way to boast about his wealth and taste. Moreover, Tom is incredibly proud of his own home, throwing “lavish”

Throughout Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Lowman sought to attain the American Dream, but his distorted view of Marxist control ultimately provoked his physical, material, and mental destruction. Lowman, a middle-class salesman, husband, and father of two shared the ideology of many American’s, an ideology that hard work, dedication, and likeability was attainable regardless of social class, or life circumstances. Yet, the multiple distortions Willy associated with this dream combined with regressed emotions eventually led to his demise. It is easy for one to assume that mental illness is simply a disease, but the debate surrounding its correlation to social status and the unattainability of goals has never been so vividly