Ideas of Success and Failure Mamet Explores in Glengarry Glen Ross
Introduction
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Mamet introduces us into a world of success and failure of salesmen in
real estate, which in effect is a microcosm of the reality[MSOffice1]
of the U.S.A. He presents a world in which the salesmen are dominated
by the fact that they need to close the leads otherwise they lose
their jobs. This is a world of corrupt values where people are
prepared to tread on other's faces in order to help themselves. Their
love of money is so great that they become selfish, devious,
materialistic and extremely competitive. It especially judges success
and failure as if you close (ABC - Always Be Closing) you win a
Cadillac, come top on the board and carry on to reach the American
Dream. If you fail then you lose your job and all hopes of this kind
of American Dream are smashed. This is a world about being a man,
being macho. If you are not man enough, you cannot close and there is
no place for you in real estate.
Machismo / Masculinity:
The real estate world in this play is mostly about how much of a man
you are. You need to be ruthless and aggressive, it is compulsory that
you close deals and you need to have the right attitude. The
salesmen's attitude towards Williamson is that they treat him just
like an assistant. They know he is not a real man, he hasn't been out
on a sit and closed a lead, he is just the assistant who issues the
leads to the salesmen. This is shown when Roma says to him, 'Whoever
told you you could work with men'. This suggests that Williamson is
not a man and that the salesmen are superior to him as they are real
m...
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...Conclusion:
Ultimately Mamet depicts to us a world of success and failure which
can be related to the U.S.A. He does this through, love of money,
competition, survival of the fittest, the American Dream, Being a man
/ machismo, interdependence and essentially sales. The values in this
world have been corrupted and in real estate in order to get anywhere
you have to be a man and have brass balls[MSOffice2] .
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[MSOffice1]What he sees as the reality of the greed in 1980 America, a
corruption of the American Dream
[MSOffice2]This is fine as a first draft but you need to spend a
little more time exploring a couple of key scenes in the play and
considering the way that Mamet as a writer brings to life some of the
concepts of success and failure.
decided that he is right about something and he will prove it. When the man doesn’t
“Can’t you see what he’s doing...He’s finding out how much we’re charging so he can undersell us...And Father’s face would light up with a kind of pleasant surprise...But Corrie, people will save money when they buy from him...I wonder how he does that.”(Ten Boom, 28)
Strive not to be of success, but rather to be of value. Albert Einstein truly appreciates life, and you’ll find that you have more of it. Ralph Marston Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town both explore the fulfillment of life. Emily and Willy Loman fail to take advantage of their lives because they have the wrong priorities and do not take the time to appreciate what they already have. Willy focuses solely on achieving his dreams of success as a salesman and helping Biff become a great man, resulting in him ignoring his family, declining status in society, and reality, leading to his demise.
Jay Gatsby: An Archetypal Analysis of the Contemporary Tragic Hero F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a jazz age novel demonstrating the corruption of humanity at the hands of material greed. Fitzgerald’s American classic is set on the opulent shores of Long Island Sound, where materialistic mansions pump out tainted souls like the not-so-distant factories spewing pollution into the city’s rivers. Whether new money or old money, Fitzgerald demonstrates that one is never free from the corruption that it brings. Jay Gatsby, a self-made man living on West Egg, lives his life in tireless pursuit of his dreams so that his material fulfillment will expunge years of poverty that his parents brought upon him. Gatsby lives the younger years of his life in the Midwest as a poor farm boy of immigrant parents, but through a twist of fortunate events, he finds himself drowning in more money than he could have ever imagined.
today. He didn't do that. he dropped the bat, and started his trot. He knew it
People aspire to achieve greatness, sometimes causing them to be or become someone they are not. The American dream is defined as someone who starts out low on either the economic or social level and by working hard earns his or her way to fame, wealth, or prosperity. Many characters such as Myrtle and Gatsby, in the novel The Great Gatsby, all wanted power, money, and happiness and would do anything in their power to obtain them. Recent events support the claim that the American dream can be achieved with costly repercussions. People are willing to corrupt themselves in order to achieve their goal.
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. Everyone has different opinions on what the American dream is. Their 'ultimate goal'; in life. The people in The Great Gatsby think they are living that dream, but I beg to differ. The only one who I believe is living out something close to the American dream is Tom, and I will prove so.
Paragraph # 4 He believes that the customers are always wrong and he is right.
on him, but the boys aren't willing to help Willy out when he needs them.
In the beginning of the play, Walter is foolish and quarrelsome, with his heart set on becoming affluent. As he grasps how hard work his father worked and how hard his family works, he reasons that living by his standards is more important than gaining wealth, and he stops feeling resentful towards them. This play highlights how many members of society focus more on making money than living by their ethical
Failure of the American Dream in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a story about the dark side of the "American Dream. " Willy Loman's obsession with the dream directly causes his failure in life, which, in turn, leads to his eventual suicide. The pursuit of the dream also destroys the lives of Willy's family, as well. Through the Lomans, Arthur Miller attempts to create a typical American family of the time, and, in doing so, the reader can relate to the crises that the family is faced with and realize that everyone has problems.
Death of a Salesman is a play about a man named Willy Loman who is an aging sales man that has difficulty remembering events, as well as distinguishing the present from his memories. Willy has always tried to live up to the “American Dream,” but unfortunately has failed miserably as a salesman and a father. Willy still having high hopes of the dream tries to live his life through his oldest son Biff, who has turned out to be just as big as a failure. Biff uncovers the truth behind his father’s lies and Willy being tormented by his failures starts to spiral downward. The thoughts of having failed as a salesman and father finally lead Willy to take his own life. In order to understand a play like this one you need to use a strategy in approaching it. One valid approach to any type of literature is to experience, interpret, and evaluate it.
Authors write with a purpose, sometimes this purpose is hidden and political, while sometimes it challenges the norm, while yet other times they write just to tell a moving story. In the end, however, all writers have the same goal: to produce a work that causes their readers to think about the plot and use their own mind to decipher the meaning. Arthur Miller is an exceptional author who possesses talent that exceeds the traditional author. Miller is one of the authors who chooses to challenge political figures, the norm, and many other assumed things about society, at least for his time. Arthur was born in 1915 and died in 2005; this gives a relative idea of the time period in which
The term, “American Dream,” came from American historian James Truslow Adams who first used the term in his published book, “The Epic of America.” According to Adam himself, he believes that the American Dream is the “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” (Amadeo). The term has been used differently in today’s society and recalls it as maturing, getting married with the love of your life, having a beautiful home, and positioning in a good paying job to provide for your kids. Others say that the dream is to have a better life and do what you love. Either way, it all boggles down to just being happy. The “American Dream” became widely popular in the United States as Adam published his book during the 1930s and has been used in speeches, memoirs, and literature (Fallon). This term became important to the people in the U.S. because it sets a goal for all of the citizens to work hard for their dreams and happiness. Without this vision, most people wouldn’t know what to live for in life.