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Literary devices used in the great gatsby
Concept of american dream in american literature
Concept of american dream in american literature
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The American Dream, “a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.” (Dictionary.com) In both the Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, the American dream is a key concept throughout the book. Although the American dream is not the same for everyone, it still has the same result every time. It is truly just a dream. It is unrealistic and clouds your judgment, yet some still try to achieve it. Gatsby and Willy had different views on what their dream was. Jay Gatsby’s dream was to get as rich and as powerful as possible to furthermore win the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. Willy Loman’s on the other hand, was to become successful from being “popular” and well liked. They both do whatever …show more content…
Willy didn’t care if Biff did well in school; he just wanted him to be a popular football player because he thought that would bring him success in the future. Biff eventually fails math, which leads to his career in football to be over. Seeds are representing growth/potential but also failure. “Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” (Miller). He wanted to leave something behind that would hopefully grow and prosper. Willy worked his whole life for nothing, he never attained the success and popularity he wanted and neither of Willy’s sons followed the path he wished they did. Biff did not become what Willy wanted him to; instead he hoped to have almost the exact opposite of what his dad wanted. Biff does not agree with his dad’s version of the American Dream.
Gatsby started with nothing. He had no money, no power, no Daisy. His goal was to start from the bottom and work his way up. He later realizes money cannot buy happiness. Daisy ends Gatsby’s American dream. “Oh, you want too much!” She cried to Gatsby. “I love you now-isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.” She began to sob helplessly. “I did love him once-but I loved you too” (Fitzgerald 132). Gatsby then realizes everything he had done was for nothing. Everything he did in life was for Daisy to love him, when in reality she chose
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He was stuck in the past like Willy, still trying to gain back the love they had once shared. "Can 't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can" (Fitzgerald 116). At the end of the book, Willy commits suicide. He realizes his American Dream is impossible to achieve. “ 'Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don 't put a bolt to a nut, he don 't tell you the law, or give you medicine. He 's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back – that 's an earthquake. ' (Miller Act 2). Charley understands why Willy committed suicide. This summarizes others who also had their dreams fail. The American dream clouded both Willy and Gatsby’s mind. It changed their personality and changed the way they saw things. They were too set on what their heart wanted. You have to earn it, you can’t just expect to achieve it. Gatsby’s and Willy’s American dream made them clueless. “He presents it in Gatsby as a romantic baptism of desire for a reality that stubbornly remains out of his sight” (Bewley). They both ended without the lives they dreamt of, and without lives at all. The authors of these books are trying to show the American dream is not what its made out to be. It ruined their lives instead of them actually achieving
When the book begins, it is assumed that his dream is fortune and “fame,” but as the book continues, it reveals his dream is love. He has a love, Daisy for many years, she is the reason he lives where he does and has the parties he has, just to impress Daisy. Daisy never even showed up to one of his parties until the end. Gatsby bought a big house right across the river from Daisy’s house and and throws extravagant parties to get her to come, all he wants was love. Although he never truly achieves it, he is able to work hard to try to achieve it. That is a part of the american dream, it may not be attainable and Gatsby might be working hard for something that just is impossible for him to achieve . “―I thought of Gatsby‘s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy‘s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could barely fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (p. 180,
In the beginning, Gatsby was a poor army boy who fell in love with a rich girl named Daisy. Knowing from their different circumstances, he could not marry her. So Gatsby left to accumulate a lot of money. Daisy, not being able to wait for Gatsby, marries a rich man named Tom. Tom believes that it is okay for a man to be unfaithful but it is not okay for the woman to be. This caused a lot of conflict in their marriage and caused Daisy to be very unhappy. Gatsby’s dream is to be with Daisy, and since he has accumulated a lot of money, he had his mind set on getting her back. Throughout the novel, Gatsby shows his need to attain The American Dream of love and shows his determination to achieve it. You can tell that Gatsby has a clear vision of what he wants when Nick says, “..he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I gla...
What is significant about Willy’s repeated failed attempts to grow vegetables in the garden? - His failed attempts to grow vegetables refers to his failure to raise his sons to be successful and live up to Willy´s idea of the American Dream.
The American Dream had always been based on the idea that each person no matter who he or she is can become successful in life by his or her hard work. The dream also brought about the idea of a self-reliant man, a hard worker, making a successful living for him or herself. The Great Gatsby is about what happened to the American Dream in the 1920s, a time period when the many people with newfound wealth and the need to flaunt it had corrupted the dream. The pursuit of the American Dream is the one motivation for accomplishing one's goals, however when combined with wealth the dream becomes nothing more than selfishness.
...cut the pages” (Fitzgerald 46). This shows that Gatsby’s life was only to please his long lost love, Daisy, to bring her back to him. What Gatsby deosnt realise is she is long gone, She was happily married and with a daughter. Gatsby’s dream was no longer destined to come true Nick says “He did not know that it his dream, life with Daisy was already behind him” (Fitzgerald 171). “the American myth of belonging through wealth” (Giltrow, Janet, and David Stouck) Gatsby too belived in the American myth, he tried to achieve his dream with a mask of wealth on himself. Both Macbeth and Gatsby were seeking dreams beyond their abilities which only resulted in more greed and a lustful desire to achieve what they wanted rather than, true hard work with determination.
The Great Gatsby,a novel by F,Scott Fitzgerald,is about the American Dream,and the downfall of the people who try to reach it.The American Dream means something different to different people,but in The Great Gatsby,for Jay Gatsby,the subject of the book,the dream is that through acquiring wealth and power,one can also gain happiness.To reach his idea of what happiness is,Gatsby must go back in time and relive an old dream.To do this,he believes,he must first have wealth and power.
The idea and definition of the American dream has been continually changing based on culture and time period. Many people classify it as the big house, with the white picket fence, the kids playing in the yard and a happy spouse. With this perception many believe this dream comes without struggle but in the novel The Great Gatsby, the characters emphasize that the hard ships don’t always make the American dream as dreamlike as others recognize. In a quote said by Craig L. Thomas, he states “You stuff somebody into the American dream and it becomes a prison.” For many characters the lifestyle they lead others to believe was so perfect was actually a nightmare that they could not wake up from.
While everyone has a different interpretation of the "American Dream," some people use it as an excuse to justify their own greed and selfish desires. Two respected works of modern American literature, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, give us insight into how the individual interpretation and pursuit of the "American Dream" can produce tragic results. Jay Gatsby, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, built his "American Dream" upon the belief that wealth would win him acceptance. In pursuit of his dream, Gatsby spent his life trying to gain wealth and the refinement he assumes it entails. Jay Gatsby, lacking true refinement, reflects the adolescent image of the wealthy, and "[springs] from his Platonic conception of himself" (Fitzgerald 104).
The American Dream is the concept that anyone, no matter who he or she is, can become successful in his or her life through perseverance and hard work. It is commonly perceived as someone who was born and starts out as poor but ambitious, and works hard enough to achieve wealth, prosperity, happiness, and stability. Clearly, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to personify the destruction of the American Dream. Gatsby started out as a poor farming boy, meticulously planning his progression to become a great man.
Everyone has a dream of their desired future, they dream of the one thing that makes them happy that they do not have now. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman and Gatsby are characters dominated by an American dream that destroyed them. Their dream comes from a fantasy past. These dreams were made outside from who they truly are. Gatsby tried to repeat his past, while Willy attempted to create a new past. The lack of control over their goals and dreams lead to their downfall at the end. The two novels show the various points of the American dream; either to pursuit of happiness, or to pursuit of material wealth.
"The American dream is the idea held by many in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve prosperity." Wikipedia: So basically the American Dream is to have money, and a family. Gatsby got his money, but what he really wanted was Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby spent his whole life striving for one thing.
Up until now, the term American Dream is still a popular concept on how Americans or people who come to America should live their lives and in a way it becomes a kind of life goal. However, the definitions of the term itself is somehow absurd and everyone has their own definition of it. The historian James Tuslow defines American Dream as written in his book titled “The Epic of America” in 1931 as “...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.” The root of the term American Dream is actually can be traced from the Declaration of Independence in 1776 which stated “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
The American Dream; the belief that anyone regardless of where they were born or what their social rank is, can attain their own version of success in society. This dream is one that Americans strive for. They strive for that overwhelming feeling of success knowing they made an impact in society. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman searches for this dream while unconsciously destroying the relationships with his family and friends around him.
The American Dream is a well sought after thing, which leads many. to go over the limits to achieve it, even in just having the opportunity to be wealthy. The Great Gatsby notifies the decayed moral values and unnecessary materialism brought about by the American Dream. However, it proves.
The American dream is an ideal in American literature that has been around for centuries. An idea that your average Joe can go from rags to riches, while finding love and having high social status on the way up the ladder. The American dream can be based off the idea of self-reliance, freedom, and just having a general dream to do something better for your life or for your family’s life. In The Great Gatsby, however, the American dream was more focused on materialistic items such as big houses, nice clothes, and fancy cars. Jay Gatsby started as a poor man in his early life, but ended up being quite wealthy. In his early life, he was very dedicated to his dreams, even writing a daily schedule to better himself. But once he acquired a great deal of wealth, he became blinded by his need for luxurious things, and never truly figured out that money cannot buy love and it cannot buy happiness. That instance is what made the novel tragic. Gatsby thought that having wealth meant he had a chance at getting his old love, Daisy, back.