Comparing the Pursuit of the American Dream by Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman
(Essay outline also included in the word count.)
People from all around the world have dreamed of coming to America and building a successful life for themselves. The "American Dream" is the idea that, through hard work and perseverance, the sky is the limit in terms of financial success and a reliable future. 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). Gatsby is a watered down version of a member of the true social elite. Therefore, he uses the phrase "old sport" because he feels it exudes the proper upper crust upbringing he lacks (134). Furthermore, Gatsby makes the pursuit of wealth and refinement an obsession. As a child, Gatsby kept a list of "General Resolves" that outlined his plans to gain wealth and refinement (181). When exposed to the society during World War I, he becomes obsessed with members of the wealthy upper class, such as Daisy, whose voice is "full of money" (127). Finally, Gatsby feels that wealth is the only su...
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A. Gatsby believed wealth would win acceptance, Willy believed being well liked would get financial success
1. "no real right to touch her hand" lacked real resources, "he let her believe that he was a person from much the same strata as herself" (Fitzgerald 156)
2. Well "liked ... you will never want" (Miller 33)
B. Gatsby set concrete long-term goals, Willy looked for the quick fix
1. Gatsby developed self-improvement activities "elocution [and] poise," physical exercises, and the study of technology (Fitzgerald 181)
2. Willy proclaims "I'll knock' em dead next week [in Hartford] ... I'm very well liked in Hartford" (Miller 36)
C. Willy lacks the ability to comprehend opulence ofGatsby
1. Nick awed by Gatsby's mansion (Fitzgerald 96-97)
2. "First time in thirty-five years we were free and clear" (Miller 137)
Conclusion:
5. I had to stay after school for an hour in order for Mrs. Logue to elucidate on genetics.
The American Dream remains viewed as the success which one obtains. The American Dream has had a great impact on literature as well as an impact on the changing of time periods. The 19th century Transcendentalists’ idea of the American Dream focuses on reaching one’s goals by honest, hard work. On the other hand, Gatsby’s idea of the American Dream in the 20th century centers on becoming successful by way of illegal money that was not acquired through working. Ultimately, the Transcendental and Gatsby’s beliefs reveal a great deal of contrast.
Gibb, Thomas. "Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby" The Explicator Washington: Winter 2005. Vol. 63, Iss.3; Pg. 1-3
Answer the following questions with information you learned in the document , your book, and through Internet research:
"[. . .] the man who gives his name to this book [. . .]"
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner trade pbk. ed. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is an absurd story, whether considered as romance, melodrama, or plain record of New York high life. The occasional insights into character stand out as very green oases on an arid desert of waste paper. Throughout the first half of the book the author shadows his leading character in mystery, but when in the latter part he unfolds his life story it is difficult to find the brains, the cleverness, and the glamour that one might expect of a main character.
Trilling, Lionel. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
Gatsby encompasses many physiognomies such as ambitious. Ambitious outlines one who is eagerly desirous of achieving or obtaining success, Jay Gatsby. It is evident that Gatsby generates his own fantasy world, a realm where he is not the underprivileged James Gatz, but the fantasized Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald conceives him as, “… the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98). This quote expresses how he dreams up a new world to escape the blandness of his own existence. But his imagination and turmoil pays off because he ends up making his dreams reality. He personifies a man who goes from “rags to riches” because he strives to better himself as opposed t...
1. My teacher told us that we weren’t allowed to expunge anything we had already written on our test.
3. Based on what you have learned in this course, how accurate is this information?
Lewis, Roger. "Money, Love, and Aspiration in The Great Gatsby." New Essays on The Great Gatsby. Ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 41-57.
Financial Accounting Standards Board. (1985). Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 86. Norwalk. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobnocache=true&blobwhere=1175820922177&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername2=Content-Length&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue2=189998&blobheadervalue1=filename%3Dfas86.pdf&blobcol=url
3. Someone left his notes in the chemistry lab this morning so I left it with the lab assistant.
Money, Love, and Aspiration in The Great Gatsby." P. 51