For over 100 years people have immigrated to America in hopes of achieving the American Dream. Ideas behind the American Dream date back to the Declaration of Independence which states, ‘all men are created equal’ and that they are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights’ such as ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’. Of course, the definition of the American Dream and what it means in today’s society has changed over the years, and can also be defined different ways by different people, but a standard definition would historically include a person being successful and making a decent life for themselves and their family through hard work and dedication. The idea of the American Dream is incredible, and has received the attention of many. People all over the world have dreamt of moving to the United States and starting a new, free life for themselves, but is the American Dream even attainable? In today’s society the American Dream appears to base its idea of success off of material items like money and expensive possessions, so how can someone fully achieve the American Dream when there is always something new to buy? When does the American Dream become the American Nightmare? In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1926), Jay Gatsby is the perfect example of someone desperately aspiring to achieve the American Dream, but in the midst of his endeavors, takes his eye off the prize and loses himself in the materialistic world that surrounds him. Another character that struggles in his quest to attain the American Dream is Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949). Willy dedicated his entire life to becoming a successful salesman, but focuses too much on popularity and achieving material c...
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... one last attempt to help them, turning his dream into a real life nightmare.
Over the course of history, the American Dream has become the American Nightmare. The Dream has lost its original significance, and has now become less about achieving success through hard work, and more about material items and how much money a person has. This makes the American Dream unattainable because people are no longer satisfied with achieving one goal, they always want more. The American Dream is now a nightmare because people lose themselves in trying to attain the intangible Dream. As seen in The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, if a person loses himself in trying to achieve the American Dream, and gets caught up in the wealth, material items, and the lifestyle of modern-day America, there can be dire consequences, and for Gatsby and Willy, these consequences were death.
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.
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.
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 a powerful thing in the lives and hopes of its citizens, as shown in Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby. It is, and was, faith in individualism, expectation of progress, and mainly the belief in America as a land of opportunity. However, it also is differs from person to person. This plays a great part in Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby. His book took place in the 1920 's, which is also called the 'Roaring 20 's '. During this time, many Americans were freely spending. Moreover, the economy was doing extremely well and thus provided citizens with a sense of security and intense freedom. Many used that freedom and economic boom to become rich in business.
The American Dream is a concept that has been wielded in American Literature since its beginnings. The ‘American Dream’ ideal follows the life of an ordinary man wanting to achieve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The original goal of the American dream was to pursue freedom and a greater good, but throughout time the goals have shifted to accumulating wealth, high social status, etc. As such, deplorable moral and social values have evolved from a materialistic pursuit of happiness. In “Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity”, Roland Marchand describes a man that he believed to be the prime example of a 1920’s man. Marchand writes, “Not only did he flourish in the fast-paced, modern urban milieu of skyscrapers, taxicabs, and pleasure- seeking crowds, but he proclaimed himself an expert on the latest crazes in fashion, contemporary lingo, and popular pastimes.” (Marchand) This description shows material success as the model for the American Dream. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals the characterization of his characters through the use of symbols and motifs to emphasize the corruption of the American Dream.
The American dream, by definition, is the traditional social ideals of the US, such as equality, democracy, and material prosperity that is obtained with hard work. This idea was popularized by the big corporations in the 19th and the 20th century encouraging the workers and immigrants to work efficiently and with great diligence in hope to become a wealthy, successful man. The masses were informed and had this idea embedded in their minds because of the ‘rags to riches’ stories that were being presented. This idea is not necessarily true, and have been achieved by very few people. Jay Gatsby, in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one of the few that achieves this American dream. But the story’s tragic ending shows that the American dream is corrupted and that it does not grant happiness, as stated in The American dream by LuElla Putnam, “American dream as being a destructive force rather than a beneficial one” (1). Throughout the novel, the belief of the American dream is specially emphasized as corrupted through social classes, ambition, and materialism.
The term American Dream was first coined by James T. Arthur in his 1931 novel The Epic of America, and has since become a famous phrase used widely to discuss the opportunities one is granted in the United States. However, this one simple phrase can be perceived differently among each individual. For some, the American Dream is a symbol of hope for the future, while for others it can be a reminder of failures in the past that set them back from achieving their dreams. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the play Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller the main characters, Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman, strive to achieve their own perception of the American Dream. The American Dream can be described as working hard in the pursuit
The American Dream consists in the idea that the American social, economic, and political system makes success possible for every individual. This notion is discussed and criticized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby and by Arthur Miller in Death of a Salesman. Both Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman are examples of tragic heroes struggling to live with the competitiveness and materialism of the American society in the 1920s and the late 1940s and their obsession to achieve success resulted in their downfall and ultimate tragic death.
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
Founding father Benjamin Franklin described the American dream as the “pursuit of a better existence… a higher quality of life through hard work, determination, and devotion” (Benjamin Franklin). The American dream is an idea that if you work hard, you can rise from “rags to riches” and live a wealthy and prosperous life with moral values of respect and integrity. Ironically, Franklin’s version of the dream was decaying during the roaring 1920s when society became corrupt and obsessed with greed. In his classic book, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows how the American dream of “hard work, determination, and devotion” was deteriorating because society had become greedy and materialistic. In addition, moral values were in decline and that was illustrated by Tom Buchannan and his affair with Myrtle, Jay Gatsby and his illegal bootlegging business, and Daisy Buchannan and her affair with Gatsby.
The American dream is an ideal that most people are often left wanting. To be able to essentially rise from nothing and grow to be financially stable and live life in excess after a great deal of hard work. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the American dream is represented in different ways by the characters, though most of the plot centers around Willy’s failed aspirations for the American dream. Miller shows that the American Dream may not actually be reachable by everybody or that it may not even be a relevant dream for everybody in America.
The American Dream pushes millions of Americans to believe in a better future and work hard to achieve this dream. The destructive force of the American Dream tainted Gatsby after he achieved it, but Gatsby still worked from nothing to build great wealth and represent that the American Dream could still be achieved. The American dream pushed Gatsby to try and become successful and wealthy to achieve his goal of marrying Daisy, but at the end it failed. “Americans, while occasionally willing to be serf, have always been obstinate about being peasantry,” (88) displays the strong will of Americans to rise socioeconomic classes and not accept their current situation. “It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the beach…but it was already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a rowboat,” (98) Gatsby had redefined himself at the first opportunity to become a new person and start life anew with first changing his name. Gatsby had grown up poor in North Dakota and he took it into his own hands to become successful by leaving his home and looking for opportunities out East. The American Dream is a powerful force instilled in every American to work hard and to improve every facet of their life to reach higher socioeconomic classes. It allows the poor to dream of the opportunity to rise out of poverty and it also allows the hardworking middle-class to rise to the level of
The historical American Dream “believes in the goodness of nature and man” (The True Heir of the AD pg 97). As time has progressed, the American Dream has evolved into the image of “business success” (Willy Loman and the American Dream pg 133). The American Dream attributes materialism to one’s worth and success, but in reality the American Dream is only a clouded illusion which can drive one into despair and eventually death. Jay Gatsby, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, along with Willy Loman, in Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, strive to attain the unrealistic fantasies of materialistic wealth and success, in order to feel a sense of self-actualization. Because these men have created such high expectations for what
The “American dream”, ever since our founding fathers stepped foot in America, there has been the American dream. The standards for the American dream, have changed over the decades. In just 10 years, the concept of the American dream has changed drastically. John Steinbeck’s classic novel “Of Mice and Men” and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby”, are just two examples of how people dream of a better life, and try to achieve it. Unfortunately the American dream is not easy to achieve, in both stories; “Of Mice And Men” and “The Great Gatsby”, the main characters, end up being lonely and they don’t get their version of the American dream.
From white-picket fences, big executive jobs and 2.5 kids, everyone imagines their perfect lifestyles differently. The play Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, short story Secret Life of Walter Mitty, by James Thurber and movie trailer for the 2013 adaptation, are all examples that reveal the different aspects of what it takes to achieve the American dream. Living the picture-perfect American dream can often be impossible, due to the many extensive fantasies and goals that are necessary in order to acquire it.