American Dream in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald - Literature review Example

The corruption of American Dream Introduction Everybody has a dream. Dream to make it big in life. Dream to live a happy, prosperous and loved life. A person has a dream for himself, his children, near and dear ones. The forefathers of America even had a dream. The dream of seeing it become the most successful democracy(Abraham Lincoln), the dream of liberty, equality and justice to everybody, irrespective of caste, creed or color(Martin Luther King) and the dream of an America where moral values and virtues are not compromised for the purpose of wealth and material possessions. It was a noble dream and the most ironical part is that it has ever since remained one! It has never been completely realized and the two texts under discussion bring out the truth of it very well. They highlight that how in the mad rush to be successful, to acquire and accumulate immense wealth; the characters in these works went on sacrificing one moral value after another, till there wasn’t any left in them. And these handfuls of characters are a glimpse into the society at large who is even devoid of the sense of right and wrong. They are incapable of judging what exactly the goal worth chasing in life is. In the play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the pitiable condition of a disillusioned family (Loman) is highlighted and contrasted with that of another family comprising only a father and a son. But this father-son duo knew the real things that matter, that are required to be happy. The protagonist of the novel, Wily Loman, not only is disillusioned and away from reality himself but also leads to the moral depravation of his two sons by telling them again and again that it isn’t the hard work that matters but your popularity amongst the masses. But in the end he was proved wrong and by the time he realized his mistakes, it was very late to make any changes. The second book under discussion is “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott. Fitzgerald. In his book, the author looks marvelously into the moral disparagement of the American society by the minute. It examines the life and times of six main characters whose life was full of conceit and selfishness and who had only one aim in life: to make as much money as possible, by hook or by crook. The characters in the story have absolutely no sense of humanity or attachment and love and relationship are a way of attaining the unattainable goals in life, either as a means or as the direct motivating factor. In the following paper, the role of both the works of fiction will be closely examined to bring to the front how American dream was corrupted in the mid-19th century. We will first have a look at The Great Gatsby, followed by “The Death of a Salesman”. Critical Examination of the book The Great Gatsby in bringing out the corruption of the American Dream in the first quarter of the 20th Century Written in 1922, The Great Gatsby is the rags-to-riches story of an American Jay Gatsby who took to illegal means of earning money just for sake of winning her lady love who was as hollow from inside as any one could ever get. Because for Daisy everything that mattered was the empty glory and pleasure she would derive from material things in life. For this she married Tom Buchanan, the erstwhile football player from New Haven, who became very rich and settled at East Egg in Long Island. He had everything in life, name, fame, a comfortable life, a charming and loving wife in Daisy and an angelic daughter…but what is it that was missing in his life that made him have an affair outside his marriage with Myrtle Wilson, a lowly woman from the ““valley of ashes” bounded on one side by a small foul river….a solemn dumping ground.”(Fitzgerald, p27 ) ?? Myrtle Wilson is another character in the play that brings out the high degree of ambitions in a human being, the ambitions that makes her overlook the love and sincerity of her Husband, George Wilson. And what this ambitious pursuit is? The failure of the American Dream is also shown in the form of George Wilson, someone who is “so dumb that he doesn’t know he’s alive”(Fitzgerald, p30). Well, here’s the answer. Tom Buchanan dissatisfied with whatever he has achieved in life feels an urgent need to prove his supremacy over people, just for the sake of salf gratification and hence the need for a mistress from a lowly background who he can please and then hurt as he likes. He is no satisfied with one woman, he needs two. He isn’t leaving Daisy because he needs to come back to her. He confesses “I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back…”(Fitzgerald, 138). It’s like “Tom would drift on forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game”. As per Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan is the key to get all that she desires to: money, riches, fame, higher standard of living, an elite company to move about in. She is ready to pay any price to get this and she indeed does but what happened in the end?? She died in a fatal accident, at the hands of her very own lover’s wife. Tom let Myrtle did as she liked but he never let her rise above him. He would get physically violent if she did anything to displease him. Was this suppression and subjugation of a human spirit by another, a part of the American Dream?? The idea behind each of the incidents in the lives of these characters shows only the vicious circle of lie, treachery, lust and gluttony the American population was caught at that time. There is but one character in the play who actually went forward with the real American Dream of working hard and achieving your aim in life and that was Jay Gatsby, the man who rose to the stature of greatness, driven by the passion to win his lady love back but by illegal means…hw worked hard there as well…but when the entire industry is corrupted and illegal, how can one expect to reap virtues out of it. at least he knew that these social gatherings and card parties are all hollow and empty stuff and provide no pleasure at all. He would just host a party every Saturday night to make news among the social circles so that it reaches his lady love. And who this lady is with whom The Great Gatsby is so besotted with?? Its Daisy Buchanan! The hollow, materialistic wife of Tom Buchanan who doesn’t even care for her daughter and considers her only at length, that too as a passing thought!! “Her sounded like money”(p 163) But back to Gatsby! He was an average American boy from a humble poor household and hate everything that came close to poverty. He wanted to live a sophisticated, well meant life. He even left college because he did not like to do the mean jobs to pay his tuition fee. He wanted to make it big in life and when he fell in love with Daisy, when they first met Louisville, he lied to her that he was very wealthy and was capable of keeping her luxuriously. Even though he lied, he intended to accomplish it by fair means and for that he went on to pursue a degree at the Oxford University. But on his return when he heard that Daisy had left him because she found Tom and his aristocratic upbringing more attractive, he was disillusioned. His sole aim in life then was to earn lots of money and win his lady love back and for this he diverted to illegitimate means…this was the tragic end of another American Dream. Essentially, he was really sincere and honest and loved Daisy to the extent that when she killed Myrtle in an accident, he offered to take up the blame and the heartless Daisy accepted it. This made Jay Gatsby all the more great because he had atleast come to realize the folly, the lowliness of his own actions and motives and he knew that death was the only redemption from all this. The narrator describes Gatsby as a warm heated gentleman who knew the nerves of the people and he describes his smile as “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, which you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on YOU with an irresistible prejudice in your favor” (Fitzgerald, p54) His second mistake was that in his arrogance he wanted to redeem the past by going back and making changes. This was something not possible and he realized it with much sadness. But above all, his was the true American Dream and towards the end the narrator rightly said “They’re a rotten crowd….You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” (Fitzgerald, 164) The author uses the narrator, Nick Carraway as his mouthpiece because he is “inclined to reserve all judgment” and as he himself proclaims “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” (Fitzgerald, 65). He is amazed and awed by the dishonesty and treachery around him. And the best part is he is experienced enough to know what everybody is up to but is somehow not able to detach himself from whole thing until towards the end. He knows that Jordan Baker is an arrogant female who would go to any extent to be successful and right, still he dates her, keeps her company. He knows she is “Incurable Dishonest” but he believes that “Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply—I was casually sorry, and then I forgot” (Fitzgerald, p64) He did all in his might to prove his friendship to Gatsby in his last days and was one of the few people who attended his funeral. The Buchanans did not care to even send a condolence note. Gatsby’s partner, Wolfsheim just sent a note and thought his job was done. Rightly said. “Springing from a “Platonic conception of himself,” Gatsby has repudiated all but one part of his past in favor of a past, and consequently an identity, which he has invented for himself.”[*] There were other characters who bought out the irony and tragedy involving the American Dream and its immediate failure. One among them made a lasting impression and sadly, he remains mostly unquoted in all the works that have been written on the topic. The character I am referring to is George Wilson, who had once told his dishonest wife “‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me but you can’t fool God!’” (Fitzgerald, 170) This was about the characters and the level of corruption of the American dream they reflected. As per the setting and the background in the “The Great Gatsby” have been aptly chosen. The middle-west shows the relevancy of the human values and the West, especially New York, Ohio and other cities shows the ambitions of the Americans and the hollow moral values they have. The green light at the far end of the East Egg symbolizes the economic upliftment of the American population. The best statement perhaps was made by Nick, the narrator when he compares the plight of George Wilson to that of Tom Buchanan, both of whom suffered from the same misery: infidelity of their wives. Its like “there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well”. (Fitzgerald, p132) The Great Gatsby has been the subject of many a critical essay, all pointing at the vivid style with which the author has bought out the ever declining level of moral values in America towards the first quarter of the 19th century. About F. Scott. Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24 September 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He belonged to upper middle class. He has written many literary works which are now regarded as classics. His works mainly include Tales of the Jazz(1922), Flappers and Philosophers(1920), This Side of Paradise(1920), The Beautiful and the Damned(1922), The Great Gatsby etc. It is often said that the character of Daisy Buchanan in the novel The Great Gatsby resembled that of his wife, Zelda, who was herself an established novelist and a painter and loved the activities of the elite class. Critical Examination of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller in its efficiency to bring out the corruption of American Dream at the hands of its citizens. Not only was this play written to bring out the corrupt state of the American Dream but a lot has been written on the efficiency of this play to achieve its objective. In this play, Arthur Miller sketches the aspirations and dreams of the American middle class and their ways to achieve the same. Wily Loman is a salesman with a marketing firm and has no belief in hard work and education as the foundation of a successful career. He believes that it is extremely important to be known and popular to be successful, not only as a salesman but also in every field of life. This theory he also passes on to his two sons Biff Loman, a star athlete, and Happy Loman, a swindler who doesn’t have the slightest feeling of regret, even when lying to his own father. Linda Loman, Wily’s wife is not only a loving wife but also the one who never goes against her husband and in the consequence does nothing to pull him out of his disillusions, especially when he tries selling goods to imaginary people. Basically his condition is that of any other average American who is at the dusk of his career and considered of no use by the family and society alike. Wily, once a popular traveling salesman, is no longer respected and required by his boss and lives his life on the commission he gets on his odd sales made some time ago. He and is wife live alone in Brooklyn and his sons live in the West. In the opening scene, everything looks good and both of his sons appear to be well established and doing great in their respective lines of business/profession. But by and by as the truth is revealed, we can only feel contemptuous and sorry about the state of despair the Loman family finally ends up in. Starkly contrasted with the state and story of Wily and his sons, is the story of Charley and his son Bernard, who epitomize the real American Dream and the legitimate ways to achieve it that is through knowledge and hard work. Charley is a contemporary of Wily and Bernard a peer of Happy Loman. There are two more minor characters in the play who give dramatic effects to the play and its course. The first one is Wily’s brother, fondly referred to as Ben who is said to have said “When I was seventeen, I walked into the jungle. And by twenty-one, I walked out. And by God, I was rich” (Miller, 1949) Nothing is known about Ben accept what one can conclude about him from the talks of Wily. The another character who is not named in the play and is throughout referred to as “The Woman” is the mistress of Wily Loman in London whom he gives his wife’s stockings and feels sorry for doing so only towards the end. Basically, all the vices and disillusionments of the human heart, mind and soul have been dealt with in Death of a Salesman. The rendition is appealing, the overall effect of the play, devastating. It telltales the story of every American after the First World War or to be more generic, the Industrial Revolution, who was trying to make it big and successful on the professional/occupational level. But in an attempt to do so, they failed at the personal front, where relationships and moral values were concerned. Wily Loman wanted to be rich like his brother and that too in a very short span of time. Towards this end, he exploited his theory of being popular and liked by one and all. In his youth, he was a star salesman, capable of blowing every lie out of proportion just in order to make a sale. This customary habit of lying and deceit had become a part of him. He never stopped his sons from lying or did not check or scold them when they lied or cheated or stole something. He was a loving husband and a proud parent, who saw his future in his sons. But despite being a loving husband he couldn’t stop himself from keeping a mistress in another part of the world!! The fact that Wily Loman had tried to commit suicide twice before succeeding eventually shows the level of frustration and insecurity an American in his twilight days went through, an American who “had the wrong dreams, all are wrong”(Miller, 1949). His sons were reluctant to look after him and Linda and he himself didn’t want to seek financial help from them. In fact so vain was his self respect or arrogance that when his friend and neighbor Charley offered him a job in his business, he refused it on the basis of pride. And god only knows what pride was that based on!! Loman never valued hard work and instilled the importance of being popular in his sons as well. Biff was a star athlete in his days at college and Wily often thought of him as being hugely successful because of his popularity as a sports star. But he neither encourages him to get formal education nor proper training in sports. Same was the case with Happy. In fact at college, when Bernard would ask Happy to study and work hard for the exams, Happy doesn’t listen to him. Bernard went on to be a very successful lawyer and Happy was eventually out of employment, thanks to his habit of cheating and committing fraud at every step. Both Happy and Biff are sad to see their father talking to his old friends when there is absolutely no one in the room except for them!! Actually, Wily keeps going into the flashbacks and remembers his good old days and how he should have gone to the jungles of Africa with his brother to be rich and happy forever. He also remembers how broken Biff was when he discovered Wily’s mistress at a hotel and that was the end of their relationship. Worse happens when Wily goes to his boss Howard, under whom he has worked a lifetime, for a job in New York. The boss fires him and derides him. He is pitched against a mechanical recorder who can function as well as him as a salesman. But even here, Wily’s boastfulness doesn’t leave him and he challenges Howard that he will get a recorder soon, when in his hearts of hearts Wily knows that he is broke to the last penny!! This shows the moral depravation and heartlessness of American Capitalists. Wily worked his lifetime under Howard’s firm but Howard felt no compunctions in firing him. Come on “you can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away. A man is not a fruit”(Miller, 1949) Meanwhile, Biff and Happy decide to start a business in sports equipment for which Biff goes to borrow money from his friend Oliver. But to his surprise, Oliver even fails to recognize him. When later the father and the sons meet at the hotel, Happy lies to Wily that Biff got the loan. Wily at this moment went into another of his flashbacks and realized this was the very Hotel where years ago Biff and Happy came to know about Wily’s Woman, his mistress. But the sons aren’t interested and not even sympathetic towards his condition or mental state. They leave him there and go with two girls who they met only sometime back! Wily returns home to his wife and when he hears that his sons have left him he realizes that you “Work a lifetime to pay of a house.  You finally own it and there’s nobody to live in it” (Miller, 1049). But that’s not all…Wily is up to his neck in debts and the only means he knows to pay them is through the insurance money which the Loman family would get on his death. He has already tried committing suicide twice out of insecurity and hopelessness. The final and the successful attempt that he made on his life were because of financial reasons and it rightly depicted the despondent state of the American Dream. The green dollar had become more important than the human life and form. In fact, in one of the scenes, Biff muses “Pop, I’m a Dime and So are you.”(Miller, 1949) The play by Arthur Miller has been described as “time bomb under American Capitalism” [%]. A lot has been said and written on the theories and images underlying the play but the most prominent has been that of the corruption of the American Dream by the minute, the death of values and enslavement of men at the hands of machine. About Arthur Miller Born on October 17, 1915, Arthur Miller is one of the celebrated playwrights of America and has written many plays. His most famous plays include All My Sons(1947), The Death of a Salesman(1949), The Crucible(1953), After the Fall(1964) and A View from the Bridge(1953). Timebends, the autobiography of the playwright gives surprising revelations about his life and his relationship with the great actress Marilyn Monroe. Conclusion We have seen how towards the first quarter of the 20th century the American Dream was corrupted by the ambition and the obsession of the Americans to earn immense wealth, power and freedom for themselves. And the price they paid in return was not marked with hard work, blood and sweat but the declining moral values, which they readily exchanged for green shining dollars. In fact, another author Lewis brings this American sense of happiness to the front very effectives with his statement “sometimes nothing fails to bring a sense of well-being so much as material affluence and “conspicuous consumption.(Veblen)”[#] Both the novels bought out a part of the reasons responsible for the failure of the much hyped American Dream. The Great Gatsby concentrates on rather inferior ways to reach to a higher standard in life. But it very significantly brings out the arrogance rooted in the Americans that they are a better lot that than rest of the world and thus deserve better things in life. They are capable of even undoing the past happenings, if they so want. “Death of a Salesman” brings out the state of despair the characters end up in when they realize that there is absolutely no substitute to hard work and no shortcut to success. The attitude of each and every character towards achieving his dream in life, which forms a part of the collective dream of a “nation founded in toil and blood” is brilliantly portrayed. The fact that each and every body seems to have his own version on American Dream and pursues it relentlessly makes the case still worse. Both Gatsby and Loman died like sad man and with them died the American Dream the millions of Americans dream everyday. If only they dreamt right!! If only they employed right means to make it comes true!! If only they were not blinded by the razzmatazz of the dollar and other materialistic pursuits!! If only they did not believe in the arrogance of the entire American race…because essentially, both of them tried to recreate and in the process emend the past! The literature on the topic and the two great literary works provide further insights into the conceptualization of the American Dream, its goals, the right ways and methods to achieve it…but none of them reflect upon the issue that what course is to be taken when the high moral values come in direct conflict with the pursuit of happiness…because at the end of the day, being rich and successful is not a vice if one does it through hard work and genius!! Works Cited Fitzgerald, Scott.F, The Great Gatsby,1922. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman,1949. [*] Robert H. Fossum & John K. Roth. The American Dream. BAAS, 1981. [#] Veblen, Thorstein. Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. New York: Macmillan, 2004 [%] Miller,Arthur. Timebends: A Life. New York: Grove Press, 1987. Read More