Failure Of The American Dream In The Writings Of F. Scott...

This literary study will define the failure of the †American Dream† in the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, Zora Neale Hurston, and August Wilson. Fitzgerald’s account of the Jay Gatsby s rise to fame in the 1920s defines the failure of financial success as part of the American Dream. Gatsby will eventually die due to his excessive greed, which is not unlike the emotional death of Willy Loman as he fails to become a successful salesman in Author Miller’s Death of a Salesman. More so, Hurston’s depiction of Nanny’s own failures in life by using her granddaughter, Janie, as vehicle for her own financial success. Nanny fails by forcing Janie into marriages with abusive men, which is very similar to the failure of the American†¦show more content†¦The tragedy of Gatsby’s life is that he may have attained the material fortunes of the American Dream, but he has failed to become a human being that can love and be loved b y those in the upper class community in which he lives. In the end, Gatsby ends up dead in his own pool at the hands of George Miller due to a misunderstanding about Gatsby’s alleged affair with Myrtle. This is an important aspect of the dangers of financial materialism that Arthur Miller also defines in the tragic failure of Wily Loman to achieve the American Dream. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a an aging salesman that is unable to achieve the financial success related to the American Dream. Loman is an extremely greedy and miserly man that has failed to bring the great wealth and prosperity after many years of hard work. Unlike Gatsby, Loman has not achieved the material success of the American Dream, but he shares the similar failure to realize the value of friendships and familial love in his materialistic quest for financial wealth. In this perspective, Loman only views his son, Biff, as an â€Å"insurance policy† to bring the fin ancial success that he never achieved. In one family interaction, Loman chides Biff about getting a good job, so that he can â€Å"retire† from his job as a salesman: â€Å"You’ll retire me for life on seventy goddamn dollars a week?†