Hope and Success
Throughout American literature, there are many themes that try to demonstrate what America is and henceforth, the American Dream. American literature is always about how things are not what they seem, everyone and thing is disillusioned. There is that fundamental aspect of expectation vs. reality that always seems to be there and Death of a Salesman changed this concept. This also goes hand-in-hand with the idea of how something is perceived and how the view changes over time. Before Death of a Salesman (DOS), this idea was fueled by a complete tragedy and how we can never change our fate of the Dream. But DOS adds hope at the end.
Before DOS, The Great Gatsby was a breakthrough in literature for portraying the 20’s so accurately. The Great Gatsby can be described as the wholly view of the American Dream. Gatsby’s downfall was the catalyst to his personal tragedy in the making as Gatsby expects that, when he is rich, Daisy will go back with him. He believes that he embodies the successful American Dream but he is actually refuting it because, as he’s doing this, he is unsatisfied when he cannot get Daisy under his wing. Even when Gatsby was a little boy, he had always believed that he would be great and that he would change the way his life was meant to go. He felt that he was “displaced from [his] rightful position in society” by way of birth and went about to gain that (rags to riches) lifestyle. Gatsby never fully realizes his disillusion and the reality of his situation. His perceptions of Daisy after the fight were that she would go back with him, but in reality “Daisy was drawing further and further into herself,” (135) and she was never really Gatsby’s to have in the first place. In the end, Gatsby only had one witness to his inevitable demise, Nick Carraway, and we can see how much this whole experience affects him.
Death of a Salesman changes the idea of perception vs. reality by extending Gatsby’s idea of hope in the end of the play. Willy Loman can’t distinguish between the reality of his own life. He’s not a good salesman, or husband, or father. He can’t get customers, he cheats on his wife, and he doesn’t care about the academic future of his boys. Willy has a plethora of things in his case that are not reality. He likes to flaunt his “money” through buying things on credit to appear like he has more money than he does, and he tells his boys that he’s “well liked” when in fact he has a hard time trying to get work in. We can interpret that Willy’s boys, Biff and Happy, are actually extensions of Willy himself and demonstrate the two very different sides of Willy. Happy represents the businessman side of Willy and Biff represents the Willy who should have gone with his brother Ben to Alaska. In the end of DOS, we are left with that idea of hope, for two people, the world has changed and they realize the mistakes made by their father and husband, and are determined to tell his story. They are finally free. And they want to share that freedom. Death of a Salesman shows Arthur Miller’s view on us and how we hide ourselves behind a facade or believe in others’. He shows us how to break through that barrier and how to distinguish between what is real and what is not real. After the publication of Death of a Salesman, American literature was forever changed. It was no longer about the wealthy’s downfall, but of the common man and how he tries to obtain the American Dream.
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye brings about a whole new perspective in American literature since Death of a Salesman. Holden, our main character, has a broken view of the world, like our fellow Mr. Willy Loman. Holden is obsessed with his thesis on life that the world is full of phonies, and this thought process contributes to his eventual mental breakdown and realization that you have to hit rock bottom before you can soar to the top, or in Salinger’s words, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them,” (211). Holden despises those who are “phonies” when in actuality, he is the biggest of them all. When he can finally let all of his thoughts out and hit the bottom, he can finally understand his reality, and be free. Willy Loman’s son, Biff, actually calls Willy a phony when he finds out about his father’s affair, “You phony little fake!” (121) he says. Willy denies the affair at first, but eventually breaks down saying, “I was terribly lonely,” (120). Holden was also lonely and resented everyone and everything most likely from past experiences, just as Willy’s “breakdown” at the end of DOS is caused by his troubling past failures.
Catcher in the Rye shows what the barrier between us and reality is, while One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, shows us how to act while we have broken that barrier, and what it takes to truly break. Randle McMurphy understands the want, or lack thereof, of freedom for the ward patients, and ends up giving them their freedom. McMurphy is a “martyr to them,” (149) says Chief Bromden. Chief is the storyteller here and he guides us through the time on the ward with McMurphy (even saying he looks like a “salesman” on page 12). By the middle of the story, Chief finally understands McMurphy’s role on the ward and how he is changing things under the surface. “I’d take a look at my own self in the mirror...That ain’t me, that ain’t my face. It wasn’t even me when I was trying to be that face. I wasn’t even really me then; I was just the way I looked, the way people wanted. I don’t seem like I ever have been me. How can McMurphy be what he is?” (153). This is the pivotal moment in the story, where the walls break and the “fog” is lifted. Bromden breaks combine property, effectively lifting society and the combine off of himself and freeing himself both literally and symbolically.
Gatsby affected Nick. Willy affected his boys. The world affected Holden, and McMurphy affected Bromden. All these “martyrs” show us how the expectation of the American Dream is not what we may think. They break the barrier between the Dream and the Reality, the American Reality, where not everyone wins, not everyone succeeds, and not everyone lives to tell the tale. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman shows us ourselves. Our hope is the only thing that keeps us going. We have to hope to believe, to trust, to gain, and to succeed at our constant and unattainable American Dream. As in all American literature, when expectation grows too high and perception too vague, the reality of the situation grows grimmer. Each of these stories adds a new truth about The Dream. Each one deals with how what we expect or perceive to be true is a much better thought than the horrific reality that is life, but we move on, because although The Dream is essentially deceptive, we still must manage to find the small pieces of authenticity left behind.
Before DOS, The Great Gatsby was a breakthrough in literature for portraying the 20’s so accurately. The Great Gatsby can be described as the wholly view of the American Dream. Gatsby’s downfall was the catalyst to his personal tragedy in the making as Gatsby expects that, when he is rich, Daisy will go back with him. He believes that he embodies the successful American Dream but he is actually refuting it because, as he’s doing this, he is unsatisfied when he cannot get Daisy under his wing. Even when Gatsby was a little boy, he had always believed that he would be great and that he would change the way his life was meant to go. He felt that he was “displaced from [his] rightful position in society” by way of birth and went about to gain that (rags to riches) lifestyle. Gatsby never fully realizes his disillusion and the reality of his situation. His perceptions of Daisy after the fight were that she would go back with him, but in reality “Daisy was drawing further and further into herself,” (135) and she was never really Gatsby’s to have in the first place. In the end, Gatsby only had one witness to his inevitable demise, Nick Carraway, and we can see how much this whole experience affects him.
Death of a Salesman changes the idea of perception vs. reality by extending Gatsby’s idea of hope in the end of the play. Willy Loman can’t distinguish between the reality of his own life. He’s not a good salesman, or husband, or father. He can’t get customers, he cheats on his wife, and he doesn’t care about the academic future of his boys. Willy has a plethora of things in his case that are not reality. He likes to flaunt his “money” through buying things on credit to appear like he has more money than he does, and he tells his boys that he’s “well liked” when in fact he has a hard time trying to get work in. We can interpret that Willy’s boys, Biff and Happy, are actually extensions of Willy himself and demonstrate the two very different sides of Willy. Happy represents the businessman side of Willy and Biff represents the Willy who should have gone with his brother Ben to Alaska. In the end of DOS, we are left with that idea of hope, for two people, the world has changed and they realize the mistakes made by their father and husband, and are determined to tell his story. They are finally free. And they want to share that freedom. Death of a Salesman shows Arthur Miller’s view on us and how we hide ourselves behind a facade or believe in others’. He shows us how to break through that barrier and how to distinguish between what is real and what is not real. After the publication of Death of a Salesman, American literature was forever changed. It was no longer about the wealthy’s downfall, but of the common man and how he tries to obtain the American Dream.
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye brings about a whole new perspective in American literature since Death of a Salesman. Holden, our main character, has a broken view of the world, like our fellow Mr. Willy Loman. Holden is obsessed with his thesis on life that the world is full of phonies, and this thought process contributes to his eventual mental breakdown and realization that you have to hit rock bottom before you can soar to the top, or in Salinger’s words, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them,” (211). Holden despises those who are “phonies” when in actuality, he is the biggest of them all. When he can finally let all of his thoughts out and hit the bottom, he can finally understand his reality, and be free. Willy Loman’s son, Biff, actually calls Willy a phony when he finds out about his father’s affair, “You phony little fake!” (121) he says. Willy denies the affair at first, but eventually breaks down saying, “I was terribly lonely,” (120). Holden was also lonely and resented everyone and everything most likely from past experiences, just as Willy’s “breakdown” at the end of DOS is caused by his troubling past failures.
Catcher in the Rye shows what the barrier between us and reality is, while One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, shows us how to act while we have broken that barrier, and what it takes to truly break. Randle McMurphy understands the want, or lack thereof, of freedom for the ward patients, and ends up giving them their freedom. McMurphy is a “martyr to them,” (149) says Chief Bromden. Chief is the storyteller here and he guides us through the time on the ward with McMurphy (even saying he looks like a “salesman” on page 12). By the middle of the story, Chief finally understands McMurphy’s role on the ward and how he is changing things under the surface. “I’d take a look at my own self in the mirror...That ain’t me, that ain’t my face. It wasn’t even me when I was trying to be that face. I wasn’t even really me then; I was just the way I looked, the way people wanted. I don’t seem like I ever have been me. How can McMurphy be what he is?” (153). This is the pivotal moment in the story, where the walls break and the “fog” is lifted. Bromden breaks combine property, effectively lifting society and the combine off of himself and freeing himself both literally and symbolically.
Gatsby affected Nick. Willy affected his boys. The world affected Holden, and McMurphy affected Bromden. All these “martyrs” show us how the expectation of the American Dream is not what we may think. They break the barrier between the Dream and the Reality, the American Reality, where not everyone wins, not everyone succeeds, and not everyone lives to tell the tale. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman shows us ourselves. Our hope is the only thing that keeps us going. We have to hope to believe, to trust, to gain, and to succeed at our constant and unattainable American Dream. As in all American literature, when expectation grows too high and perception too vague, the reality of the situation grows grimmer. Each of these stories adds a new truth about The Dream. Each one deals with how what we expect or perceive to be true is a much better thought than the horrific reality that is life, but we move on, because although The Dream is essentially deceptive, we still must manage to find the small pieces of authenticity left behind.
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