The Essence of Success (Great Gatsby Essay)
Marina, Andrew, David, Melvin
Ms. Romano
ENG 4U
July 29th, 2014
The Essence of Success
“I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” (Cosby) Success is achieved not through popularity and personal connections, but rather through hard work, intellect and luck. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Miller’s Death of A Salesman, the protagonists are confronted with challenges in the pursuit of success, which they try to overcome through status and reputation. Despite their similar circumstances, Gatsby and Loman’s decisions force them to face the inevitability of failure on the road to happiness. Due to the virtues and values propagated by the idea of the American Dream, Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman fail in their endeavors to achieve success.
The definition of success is having both love and material happiness that proudly co-exist in the body of the American dream. Each, seperately prove as a challenge to obtain, yet very much possible nonetheless. In The Great Gatsby, the protagonist manages to attain material happiness with the vast amount of riches he possesses with a grand mansion and over a dozen servants to do his bidding. Even with all this, he is never truly happy and life to him is not yet complete. His fortune as it turns out is nothing but a ruse for the love of his life in which he works five years towards. "But it wasn't a coincidence at all...Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay" (Fitzgerald, 78). Scott Fitzgerald is depicting the message that love overrules materialistic views and that life is useless without someone to share it with. In Death of a Salesman, the father figure is a loving character who cares for nothing but providing for his family. He loves his family so much that he goes mad with stress and anger that he does not have the fortune to provide for them and keep them safe of harm’s way. "You're my foundation and my support, Linda" (Miller, 18). Arthur Miller is
Ms. Romano
ENG 4U
July 29th, 2014
The Essence of Success
“I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” (Cosby) Success is achieved not through popularity and personal connections, but rather through hard work, intellect and luck. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Miller’s Death of A Salesman, the protagonists are confronted with challenges in the pursuit of success, which they try to overcome through status and reputation. Despite their similar circumstances, Gatsby and Loman’s decisions force them to face the inevitability of failure on the road to happiness. Due to the virtues and values propagated by the idea of the American Dream, Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman fail in their endeavors to achieve success.
The definition of success is having both love and material happiness that proudly co-exist in the body of the American dream. Each, seperately prove as a challenge to obtain, yet very much possible nonetheless. In The Great Gatsby, the protagonist manages to attain material happiness with the vast amount of riches he possesses with a grand mansion and over a dozen servants to do his bidding. Even with all this, he is never truly happy and life to him is not yet complete. His fortune as it turns out is nothing but a ruse for the love of his life in which he works five years towards. "But it wasn't a coincidence at all...Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay" (Fitzgerald, 78). Scott Fitzgerald is depicting the message that love overrules materialistic views and that life is useless without someone to share it with. In Death of a Salesman, the father figure is a loving character who cares for nothing but providing for his family. He loves his family so much that he goes mad with stress and anger that he does not have the fortune to provide for them and keep them safe of harm’s way. "You're my foundation and my support, Linda" (Miller, 18). Arthur Miller is