The Great Gatsby Comparitve Essay, Research Paper

Question:

To fully understand a text it is important to study it alongside another. Discuss

Both texts The Great Gatsby by F.S.Fitzgerald and Arthur Miller s Death of a Salesman explore and conjure up the ideals of the American Dream. Through this process, both authors reveal themes such as love and corruption. Understanding F.S.Fitzgerald s depictions was made clearer after studying and comprehending Arthur Miller s views on the American Dream.

The theme of love is strongly portrayed in both texts. In order to understand completely the theme of love in The Great Gatsby , it is important to study Death of a Salesman alongside it. Love is a powerful instrument portrayed through The Great Gatsby . Jay s love, Daisy Faye, was his inspiration and his Dream, his American Dream. In the same way, Willy Lowman, in Death of A Salesman had his love, Linda. She was Willy s light and similarly, his American Dream. Both Jay and Willy lived for their dream weavers. Jay s entire life revolved around his love, Daisy. His house, his lifestyle was all for his love. He waited for her return so they could be re-united and live together in the future. Willy s love was his wife and kids. He was a hard worker, and did it all for his family. He never seemed to get financially on top of things, and never got to walk out the other side of his forest , successful in realising his American dream. Love in both texts were Jay s and Willy s American Dreams, yet they were also the cause for their destruction and inevitably their deaths.

Both texts focus on the American Dream. Such a complex idea must be studied with both Death of a Salesman alongside The Great Gatsby in order to comprehend and grasp such a corrupted, idealistic Dream. Jay Gatsby s means of achieving his Dream was littered with corruption and destruction. Jay s Dream was his love for Daisy Faye. From this, Jay was pre-occupied from the moment he set eyes on her. He did anything and everything in his power to grasp his Dream within his capabilities. Part of this corruption took place Jay s friends. They were some of the most corrupt men in American society. Fixing the Superbowl was well within their reach. Slowly this influence impacted on jay changing his views on reaching the Dream. Although still the Dream was infront of him, Jay found a different path to go down, the corrupted path. Similarly Willy found corruption in order to achieve his dream. His corruption was his suicidal death. The compensation for his suicide was their to give to his sons and wife to allow them the chance to live successfully and enter their forest and come out the other end on financially on top. Although both men came from two different classes of society corruption was able to reach them and in the end lead to their demise.

Having studied Fizgerald s The Great Gatsby and Miller s Death of a Salesman I have discovered and comprehended the theme of love and the corruption of the American Dream a lot better due to the fact that studying a text alongside another is important if one is to fully understand the themes and hidden messages.