In the drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, an African-American family struggles to achieve the American Dream. Meanwhile in F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel The Great Gatsby, a wealthy man attempts to enrapture his eternal love. Each of these book 's portrays the American Dream except it is in two contrasting ways. While Walter Younger struggles to make ends meet and provide for his family , Jay Gatsby throws lavish parties and lives in a voluminous mansion in West Egg. Through exploring both of these book 's you find differences due to not just wealth but also race, time period , and opportunities.…
There are many different ways A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has events that can or has happened in people lives. Which makes the story easy to understand and connect with. There are a few different subplots that are easy to connect with because they can happen to anyone. People get sick and people die from cancer, people are greedy and only care for themselves. People lie to protect the ones they love and people fall in love or get to close to certain people then when they lose them they break and unfold.…
Born into a poor farming family in the west, Gatsby gradually gains wealth and power (albeit through questionable means). However, even this does not fulfill Gatsby’s dream. Fitzgerald argues that the American Dream is not possible because Gatsby views Daisy as an incorruptible dream…
However, just like in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, once the “Godfather” figure of a Mafia dies, one of his sons succeeds him as the head of the family. This correlates to how once Big Daddy is dead, his plantation will be handed down to one of his kids. In the mafia, because of the honor of handing down and inheriting the family, the patriarchal family structure forcibly imposes a tremendous expectation of men to step up and be the providers, the hard workers, and the empire builders. Gooper exhibits this as his wife describes him as “always had to carry a bigger load of responsibilities than Brick ever had t’ carry… Why, Gooper has given himself body and soul to keeping this place up for the past five years since Big Daddy's health started failing.…
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a movie that consists of a couple who is going through marital problems. Their relationship is the definition of drama that involves numerous amount of people in it. Brick and Maggie constantly argue due to an issue that has been haunting their marriage. The issue is that Brick is homosexual and harbors a sexual desire for his friend. However, Maggie still has hope that Brick will come back to life relating his sexual status.…
After the repercussions of World War II, the Younger family was faced with their own war against racism in the Chicago trenches. The Younger family was looking forward to living the American dream and each family had a dream they wanted to conquer. But due to great struggles, they had to live in a rented home with other families and live off of low income. This play establishes the value of family, the value of dreams, and the impact of racial discrimination. As the play progresses, there is more to learn from the Youngers.…
The American dream for any person has always been based on freedom, equality, control over one’s destiny and pursuit of one’s dream. Freedom and hard work will lead you to prosperity. In Death of a salesman, every character has different dreams that they want to achieve. Ben goes off to Alaska and Africa and luck into wealth by finding a diamond mine. Willy Loman’s dream is influenced by Ben’s success.…
The Great Gatsby is an excellent example of how social economic status influences people’s behavior and actions toward other individuals. The 1920’s, the time period in which The Great Gatsby takes place in, was known as the “roaring twenties”. It was a time of change in America, socially and economically. During this era there was more mass production and consumption, people spent money freely, and the stock market was rising tremendously. The main character’s in The Great Gatsby are Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, Jordan Baker, and Nick Caraway, who is also the narrator.…
In the 1920s or as it was also known, The Roaring 20s, many people were finding ways to make money. Some made money through the stock market or becoming bootleggers, how the person had obtained their wealth affected their relationships with others. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald social class has an effect on relationships. It affects how people treat each other and how they are viewed by one another. In the novel, there are three main types of people that are grouped either old or new money and the lower class.…
Can a person truly reach his full potential as long as he dedicates himself to working hard and pursuing happiness? The American Dream – a term first defined in The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams– promises such, but does it follow through? The answer is no, simply because some groups of people are not allotted the same opportunities as others. Jay Gatsby – protagonist of the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – and Troy Maxson – protagonist of the play Fences by August Wilson – wish to achieve their dreams and advance in life; however, they are unable to do so because of society’s unjust exclusion of those who are not born both white and rich. From the time Jay Gatsby was known as James Gatz, he had always dreamt of one…
Willy Loman: Willy Loman is a salesman that is a devout believer in the American Dream his whole life, but despite his obsession with this dream, he has never achieved it, negatively affecting all of his family and friends. Willy’s failure to realize his personal failure and selfishness has created a disillusion of the world, partially leading to Happy’s similar inability to realize their miserable realities. Willy’s state seems to allow his older son, Biff, acknowledge his own failure and allows him to confront it, contrasting with Willy’s main problem throughout his life. Linda Loman: Linda Loman is the wife of the disillusioned salesman, and also one of the main characters that seems to have a sense of reason or realistic view of their…
The corruption of the American Dream is a prevalent theme in classic literature, as it highlights the falsified illusions of social mobility and power commonly promoted during the early twentieth century. The motivation for socio-economic inclination is generally consumed by materialism and shallowness in an effort to satisfy the constant lack of self fulfillment, which inevitably leads to self destruction. Many people blindly accept the idealistic concept of social and economic mobility only to discover its unattainableness. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the corruption underlying the pursuit of the American Dream through Jay Gatsby. In an effort to captivate Daisy’s attention, Jay Gatsby publicly displays his wealth and…
The American Spirit is all about working your way up to the top. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the East Egg is the bane of the American spirit. East Egg is filled with people who were born into old money with grand mansions and sleek, premier cars. Americans despise privileged people who never had to struggle like the East Eggers, but why? What is so bad about people born into wealth?…
Compare and contrast the ways in which the American Dream is presented through Walter Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘ A Raisin in the Sun’ and Willy Lehman in Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of the Salesman’…
As the inequality of economic standard keep increasing, the amount of children born into the lower average income scale have far greater obstacles to overcome to achieve the so called “American Dream” than the above average income scale because of the greater opportunities they have. According to Richard over the last 15 years the middle class average income has decreased while the above average has increased. Another character in the Great Gatsby is Nick, and Nick lives in the West Egg of Long Island and compared to the East Egg, it is more of a lower income area. Daisy is wealthy because she married into wealth, but even though Nick went to Yale and got a great education, Daisy still lives in a far wealthier part of town, in a much more expensive lifestyle because she married a man that inherited money from his family. Because nick didn’t grow up in the East Egg lifestyle it was much harder for him to earn a decent income and achieve the “American Dream”.…