Willy Loman and Gatsby Comparison

The protagonists of the novel (Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby), both prove to show an assortment of similar character attributes. Beginning with their insane dedication of their lives to the American dream, the characters retain many similarities. Although their ideals slightly vary, the dedication towards achieving it remains very similar. Gatsby hosts parties in an attempt to fit in, but his attempt is inevitably a failure as buying in to a society that does not accept him can never conclude with success. His main idea was to obtain the “girl of his dreams” alongside this, but ended with neither as he took a ferocious ride to his own self-destruction. Willy, in contrast, was able to accomplish the envious American Dream, but was far too ambitious to notice. When Willy decides he wants to search for his father with his brother Ben, he met Dave Singleman who essentially changes his entire future. In order to make a sale all he had to do was "pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, he made his living..." (Miller, p81). After seeing how successful he was, Willy totally reconsiders his original decision of going to Alaska, and instead, became a salesman which marks the beginning of his downfall. Both characters prove to be very lacking in moral sense. Jay Gatsby’s only motivation for becoming rich was to win Daisy back. Gatsby threw exuberant parties and lies about his background just to prove his worthiness to Daisy. “There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and he champagne and the stars…” (Fitzgerald, p26). In Willy’s case, after arriving home from “work”, he boasts about his sales, despite it being blatant lies just to impress his family. "If old man Wagner was still alive I'd a been in charge of New York now." (Miller, p3). This quote truly shows how far Willy has fallen, as it could not be further from the truth. The biggest