Almost everyone has dreams in their life at one point or another. It is human nature to want to have or be something that they are not. In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Miller's Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman and Gatsby are characters dominated by an American dream that destroyed them. Their dreams come from an illusionary past and were also based outside of their own self. Gatsby tried to repeat his past, while Willy attempted to create a satisfactory past. The lack of control of these dreams caused both Gatsby and Willy's downfall.
Jay Gatsby's dream puts him on a path where he spends all of his energy trying to re-create his past. His past was the happiest time of his life, and he continually speaks of trying to get back there to find something he lost. What he lost is very tangible- it is a girl, Daisy Buchanan, from Louisville, who he encounters again in New York Nick describes the past that Gatsby is attempting to regain in regards to Daisy. "On the last afternoon before he went abroad, he sat with Daisy in his arms for a long, silent time". This was the love they shared in Louisville before Gatsby had to leave and have Daisy fall out of his life. This happiness with Daisy is what fueled Gatsby's dream and his attempt to repeat the past. In the present, Gatsby makes it very clear what he is trying to do with Daisy in a conversation with Nick, the narrator of the novel. " "I"m going to fix everything just the way it was before"". He is determined that he is in control and has the power to do this. Even though Nick disagrees and tells him that he can't, Gatsby doesn't care and continues with his dream to "fix everything". The sad fact is, however, that Gatsby does not succeed in repeating the past. He only attempts it; he never succeeds. Tom Buchanan voices his failure angrily, talking about his wife, Daisy, and Gatsby. " "I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over"".
