Theme of Success in American Literature

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The Failure to Succeed How people define success varies from person to person. However, the way that people push to achieve success persists regardless of the person. It is one thing that everybody desires. Success doesn’t alway occur, in fact, you may just fail. The idea of success and failure is an important theme of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. These three great American works all have an emphasis on success and also the failure to succeed. Although these works all may have strong themes about success, they all define success very differently. In the book, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s definition of success is love. He wants to spend eternity with the girl of his dreams, Daisy. Gatsby attempts to reach his goal and achieve this success by convincing Daisy into leaving her husband. I mean come on, he bought his house to be closer to her. “ “It was a strange coincidence," I said. "But it wasn't a coincidence at all." "Why not?" "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” " (137-140). Grapes of Wrath is a story that takes place during the dust bowl. Recently out of prison, Tom Joad comes back to see his hometown in ruins and his family leaving to California to escape the poverty that came with the dust bowl. The Joads define success in starting a new life in California. And not only was it the Joads, but everyone was fleeing to California on Route 66 to start a new life and to get away. "66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there” (150). Willy Loman’s perception of success is being well-liked and being a good salesman. In
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