Both The Great Gatsby and The Death of a Salesman are both great examples of American Literature that display a reliance on achieving the american dream. These works also exhibit the reliance of the main characters on their unattainable past hopes and dreams. Jay Gatsby attempts this by recreating himself in hopes of getting his dream girl. Willy Loman does this by placing his own unreachable goals on to his son. The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald, and The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller use their character’s memories of the past to stress their dependence on the unattainable goals they have set for themselves. For instance, Arthur Miller uses Willy Loman’s past memories of his son to portray his goal of achieving the American Dream. In the past, Willy’s son Biff was an extremely good athlete. He was the star of the football team and his life seemed to be headed on the perfect track to becoming an incredibly successful man. Biff hit his high point in high school, and isn't the most successful adult. He’s always in and out of jobs claiming he hasn’t found himself. To Willy who still lives in the past “not finding yourself” (Miller 16) isn’t a good enough reason for Biff to be the way he is. Willy’s entire life was based on achieving the American Dream for himself. He worked in the same industry for many years hoping that he could work his way into the firm. When he realizes that this probably won’t ever happen he loses confidence in himself and can only find pride in the past memories of his son during high school.Willy lives under the delusion ?that “[a] star like that [Biff] , magnificent, can never really fade away!”(Miller 51) He refuses to accept the fact of reality and live in the present, and when he tries it depresses him to the point to where he wants to commit suicide. Willy has many suicide attempts throughout the play including breathing in something thorough a plastic tube, and getting int