Set off alone, get rich quick, and live long enough to enjoy the new found wealth; this is the true American Dream. Willy and Gatsby both die in pursuit of their one desire and neither of the men ever attain the status of the American Dream. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, both Willy and Gatsby portray the two seemingly unattainable characteristics of the American Dream, wealth and respect.

Jay Gatsby had only one of characteristics of the American Dream, wealth, the other, respect, Gatsby tries to accomplish but is never able to. Ever since Dan Cody first introduces himself and his wealth to Gatsby, Jay dreams a unique version of the American Dream. Gatz was an idealist who lived with ."..a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing" (Fitzgerald 105). "Gatsby's idealism...