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1.2 Literature review
Death of a Salesman was considered as the most celebrated and most produced play during the post-war era in America. Zhang Lifang researches on the misguided American Dream in Death of a Salesman. In her paper, she tends to prove Willy is pursuing a misguided dream. She gives a specific definition of the American dream that the American dream is the firmly held belief that everyone has the opportunity to achieve their goals and become rich and prosperous if only they work hard enough. She considers Willy’s American dream as an unreachable goal, that is misguided American Dream. (Zhang Lifang 1) Zhou Miao also delivers an analysis of disillusionment of Willy’s American dream in Disillusionment of American Dream: Willy Loman’s Tragic Dream. First, he makes a brief introduction to the author, Arthur Miller, including his family background and his major works. Zhou attributes the death of Willy and his disillusionment of his American dream to his totally wrong concept of American dreams, for Willy has planned a big future for himself and his two boys, being always believing that success can be the reward of influencing people impressive, persuasive as well as being well liked. Zhou regards this kind of belief a way of cheating himself, only if he stops craving for unpractical dreams can Willy and his two sons grasp their fate. Moreover, being under the great pressure from his neighborhood Charley, Zhou thinks Biff and Happy’s failures also accelerate to destroy Willy’s dream. His way of analysis is reasonable but seems to be one-sided, society and many other factors should also taken into consideration. (Zhou Miao 1)
Sister Carrie is Dreiser’s first long novel and, at the same time, the most controversial one, being published at 1910 and it has gotten lots of censures and was criticized by critics and readers. For Sister Carrie’s creation is right in the Darwinism prevalent period so it is hard not to relate the focus of naturalism, survival of the fittest, to the struggle and desire of the characters in the novel. In Wang’s essays, she criticizes the unethical way of chasing after the dream by selling her body rather than gain by her hands. So Wang draws the conclusion that in capitalist society, there is no inevitable consequence between diligence and success. Money in the society, already being under the control of the money, will never satisfy people’s happiness. American dream is just a legend of a lie. (Wang Mingyan 2). Liu Xiaoyan analyzes several images in the novel. For example, the rocking chair symbolizes the fantasy of American dream, the door of safe means the turning point in one’s life. And Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Vance also symbolize the outside world which is full of temptation. She emphasizes the use of these images not only helps to strengthen the art effect but also help to convey author’s naturalism philosophy and morality. (Liu Xiaoyan 2)