Introduction

As a man in a dream who fails to lay hands upon another whom he is pursuing - the one cannot escape nor the other overtake- even so neither could Achilles come up with Hector, nor Hector break away from Achilles.

Homer The Iliad 8^th Century BC

These lines from Homer’s The Iliad present the idea of an infinite attempt to achieve one’s aim; the continuous, never-ending pursuit of satisfaction is a concept Jacques Lacan defines as desire. With reference to Achilles pursuit of Hector in The Illiad, Lacanian theorist Slavoj Žižek, writes, in Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan, ‘the relation of the subject to the object experienced by every one of us in a dream: the subject, faster than the object, gets closer and closer to it and yet can never attain it.’[1] This notion is what Lacan explains as desire, ‘a function central to all human experience, is the desire for nothing nameable. And at the same time this desire lies at the origin of every variety of animation.’[2] Lacan’s theory suggests that the nature of human desire is, not to attain full satisfaction, but to reproduce itself as a new desire. This concept can be seen within the American Dream, as Anthony Brandt claims it ‘stretches endlessly and forever toward the horizon.’[3]

Jacques Lacan is a French philosopher, born in 1901, whose theories expand on Freudian ideas. Lacan published three texts on psychoanalysis before commencing a series of annual seminars in Paris in 1952, that spanned over twenty-eight years; the seminars were then edited and published by Jacques-Alain Miller. Sean Homer comments on Lacan’s success, in Jacques Lacan, ‘Deeply controversial, Lacan’s work has transformed psychoanalysis, both as a theory of the unconscious mind and as a clinical practice. Over fifty per cent of the world’s analysts now employ Lacanian methods.’[4] Lacan’s work is not limited to just clinical practice, however, as Homer explains:

From the perspective of literary studies, the discovery of Lacan in the mid-1970s, initially by feminist and Marxist literary critics, revitalized the rather moribund practice of psychoanalytic criticism and reinstated psychoanalysis for Freudian and post-Freudian readings of literature.[5]

Lacan’s theory on psychoanalysis opened up a number of different interpretations for literary texts as it delves in to the origins of human psychosis and explores the causes of human behaviour. Malcolm Bowie suggests, in Lacan, that Lacan’s theory:

was a theory of the desiring speech in which all human beings live and die. […] It was a listening station for the whole conversation of mankind, a working model of the human world, a contrapuntal portrait of things as they are.[6]

Lacan’s first theoretical publication, The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I, in 1936, explored the significance of a child, between the ages of six to eight months, seeing its own reflection and acknowledging itself as a separate entity from the rest of the world. Lacan writes:

The mirror stage is a drama whose internal thrust is precipitated from insufficiency to anticipation […] to the assumption of the armour of an alienating identity, which will mark with its rigid structure the infants entire mental development.[7]

The mirror stage suggests that, as the child witnesses the control it has over the movements of its reflection, at a time when it is completely dependent on others to survive, the child begins to fantasise about its future ability. Bowie comments that this process is ‘to look forward in hope to the ego’s later career and to perceive in outline upon a still distant horizon the mature; self, the self-made man and the social success.’[8] This is the origin of the human impulse to desire as, from the mirror stage onwards, humans fantasise about their future selves. Lacan refers to this as ‘phantasy’, Bowie explains:

This is phantasy, in which the ego experiments with its own future. Here we may do a variety of things: imagine an ideal counterpart, or a divine figure of authority, or a utopia of fulfilled wishes; impute to the Other wishes by a miracle chime flawlessly with our own demand; represent the Other as holding the key to our felicity, or as embodying in his or her own person the pleasure we seek.

This concept links to the American Dream, as humans forever imagine a future greater than their present, constantly fantasising about the lives of their future selves. This idea is embodied in the American Dream that encourages people to aim for a better future, regardless of their background.

The American Dream is a term coined by James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book, The Epic of America, although the notion behind the term stems back to the discovery of America. Upon his arrival in the land that would come to be known as the United States, Captain Edward Johnson, a Puritan who travelled from England to New England in the 1630s, declared:

Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yes! All you people of Christ that are here Oppressed, Imprisoned and scurrilously derided, gather yourselves together, your Wifes and little ones, and answer to your several Names as you shall be shipped for His service, in the Westerne World, and more especially for planning the united Colonies of new England. Know this is the place where the Lord will create new Heaven, and a new Earth in new Churches, and a new Commonwealth together.[9]

This image of America as a ‘new Heaven, and a new Earth’ remained present in America, evolving into the vision of the American Dream. James Truslow Adams asserts that the American Dream is the ‘dream of a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank’.[10] Encompassed even in the country’s legislation, the United States Declaration of Independence manifests that ‘all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’[11] The ideals of the American Dream are present throughout the country’s history, as Lawrence R. Samuel remarks, in The American Dream: A Cultural History, ‘serving as the backbone of the great social movements of the twentieth century including the New Deal and the Great Society.’[12]

From a Lacanian perspective, the American Dream is a symbol of the ever-evolving nature of human desire. The object of the American Dream originated as the dream of a true democracy, in which all American citizens would be equal and governed by no one. As the country developed, the object of the American Dream evolved into the American pioneer working for the future of his family and his community, and then to the capitalist striving for individual success and material possessions. Samuel comments that the American Dream ‘has always managed to bounce back to life, each miraculous recovery both shaping and reflecting a renewal of the American spirit.’[13] This argues that the evolution of the American Dream mirrors the societal progressions that took place in America, accommodating the evolving desires of the American citizens. Slavoj Žižek writes, in his article ‘Desire: Drive = Truth: Knowledge’, that ‘desire’s raison d’être is not to realise its goal, to find full satisfaction, but to reproduce itself as desire.’[14] This concept is arguably what the American Dream represents, an ever-evolving aim for success. Similarly, Samuel claimsthat the American Dream ‘is more about the journey than the destination, the getting there always more exciting than the arrival.’[15] In reference to the Declaration of Independence, Slavoj Žižek claims:

You have a serious ideological deviation at the very beginning of a famous proclamation of independence, pursuit of happiness. If there is a point in psychoanalysis it is that people do not really want or desire happiness.[16]

It is important to acknowledge Lacan’s differentiation between desire and drive; Slavoj Žižek writes that ‘desire is grounded in its constitutive lack, while drive circulated around a hole, a gap in the order of being.’[17] In applying this to the American Dream, the American Dream can be regarded as the lack, or hole, that drive circles around. Dino Felluga explains, in his article ‘Modules on Lacan: On Psychosexual Development’, that ‘because desire is articulated through fantasy, it is driven to some extent by its own impossibility.’[18] This links to the impossibility of the American Dream that Brandt claims ‘stretches endlessly and forever towards the horizon.’[19]

The presence of the American Dream is particularly evident in American literature, which both reflects and criticises the notions embedded in the American Dream. Frederic Carpenter suggests, in American Literature and the Dream, that the omnipresent nature of the American Dream has had a strong influence on American literature, claiming ‘the vague idea has influenced the plotting of our fiction and the imagining of our poetry. Almost by inadvertence our literature has accomplished a symbolic and experimental projection of it.’[20] The projection of the American Dream on to American literature provides a more personal and individual view on the effects of the American Dream. Louis Tyson writes, in Psychological Politics of the American Dream: The Commodification of Subjectivity in Twentieth-Century American Literature, that:

Because literature is a repository of both a society’s ideologies and its psychological conflicts, it has the capacity to reveal aspects of a culture’s collective psyche, an apprehension of how ideological investments reveal the nature of individual’s psychological relationship to their world.[21]

As a result of this, this dissertation will explore two texts from American literature, that encompass the notion of the American Dream, to argue that the American Dream is a reflection of human nature’s continuous need to desire.

Two texts that encompass the notion of the American Dream are The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller. The Great Gatsby was written by Fitzgerald in 1925, in the midst of the ‘roaring twenties’, and depicts the decadence and rise in consumerism during an economic boom after the First World War. Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, written in 1949, presents the delusions of sixty-four year old Willy Loman, whose life has been dedicated, unsuccessfully, to achieving the American Dream. They are both written and set in the midst of post-war economic booms. Even in this time of economic prosperity, when the ability and opportunity to achieve one’s dreams are heightened, the two protagonists are still unable to fulfill their dreams.

Chapter One explores Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, as the novel is set in the era of the ‘leisure class’, it presents a time of heightened emphasis on individual pleasure and desire. Through an exploration of the characters’ desires and their interaction with one another, this chapter attempts to prove that the nature of desire is, like the American Dream, ever evolving. Chapter Two investigates Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, a play that presents the role of fantasy within desire. As the play presents forty-eight hours in the consciousness of the protagonist, the audience is invited into the psyche of a salesman who is struggling to accept the failure of his ambition for success. This chapter will attempt to prove Lacan’s theory on desire, particularly through this man’s fantasy and delusions.

Lacanian theory suggests that, fundamental to human nature, is the need to constantly desire and fantasize about one’s future, never to reach full satisfaction. This is evident in American literature’s representation of the American Dream, as a focus for individuals to aim their desires towards and envisage their future selves as a part of. Both The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman present the troubles faced by two protagonists with a particular capacity to dream and, as Lacan asserts, ‘the only thing of which one can be guilty is of having given ground relative to one’s desire.’[22]

The Joy of Fantasy in F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.

F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

The 1920s in America witnessed its first economic boom as, at the end of the First World War, US Servicemen returned to employment, as Tim McNeese notes, ‘at the rate of 4,000 a day, which poured men into the US work force at a startling rate.’[23] The combination of a significant surge in employment rates, alongside substantial savings made from wartime wages, resulted in an economic boom that sparked the decade of the ‘Roaring Twenties.’ Michael Spindler comments that ‘after half a century of rapid industrialisation America by the 1920s had achieved the highest standard of living any people had ever known.’[24] The increasing development in technological industry and consumerism resulted in a transformation in the way American citizens lived; McNeese claims it was ‘the beginning of modern times.’[25]

This transformation in American society fuelled the concept of, what would come to be known as the American Dream, with the introduction of the ‘leisure class’ and ‘new money’, social mobility appeared even more achievable. The term ‘new money’ applies to those who, from a previously lower class, attain substantial money from within their own generation, as opposed to inheriting fortune. Lawrence R. Samuel suggests that, from the effects of war, ‘perhaps more than ever, Americans were fully expected to strive for their particular Dream, in the interests of both individuals and the nation as a whole.’[26] However, with the introduction of a consumerist lifestyle, the traditional ideals of the American Dream shifted to a focus on material possessions and individual pleasure. Rose Adrienne Gallo explains, in F Scott Fitzgerald:

It was an era of parties and good times, both for the wealthy like Gatsby and the Buchanans, and for those less affluent who wanted to take part in the fun, like the guests at Myrtle Wilson’s apartment, or the thousands who flocked to speakeasies for liquor, jazz, dancing, and a general relaxation of inhibitions.[27]

The prominence of the ‘leisure class’ and the new focus on individual pleasure, rather than the original American ideals ‘based on ambition, industry, and well-defined rules of conduct’, demonstrates the evolution of the American Dream.[28]

This transformation of the American Dream is encompassed in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald himself was regarded as one of the ‘lost generation’, alongside Ernest Hemingway and T. S Elliot, who returned from the war disillusioned and sceptical about society. The Great Gatsby could be considered a critique of the shift in society’s desires in this era. Michael Spindler claims that Fitzgerald:

saw more clearly than some of his literary contemporaries that the leisure class was a social phenomenon of great importance, and he was particularly well placed by means of his own social position to sense acutely and then fully articulate that ambivalent response which the society at large was experiencing.[29]

Throughout Fitzgerald’s life he remained distinctly aware of the separation between the rich and the poor. In a letter to Anne Ober, in 1938, Fitzgerald asserts ‘that was always my experience, - a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy’s school; a poor boy in a rich man’s club at Princeton… I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it had colored my entire life and works.’[30] Fitzgerald’s ambivalent position in an upper-middle class status hold parallels with the narrator of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, who describes himself as being both ‘within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled’ by the upper class social circles in the novel.[31] Spindler comments that Fitzgerald, ‘as a son of bourgeoisie’, was:

able to move in elite circles- there was no question of his having to mix with the lower classes- but he was constantly accompanied by the shadow of economic insecurity and an awareness of his relative poverty.[32]

Furthermore, parallels can also be seen between Fitzgerald and the character of Jay Gatsby, as Fitzgerald nearly lost the woman he loved, Zelda Sayre, due to his lack of financial stability. Fitzgerald also held a desire to live in luxury as the wealthy did, as both Gatsby and Fitzgerald go on to do, Spindler suggests that Fitzgerald:

did not wish for the abolition of the very rich but simply for an extension of their privileges to himself, and when his writing provided the financial basis he assimilated his lifestyle to theirs – a Long Island mansion, parties, sojourns in Paris and on the Mediterranean seaboard.[33]

This notion of both admiration and envy of ‘the glamorous life on the one hand, and moral condemnation of that life according to traditional values on the other’ is encompassed in The Great Gatsby through the narration of Nick Carraway.[34] This conflicting aspect of desire assimilates into Jacques Lacan’s theory on desire that claims, ‘Desire full stop is always the desire of the Other. Which basically means that we are always asking the Other what he desires’.[35] The capitalisation of the ‘o’ in Other, as Dylan Evans explains, ‘designates radical alterity, an other-ness which transcends the illusory otherness of the imaginary because it cannot be assimilated through identification’.[36] Lacan’s use of the Other is related to the law of language and the Symbolic Order as he explains, in The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis, ‘what I call the capital other, the locus of speech, and potentially, the locus of truth.’[37] This theory suggests that individual desires are formed when witnessed in the desires of others, and this notion can be seen throughout The Great Gatsby, the American Dream and Fitzgerald’s life.

The Great Gatsby embodies the themes of the roaring twenties through its portrayal of decadence, social upheaval and excess spending, in a time Fitzgerald termed the ‘Jazz Age’. Nick Carraway, the narrator, returns from the First World War ‘restless’ and moves to West Egg in Long Island to pursue a job on the booming Wall Street as a bond salesman. The novel takes place in the summer of 1922; following Nick’s experiences with the wealthy Buchanans and Jordan Baker, as well as his elusive neighbour, Jay Gatsby. As the summer progresses, Nick learns more about the affairs of the Buchanans and is introduced to Gatsby, a man who throws extremely lavish parties every weekend for complete strangers from all over the city. Eventually, Nick discovers that the purpose of Gatsby’s eccentric mansion parties were an attempt to attract the attention of Daisy Buchanan, whom he fell madly in love with before the war. As the story unfolds, the reader is given an insight to the world of the roaring twenties, a time of excessive drinking, corruption and betrayal contrasted with the unwavering devotion by Gatsby to his Dream of a life with Daisy.

Gatsby’s story is archetypal of the American Dream, as Spindler posits: 

Gatsby’s dream might be described as the American Dream of success. It is the dream of rising from rags to riches, of amassing a great fortune that will assure a life of luxuriant ease, power, and beauty in an ideal world untroubled by care and devoted to the enjoyment of everlasting pleasure with nothing to intervene between wish and fulfilment.[38]

The journey Gatsby endures in the novel parallels Lacan’s theory of desire, as the closer he gets to fulfill his dreams, the further away his dreams become. At the opening of the novel, Gatsby has already achieved the ‘rags to riches’ aim of the American Dream, however he still desires to attain the love of Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby has a number of aims to achieve before he can fulfil his desires. Firstly, Gatsby needs to become wealthy, then to attract the attention of Daisy, then to make her love him, then for her to tell Tom she never loved him and so forth. This relates to Zeno, the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher’s, idea of the Dichotomy Paradox, that suggests for a man to arrive at his destination, he needs to travel half of the way, and before that a quarter, and before that an eighth, resulting in an infinite number of aims that prevent you from reaching your destination. Slavoj Žižek employs this paradox as a way of explaining Lacan’s theory, asserting:

Can we not recognize in this paradox the very nature of the psychoanalytical notion of drive, or more properly the Lacanian distinction between its aim and its goal? […] Lacan’s point is that the real purpose of the drive is not its goal (full satisfaction) but its aim: the drive’s ultimate aim is simply to reproduce itself as drive, to return to its circular path, to continue its path to and from the goal. The real source of enjoyment is the repetitive movement of this closed circuit.[39]

This concept can be seen in The Great Gatsby, as Nick remarks on the ‘colossal vitality of Gatsby’s dream’:

It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart.[40]

This suggests that the depth of Gatsby’s dream exceeded the reality of Daisy and his relationship with her, to the extent that reality could never live up to the fantasy world he had designed in his dream. Nick goes on to comment that:

Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness closed down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace. For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing.[41]

These lines represent the enjoyment Gatsby gained from dreaming of his future with Daisy, the satisfaction of fuelling his drive with his fantasies of the future. Žižek argues that ‘it is only through fantasy that the subject is constituted as desiring: through fantasy we learn how to desire’.[42]

This is evident in the novel in Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy, as when Gatsby finally gets to provide Daisy with a tour of the mansion he had designed to impress her, Nick senses an aspect of doubt in Gatsby’s mind, ‘As I went over to say good-by I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness.’[43] This links to Lacan’s theory of desire, as Dino Felluga specifies:

It is that lack at the heart of desire that ensures we continue to desire. To come too close to our object of desire threatens to uncover the lack that is, in fact, necessary for our desire to persist, so that, ultimately desire is most interested not in fully attaining the object of desire but in keeping our distance, thus allowing desire to persist.[44]

The doubt that Nick suspects Gatsby is feeling, arises as Gatsby’s fantasy starts to play out in reality, the anxiety he feels comes as he ‘threatens to uncover the lack’ at the heart of his desire. As Gatsby informs Daisy of the green light that shines at the end of her dock, Nick observes:

Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. […] Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.[45]

The green light represents to Gatsby the pursuit of his dream and his drive to satisfy his desires; the revelation of this symbol is described in this statement as a loss to Gatsby. This notion of loss as Gatsby gets closer to fulfilling his dream, supports Lacan’s theory that ‘desire is at the very core of our being and as such it is essentially a relation to lack; indeed, desire and lack are inextricable tied together.’[46]

As Gatsby’s reality plays out alongside his fantasy, Nick remarks, ‘There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.’[47] Gatsby’s need for reality to reflect his fantasy is evident when Daisy first attends one of Gatsby’s parties; he interrupts her conversation to instruct her that she ‘must see the faces of many people you’ve heard about’, exposing the depth of detail encompassed in Gatsby’s fantasy.[48] The inability of reality to align with Gatsby’s fantasy is evident at the end of the night as Gatsby, with an ‘unutterable depression’, comments ‘She didn’t like it… She didn’t have a good time.’[49] On the same night, Gatsby and Daisy have their first disagreement as Gatsby ‘wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: “I never loved you.”’[50] Additionally, Gatsby wanted Daisy to divorce Tom so that they could ‘return to Louisville and be married from her house- just as if it were five years ago.’[51] The ‘colossal vitality’ of Gatsby’s dream further relates to Zeno’s Paradox, as there is an endless list of aims Gatsby needs to complete before he can fulfil his desire. This supports Dino Felluga claims that, ‘Because desire is articulated through fantasy, it is driven to some extent by its own impossibility.’[52] The impossibility of Gatsby’s dream is significant as, ultimately, Gatsby desires to relive the past, Nick comments, ‘He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.’[53] Lois Tyson suggests that ‘Although Gatsby believes that his ultimate goal is the possession of Daisy- a belief Nick, Jordan, Tom and Daisy seem to share- Daisy is merely the key to his goal rather than the goal itself.’[54]

Furthermore, Jacques Lacan’s theory on desire suggests that ‘The object of man’s desire […] is essentially an object desired by someone else.’[55] This can be seen throughout The Great Gatsby in the behaviour of a number of characters. Firstly, Gatsby’s desire of Daisy is fuelled by the knowledge that other men have desired her:

It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy- it increased her value in his eyes. He felt their presence all about the house, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions.[56]

Lois Tyson claims that Daisy’s ‘image as a woman “possessed” by other men, symbolically if not literally, increased his desire to possess her himself.’[57] Similarly, upon Daisy’s first visit to his mansion, Nick notes:

He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real.[58]

In Gatsby’s re-evaluation of his property through the desires of Daisy, he demonstrates Lacan’s theory of desire as being present in the Others’ desire. Furthermore, when Tom discovers Daisy’s love for Gatsby, he gains a sudden determination to win her back:

She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw. He was astounded. His mouth opened a little, and he looked at Gatsby, and then back at Daisy as if he had just recognised her as someone he knew a long time ago.’[59]

This supports the Lacanian theory ‘that our desires are always inextricably bound up with the desires of others.’[60]

The concept of continuously regenerating desires can be seen within the American Dream, as David Kamp argued, by the early 2000s, ‘the American Dream was almost by definition unattainable, a moving target that eluded people’s grasp’.[61] In describing Tom and Daisy’s marriage, Nick remarks that ‘They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.’[62] This idea of the couple living ‘unrestfully’ supports Žižek’s claim that ‘desire is of course metonymical, it shifts from one object to another, through all its displacements, however, desire nonetheless retains a minimum of formal consistency.’[63] After Tom’s considerable success at college as a football player, Nick believes ‘that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrevocable football game.’[64] Similarly, in Tom’s relationships with women, whilst continuing his marriage with Daisy, he has affairs with women, usually of lower class, in an attempt to satisfy his desire for attention. From ‘one of the chambermaids in Santa Barbara Hotel’, to Myrtle Wilson, to the ‘common but pretty girl’ at Gatsby’s party, Tom goes from woman to woman in an attempt to satisfy his ever evolving desires.[65] Lois Tyson comments that by having affairs ‘with women of a lower socioeconomic standing than his,’ Tom ‘can be the hero they’ve been hoping would rescue them from the limitations placed upon them by their class.’[66]

Additionally, with regards to the relationships portrayed in the novel, both Tom and Daisy, alongside Myrtle and Wilson, are presented as formerly happy couples. With regards to Tom and Daisy, Jordan recalls their relationship shortly after they had been married, noting ‘I’d never seen a girl so mad about her husband… It was touching to see them together.’[67] Moreover, later in the novel, Tom claims ‘Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now’, he goes on to describe his affairs with other women as ‘a spree’ and justifies himself by proclaiming ‘I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time.’[68] Similarly, but to a lesser extent, Myrtle and George’s relationship seemed to have begun in happiness as Catherine remarks ‘You were crazy about him for a while,’[69] which Myrtle greatly denies. Additionally, after Daisy and Gatsby’s separation during the war, Daisy is described to have waited to hear from Gatsby until ‘suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men.’[70] The inconsistency presented in the relationships in the novel supports the theory that desire is, as Lacan suggests, ‘neither the appetite for satisfaction nor the demand for love, but the difference that results from the subtraction of the first from the second.’[71] This theory implies that desire lies in the separation between human want and human need, and therefore always remains constant. Arguably, this concept can be seen throughout The Great Gatsby, as the characters’ desires evolve and develop in the novel.

Another aspect of the American Dream that can be seen throughout the novel is the increasing power of capitalism through the introduction of consumerism to American lifestyle. This is evident in the novel through Gatsby’s excessively lavish parties, large amounts of alcohol consumption, and arguably in the characters’ treatment of others. Slavoj Žižek proposes that:

At the immediate level of addressing individuals, capitalism, of course, interpellates them as consumers, as subjects of desire, soliciting in them ever new perverse and excessive desires; furthermore, it obviously also manipulates the “desire to desire”, celebrating the very desire to desire ever new objects and models of pleasure.[72]

This suggests that the capitalist aspect of the American Dream reflects and encourages societies’ need to desire. The importance of material wealth is presented in the novel through Gatsby’s mansion, his car, and the lifestyle of the characters, in particular Daisy’s emotional reaction to Gatsby’s beautiful shirts. The extent to which the consumerist lifestyle is encompassed in the characters’ psyche can be seen throughout the novel as the characters commodify each other, and in some cases themselves, for their own personal gain. Commodification is defined as ‘the act or condition of relating to persons or things in terms of their exchange value or sign-exchange value to the exclusion of other considerations.’[73] Lois Tyson suggests, in Psychological Politics of the American Dream: The Commodification of Subjectivity in Twentieth-Century American Literature, that Tom Buchanan is ‘a perfect representative of pure agency: a subjectivity for whom all else must be object, and for a rich man who relates to the world through his money, all objects are commodities.’[74] Tyson goes on to argue that ‘Tom’s marriage to Daisy Fay was clearly an exchange of Daisy’s youth, beauty, and social standing for Tom’s money and power and the image of strength and stability they imparted to him.’[75] Prior to Tom’s marriage to Daisy he gave her ‘a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars’, and in his relationship with Myrtle he rents an apartment for her and at the slightest request buys her a dog. Tom arguably uses his money to possess women and therefore commodifies them into objects he can purchase, like a consumer.

On the other hand, it could be argued that Daisy commodifies herself, debatably selling herself to the highest bidder in her relationship with Tom and her affair with Gatsby. In a conversation with Nick, Daisy recalls the moment she found out her baby was a girl, declaring ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’[76] Tyson suggests that Daisy’s reaction acknowledges that ‘given that woman is a commodity, she had better be marketable’, and to be a fool provides marketable ignorance. [77]

It could also be argued that Gatsby commodifies Daisy in his pursuit of his dream, as Daisy belongs to the West Egg world of ‘old money’, he believes, by possessing her, he can transform his new money in to old money, and truly achieve social mobility. Tyson comments that:

Gatsby’s possession of Daisy would undo history and cancel his identity, replace his historical past with a fictional past, then he could eliminate the existential pain that accompanies an awareness of lack, loss, or limitation.[78]

The commodification of characters within the novel represents how a consumerist lifestyle, fuelled by capitalism and the American Dream, gives individuals a focus to aim their desires. Marius Bewley argues that the American Dream essentially ‘represents the romantic enlargement of the possibilities of life on a level at which the material and the spiritual have become inextricably confused.’[79] As a result of the suggested entwinement between material and spiritual worth, the American Dream is ‘thus a dream of the commodity and the implied premise is that one’s spiritual worth and well-being are directly proportional to the value of the commodities one owns.’ As consumerism is, in itself, a never-ending process by which one can always attain more, consumerism assimilates in to the Lacanian theory that desire is a constant human state, never to be satisfied. As the characters in the novel commodify each other, they are, essentially, consuming commodities in their continuous attempts to satisfy their desires.

Fitzgerald employs the symbol of ‘the green light’ to represent Gatsby’s dream of his future. Nick notes, on his first sighting of Gatsby, ‘he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way’, towards the green light.[80] The significance of the green light recurs at the end of the novel as Nick ponders on the ‘fresh green breast of the new world’ that America symbolised to the Dutch sailors that arrived there.[81] Nick ponders:

for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.[82]

This is the origin of the American Dream, a new land that offered a blank canvas for the fantasies of the soon to be American citizens. The ‘fresh green breast’ of America is what Gatsby envisages in the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, a symbol of his fantasy future self. Nick notes that Gatsby’s ‘dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him’.[83] Nick’s remark that Gatsby’s dream is already behind him relates to Lacan’s theory that desire ‘in so far as it has been chosen from among the appendices of the body as an index of desire, it is already the exponent of a function, which sublimates it even before it has been exercised.’[84] This explains that, at desire’s inception, it is redirected and already destined to fail, linking to Nick’s belief that Gatsby’s dream was already behind him. Fitzgerald ends the novel proposing:

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... and one fine morning. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.[85]

Fitzgerald’s ending fully captures the nature of human desire as the ‘orgastic future that year by year recedes us’, ever eluding our grasps, as we are incapable of reaching full satisfaction. Additionally, the notion of being ‘borne back ceaselessly into the past’, parallels Lacan’s statement that ‘every drive is virtually a death drive’. This means that in every endeavour to satisfy a desire, our true aim is not to satisfy our desire, but to create new desires and ensure that our drive circles these desires. Malcolm Bowie asserts, in Lacan, that ‘each drive, if and when it is individually considered, bears the mark of impossibility: each is desire seeking and failing to find its point of satiation.’[86]

Throughout The Great Gatsby, the characters are presented as subjects to their desires; Gatsby’s ever-expanding fantasy of a life with Daisy, Tom and Daisy ‘unrestfully’ drifting from place to place attempting to find happiness, as well as the affairs they engage in, provide evidence for the Lacanian concept that ‘desire’s raison d’être is not to realise its goal, to find full satisfaction, but to reproduce itself as desire.’[87]

The Need to Desire in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (1949)

In the fourteen years after the publication of The Great Gatsby, America suffered a drastic decline from the economic prosperity it experienced during the ‘Roaring Twenties’, into the era of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a period of global economic repression that ran from the 1930s through to the Second World War in 1939. The Depression had a significant impact on society, Arthur Miller, author of Death of a Salesman, recalls in an interview the effect it had on American citizens:

There were three suicides on the little block where we lived. They couldn’t cope. The impact was incalculable. These people were profound believers in the American Dream. The day the money stopped their identity was gone.[88]

The economic decline shed new doubt on the possibility of achieving the American Dream, as Hays comments, the Depression ‘undermined the solidity of the capitalist system, and showed the flimsiness of the American Dream that hard work equals success.’[89] In Miller’s autobiography, Timebends (1988), he claims that the Depression ‘was only incidentally a matter of money. Rather it was a moral catastrophe, a violent revelation of the hypocrisies behind the façade of American society.’[90] The psychological impact of the Depression created a sense of disbelief in the American Dream that would not diminish until America’s entrance into the Second World War in 1941. William Chafe writes, in The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II, that ‘The war had brought, for the moment at least, a conclusion to want and unemployment. For millions more, the war brought something else – a sense of possibility and optimism for the first time in a generation.’[91] The end of the Second World War sparked an economic boom similar to that of the First World War, but on a far greater scale. Chafe writes that ‘…with full employment, higher wages, and social welfare benefits provided under government regulations, American workers experienced a level of well-being that, for many, had never occurred before.’[92] Advancements made in technology allowed for improvements in the industrial sector, and a ‘long-unsatisfied demand for consumer products coupled with massive savings created a huge market, a market that was sustained by unparalleled population growth.’[93] This transformation in the American economy paralleled the evolution of the American Dream, as it’s focus swayed towards a consumerist lifestyle. Woods comments that:

by 1960, the American economy had completed its transformation from a simple production economy, in which the primary task was to meet basic human needs, to a consumer economy, […] and that the task ahead was to stimulate and expand consumption in a never-ending drive to increase production and raise profits.[94]

The consumer-oriented society in post Second World War America is presented in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, which opened in 1949. The play presents two days in the consciousness of Willy Loman, a sixty-three year old failing salesman, whose passion for the American Dream, and success, blurs the lines of reality in his mind. The narrative shows the breakdown of the Loman family as the eldest son, Biff, returns home and brings to light the reality of the delusions they had fooled themselves into believing. As Death of a Salesman opened just four years after the end of the war, the play reflects the struggles of many American citizens coming out of the Great Depression and WWII, faced with rapidly evolving industries. Hays comments that ‘there were tales in 1949 of grown men, hardened by the Depression and WWII, breaking down in tears at the climax of the play’.[95] Miller affirms that Death of a Salesman is about:

what happens when everybody has a refrigerator and a car. I wrote Salesman at the beginning of the greatest boom in world history but I felt that the reality was Depression, the whole thing coming down in a heap of ashes.[96]

This statement from Miller supports Lacan’s theory that, despite the ‘greatest boom in world history’, a time when the ability to achieve one’s dreams is enhanced, the ‘reality was depression’, as one can never truly fulfil their desires.[97]

Miller’s ability to connect with the audience through his play, and relate to their experiences, made it hugely successful, performed seven hundred and forty-two times from 1949 to 1950, and since then revived four times on Broadway. The play demonstrates the difficulties faced by American citizens at a time of great societal change, in terms of economy, technological advancements, increasing migration, equality and the evolving American Dream.

Lacan’s theory of desire can be seen throughout Death of a Salesman, in the characters’ attempts to satisfy their desires. Both Willy and Happy fantasise about the success of their careers, deluding themselves into believing that their fantasies are reality. Slavoj Žižek posits, in The Plague of Fantasies, that:

Fantasy does not simply realise a desire in a hallucinatory way: rather, its function is similar to that of Kantian “transcendental schematism”: a fantasy constitutes our desire, provides its co-ordinates; that is, it literally “teaches us how to desire.”[98]

This theory suggests that, through fantasy, one’s desires are formed. This is evident throughout Death of a Salesman, as the characters repeatedly fantasise about their future success, to the extent that they blur the reality of their present success. Throughout the play, Willy professes to be a successful, renowned businessman declaring to Biff:

America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there’ll be open sesame for all of us, ‘cause one thing, boys: I have friends.[99]

Willy insists on maintaining his delusions to repress his feelings of failure and encourage his desire for future success.  Lois Tyson proposes that if he ‘can just keep this vision intact until he kills himself, Willy will not have to face the repressed awareness of his failed life that keeps threatening to break through into his consciousness and overwhelm him.’[100] Willy is able to maintain these fantasies through the support of Linda and Happy, who accept, support and even encourage his delusions. Tyson suggests that ‘In their eyes, he was the success he pretended to be, and their belief in him helped him to deny the reality of his small sales commissions.’[101] The support Willy attains, from both Linda and Happy, exposes their own personal need to fantasise about success and desire for the future. Happy himself is guilty of deluding himself and others into believing he is more successful than he truly is. In response to Happy’s declaration that they ‘always told the truth’, Biff exclaims, ‘You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You’re one of the two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?’[102]

Additionally, as Biff attempts to break Willy free from his fantasy conscience, Happy tries to stop him, claiming Willy is ‘never so happy as when he’s looking forward to something’.[103] In Act Two, Biff expresses his desire to confess to Willy the truth about his career since leaving school, testifying ‘He thinks I’ve been spiting him all these years and it’s eating him up’.[104] Biff’s attempts to free Willy from his delusions of success are squandered by Happy, who instructs Biff to ‘tell him something nice’ and pretend to ‘leave the house tomorrow and come back at night and say Oliver is thinking it over. And he thinks it over for a couple of weeks, and gradually it fades away and nobody’s the worse.’[105] Happy’s belief that Willy is ‘never so happy as when he’s looking forward to something’ is proven when Willy prevents Biff from telling him the truth about his meeting with Oliver, protesting:

I’m looking for a little good news to tell your mother, because the woman has waited and the woman has suffered. The gist of it is that I haven’t got a story left in my head, Biff. So don’t give me a lecture about facts and aspects. I am not interested. Now what’ve you got to say to me?’[106]

Willy’s refusal to acknowledge the truth shows the strength of his desire to achieve his American Dream, and his demand for ‘good news’ exposes his need for something to desire.

Additionally, throughout the play, Willy repeatedly refers to his idols such as Dave Singleman, his father and Ben, as well as American legends such as Thomas Edison. Dino Felluga asserts that the ‘fantasy image of oneself can be filled in by others who we may want to emulate in our adult lives’, such as role models.[107] This concept is evident in the play, as Willy measures individual worth by the standard of the American Dream and his idols. Willy places an emphasis on the worth of each person through his or her individual success, and this is largely to blame for the troubled relationship between himself and Biff. Willy places high expectations on both Biff and Happy to become successful salesmen; his dreams grow to a mythic standard, which is evident as he refers to them as ‘Hercules’ and ‘Adonis’. As Willy remembers Biff’s sporting success at school, he recalls Biff ‘like a young God… God Almighty, he’ll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!’[108] In Willy’s idolisation of men like Dave Singleman and American legends such as Thomas Edison, he builds his ‘fantasy image’ of himself. The American Dream provides people, like Willy, with a standard by which to build their fantasy image.

Similar to The Great Gatsby, the concept of commodification can be seen throughout Death of a Salesman, in the characters’ relationships with each other as well as their self-perception. Commodification, the act of ‘relating to persons or things in terms of their exchange value’, meaning a value is placed on a person or thing in the fashion of a consumer.[109] Consumerism is an important element of the American Dream, as individuals are continuously encouraged to desire new things and gain material wealth. The consumerist aspect of capitalism reflects human nature’s ever-constant need to desire, as Slavoj Žižek claims, capitalism celebrates ‘the very desire to desire ever new objects and modes of pleasure.’[110] The human drive, or will, that Lacan argues comes as a result of desire is, as Žižek claims, ‘that which propels the whole capitalist machinery, it is the impersonal compulsion to engage in the endless circular movement.’[111] This suggests that the concept of consumerism, an important element of the American Dream, is an extension of the human need to constantly regenerate desires.

With regards to Death of a Salesman, Lois Tyson notes that ‘it is in the American Dream- specifically, in it’s relation to commodity psychology – that the play’s psychological and political strands are inextricably entwined.’[112]The ‘commodity psychology’ that Tyson refers to can be applied to the commodification of women exhibited by both Willy and Happy. Willy’s flashback to his affair with ‘The Woman’, recalls a conversation in which she affirms ‘you didn’t pick me, Willy. I picked you… I’ve been sitting at that desk watching all the salesmen go by, day in, day out. But you’ve got such a sense of humour…’[113] Miller doesn’t provide any personal details about Willy’s mistress, such as her name or her appearance, as these details are irrelevant, she simply represents Willy’s discontent with life. Willy’s affair with ‘The Woman’ provides him with a sense of superiority over the other salesmen in the company that he lacks in his career. Tyson comments that ‘For Willy, this woman was a commodity the acquisition of which conferred upon him the professional sign-exchange value he was unable to attain otherwise.’[114]

Similarly, Happy has an affair with the wife of an executive in his company, to attain a feeling of supremacy that he cannot attain in his own personal career:

I don’t know what gets into me, maybe I just have an over developed sense of competition or something, but I went and ruined her, and furthermore I can’t get rid of her. And he’s the third executive I’ve done that to… I hate myself for it. Because I don’t want the girl, and, still, I take it and – I love it![115]

Additionally, after learning of Biff’s failed attempt to negotiate business with Oliver, Happy abandons Willy at the restaurant to pursue women. In response to one of the women asking ‘Don’t you want to tell your father-‘, Happy replies ‘No, that’s not my father. He’s just a guy. Come on, we’ll catch Biff, and, honey, we’re going to paint this town!’[116] Happy’s determination to pursue the women, to the extent of abandoning his father, comes as a result of the disappointment of another failed dream, as he had just discovered his dream of the Loman Brother’s Sporting Goods company would no longer be possible. In a conversation with Biff, Happy boasts about his success with women, claiming ‘I get that any time I want, Biff. Whenever I feel disgusted.’[117] When success in his career is lacking, Happy looks to find self-worth in the attraction of women, similar to Tom Buchanan’s behaviour in The Great Gatsby.[118] Tyson suggests that:

In the Lomans’ case, not only are the family’s sexual attitudes compatible with the commodifying ideology of the American Dream, but, like that dream, the family’s sexual mores help them disguise and deny their own psychology and thereby avoid existential inwardness.[119]

This theory suggests that, when their fantasies are threatened, such as the brothers’ inability to start their own business, the Loman’s commodify women to overpower any feelings of failure. Furthermore, in Willy’s final act he commodifies his own life, committing suicide so his family can receive money from life insurance. The tragedy of Death of a Salesman is that, after decades of attempting, and failing, to sell himself as a commodity in the business world, the only way he can successfully sell himself is by selling his own life. Lois Tyson suggests that ‘Like all his other defences, Willy’s suicide draws on the same American Dream in which personal and financial success are at once wed in and transcended by sign-exchange value.’[120] The notion of self-commodification and commodification of others could be linked to the increasingly consumerist and capitalist nature of society, fuelled by human nature’s need to desire. Michael Spindler suggests that ‘The spirit of independence and self-reliance and a hierarchical status system created an anxiety- producing interpersonal assessment of social worth.’[121]

Throughout Death of a Salesman, Miller questions the validity of the American Dream as something to aspire towards. The setting itself represents the negative impact of the American Dream, as migration to the cities increased after the Second World War; increasing amounts of apartment blocks were built. This is presented in Death of a Salesman as Willy’s house is surrounded by towering apartment buildings that block out the sunlight. Sterling suggests that the ‘claustrophobic effect of the large apartments implies Willy’s insignificance and the idea that progress and business seemed to have passed him by.’[122] Willy acknowledges the claustrophobic nature of their neighbourhood as he complains ‘the way they boxed us in here… The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighbourhood. The grass don’t grow anymore, you can’t raise a carrot in the back yard.’[123] Similarly, it is noted in the play that ‘the entire setting is wholly or, in some places, partially transparent’, which Sterling proposes is an ‘indication of the hollowness of the American Dream and the failure of Willy, who falsely claims that his house is well built.’[124] The idea of the American Dream as ‘hollow’ mimics the Lacanian idea there is a ‘lack’ at the heart of human desires that drive circles. Sean Homer explains that the ‘drive always circles around its object but never achieves the satisfaction of reaching it. The purpose of the drive, therefore, is simply to maintain its own repetitive compulsive movement, just as the purpose of desire is to desire.’[125]  The hollowness of the Loman household, where they fantasise about their dreams of success, represents the hollowness of their desires, whilst their endeavours outside the house, such as Biff’s attempt at a meeting with Oliver, represent the drive that circles their desires.

Miller employs a ‘stream-of consciousness’ technique to allow the audience inside Willy’s psyche; this exposes the causes of Willy’s behaviour through his regressive flashbacks and imaginary conversations with Ben. Miller additionally utilises the set to imply the blurred lines between Willy’s reality and fantasy, as, during Willy’s fantasy episodes, the actors walk through the wall lines of the house instead of using the doors. In exposing the nature of Willy’s psych, the audience is offered an explanation as to his behaviour, his admiration and need to be like his father and Ben, as well as his need for hope for the future.

The character of Biff holds a perspective similar to Lacan, questioning as to whether one can truly attain happiness through the pursuit of the American Dream. In Act One, Biff informs Happy of his attempts at a career since leaving home:

it’s a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next fella. And still that’s how you build a future.

Biff’s description of an endless attempt to attain success links to Anthony Brandt’s theory that the American Dream ‘stretches endlessly and forever toward the horizon.’[126] Additionally, this concept links to Lacan’s theory that, as desire regenerates and reforms the closer we get to fulfilling our desires, one can never attain full satisfaction. This is evident in the play as Happy recalls a merchandise manager who ‘just built a terrific estate on long Island. And lived there about two months and sold it, and now he’s building another one. He can’t enjoy it once it’s finished.’[127] This supports the Lacanian theory that Homer expands on in suggesting that desire ‘refers to something beyond basic human needs that cannot be satisfied.’[128] Similarly, the fact that Willy, in spite of his inability to pay his mortgage, considers building two guest houses, as Sterling says, ‘manifests how unattainable the American Dream is for him and how out of touch Willy is with reality.’[129]

Death of a Salesman highlights the significance of fantasy in forming human desire, and in Willy Loman’s case, what occurs when the lines between fantasy and reality become blurred. Additionally, the play exposes the effect of the American Dream in giving people an unrealistic standard to aspire to. The legends of the American dream that Willy incorporates into his fantasy image of himself, dwarf him in comparison, and equally dwarf the success of those around him.

Conclusion

The American Dream, the ‘vision of a better, deeper, richer life for every individual,’ is a vision that, from an early age, humans fantasise for themselves. Lacan claims that humans, between the ages of six to eight months, go through a ‘mirror stage’, in which the child identifies itself as separate from the mother and the rest of the world. Lacanian theorist, Dino Felluga, notes that, in the mirror stage:

the child misrecognises in its mirror image a stable, coherent, whole self, which, however, does not correspond to the real child (and is, therefore, impossible to realise). The image is a fantasy, one that the child sets up in order to compensate for its sense of lack or loss.[130]

The concept of creating a fantasy image of oneself is, as Lacan argues, a process that continues throughout the course of human life. Felluga posits that, ‘in constructing our fantasy-version of reality, we establish coordinates for our desire.’[131] It is this ‘fantasy-version of reality’ that is presented in both Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, and Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. Jay Gatsby’s ever-expanding fantasy of his life with Daisy Buchanan began with young James Gatz’s ‘platonic conception of himself.’[132] Fitzgerald writes that Gatsby’s dream had gone ‘beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way.’[133] Similarly, Willy Loman’s fantasy image of himself, as a renowned and successful Salesman, is coloured with his idolisation of his father and brother Ben. Willy’s submission to fantasy, rather than reality, represents the human need to desire for something greater. The faults of the protagonists in both novels come as a result of the vitality of their fantasies; linking to Lacan’s claim that ‘the only thing of which one can be guilty is of having given ground relative to one’s desire.’[134]

The American Dream acts as a metanarrative of the human instinct to fantasise and desire for a greater future. The transformation of the American Dream, from its origins as a dream of a true democracy, to the more contemporary dream of material wealth, has reflected the desires of a nation rather than formed them. Lawrence R Samuel claims that, because the American Dream is ‘a product of our collective imagination, it could mean whatever we want or need it to mean, after all, something as ethereal as the concept of “independence” or as material as a new Cadillac.’[135] With the American Dream’s increasingly capitalist and consumerist nature, Slavoj Žižek explains it celebrates the ‘very desire to desire.’[136]

The American Dream is an accurate representation of the nature of desire, as Frederic Carpenter suggests, the American Dream ‘existed before America was discovered- indeed, it helped to discover America.’ The discovery of America was regarded as an almost biblical event, as Captain Edward Johnson claimed, it was a ‘new Heaven and a new Earth.’[137] This vision of America, the American Dream, is a projection of the nature of human desire, mirroring the evolution of society. Lawrence R Samuel remarks, it ‘has always managed to bounce back to life, each miraculous recovery both shaping and reflecting a renewal of the American spirit.’[138]

It is the constant presence of the American Dream, and the transformation it has undergone since the discovery of America, that proves the nature of human desire as ever evolving. Lawrence Samuel suggests that the American Dream ‘is more about the journey than the destination, the getting there always more exciting than the arrival.’[139] This supports the Lacanian theory that desires purpose is ‘not to realise its goal, to find full satisfaction, but to reproduce itself as desire.’[140] In John Miller’s book, Origins of the American Revolution, he quotes a statement from the Royal Governor of Virginia in 1774, claiming that the Americans ‘for ever imagine the Lands further off are still better than those upon which they are settled’ and that ‘if they attained Paradise, they would move on if they heard of a better place farther west.’[141] The green light beckoning from across the bay as true in 2014 as it was in 1774...