Almost every moment of their lives, people hope and dream of a better life for themselves or for another person they love. Yet, no matter how hard they try, the hope they had almost never comes true. I am unable to reach that hope because hope is a false hope. A false hope is the hope that something will become a certain way, but never become as hoped. False hope is present in Richard Wright's Black Boy, Arthur Miller's “Death of a Salesman,” and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, in the way the characters don't fully realize it's false and do their best to realize their “false hope”. Their hopes provide the adrenaline throughout the journey and, although they turn out to be false, they strengthen the characters. Therefore, false hopes are an important factor in character development and growth. Hopes that turn out to be false are the adrenaline that drives the characters forward and the motivation for their actions. In "Death of a Salesman", Willy hopes that his sons, especially Biff, will become successful businessmen like he himself wanted to become. His hope, which he discovers will almost never come true, motivates him to give even more to help his children realize his lifelong dream. His hope for them was originally hope for himself when he was young, but since he failed, it is a natural feeling to want his children to have a better life than he did. This motivation, unfortunately, is the motivation to commit suicide, unaware that this will not help his family financially. His motivation is very different from the motivations of other characters in American literature. It really shows that he is a sacrificial, but somewhat ignorant father, who... middle of paper... responds badly or doesn't trust anyone and becomes an overall better person. As seen in many types of American literature, false hopes motivate many characters to move forward for their hopes and dreams. Once they realize that the hopes are false, they try to heal the wounds created through these false hopes and, as a result, become a different, stronger person. This not only refers to many types of literature, but it refers to many modern-day lives. Life is a process of hopes, so either not realizing it or realizing it, which rarely happens in its fullness. It's amazing how it relates to human life and there are certainly many more themes and terms that relate to our lives as individuals, we just don't know it yet. Or do we know this and simply don't apply the lessons learned to our lives? We'll just have to find out for ourselves.