Preview

The American Dream - Death of Salesman

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1961 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The American Dream - Death of Salesman
There is something magical and sometimes overpowering to the majority of mankind: It is the thing that allows people to live in mansion 's with helipad 's as well as underground society forced to live in the many tunnels and passageways under New York City and to beg for their meals. Although this is definitely the extreme that I have described. It is sometimes indescribably cruel and other times very gracious. This thing that I write about is the American system. In Arthur Miller 's moving and powerful play, "Death of a Salesman", Miller uses many character to contrast the difference between success and failure within the system. Willy is the dreamy salesman whose imagination is much larger than his sales ability, while Linda is Willy 's wife who stands by her husband even in his absence of realism. Biff and Happy are the two blind mice who follows in there father 's fallacy of life, while Ben is the only member of the Loman family with that special something needed to achieve. Charlie and his son Benard, on the other hand, enjoy better success in life compared to the Lomans.

The play romanticizes the rural-agrarian dream but does not make it genuinely available to Willy. Miller seems to use this dream merely to give himself an opportunity for sentimentality. The play is ambiguous in its attitude toward the business-success dream, but does not certainly condemn it. It is legitimate to ask where Miller is going. And the answer is that he has written a confused play because he has been unwilling or unable to commit himself to a firm position with respect to American culture. Miller prepares us for stock response-relief in escape to the West and the farm; firm satisfaction in the condemnation of the tawdry business ethic.1and then denies us the fulfillment of our expectations. The play makes, finally, no judgment on America, although Miller seems always on the verge of one, of telling us that America is a nightmare, a cause of and a home for tragedy. But Willy is



Cited: Eisinger, Chester E. "Focus on Arthur Miller 's 'Deathe of a Salesman ': The Wrong Dreams," in American Dreams, American Nightmares, (1970 rpt In clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1976 vol. 6:331 Foster, Richard J. (Confusion and Tragedy: The Failure of Miller 's 'Salesman ' (1959) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 26:316 Gardner, R. H. ("Tragedy of the Lowest Man," in his Splintered Stage: (1965) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 2l6:320 Gordon, Lois "Death of a Salesman": An Appreciation, in the Forties: 1969) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 26:323

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In this essay Goodman retaliates at the middle class, constantly trying to become the upper class in a fit of greed lost in a fog. The Company Many is an ironic essay, in which the main character “Phil” represents every American that loses touch with reality in the fog of ambition. Phil is the ideal hardworking man, dedicated to his cause, and all that he believes to be good and just, yet losing all that is real. For Phil’s goals are nothing but ideals.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In this literary analysis piece I will be breaking down the popular play by Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. Death of a Salesman, is a very riveting story that follows Willy Loman, a retiree-aged working class business man living in New York. Who deals with troublesome denial, and uses the events of the past to deal with his problems of the present, this begins to create more problems for Willy as he becomes unable to separate past events with current events. Along with intense financial strain as an ageing business man in a new era of business. Willy feels pressured to be very financially successful and well liked person by himself, and the people around him like his brother, Ben, and his neighbor, Charley, who has a very successful son who is a lawyer. Willy, along with many people in the real world, suffers…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death of a Salesman is a tragedy about the failures and shortcomings of the American Dream. It follows the last days of an old and failing salesman, and slowly exposes his dysfunctional relationship with his family, his many unfulfilled dreams, and his progressive mental deterioration, which eventually leads to his suicide. Death of a Salesman was written by Arthur Miller, a prominent American playwright. In the play, he criticizes the blind pursuit of the American dream, and to a certain extent, capitalism.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In conclusion, “The Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller greatly examined the famous American Dream, theme of betrayal, as well as abandonment. In trying to achieve the American Dream, Willy took his life. The Dream consumed his world until he was no more. However, within the mindset of the American Dream, it did indeed have one positive aspect. Part of the Dream is to wish that your children amount to more in life than yourself and this is what Willy tries to do in the play. Though Willy and Biff have feelings of betrayal towards each other, both intended good will upon each other. The play has proven to be riddled with many human emotions.…

    • 116 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bill Cosby once said, "I don't know what the key to success is, but I know that the key to failure is trying to please everyone." Arthur Miller created a character who in many ways was directly related to the statement of that exact quote. Willy Loman was his name, selling was his game. All his life, Willy tried to achieve the "American Dream." Therefore, Willy had to do things in an American way and think like a capitalist. Willy was a hard worker, yet it seemed as though nothing ever went right for him. The American society and mental outlook were probably the two most influential motives that caused the pure products of America to go crazy.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stanley Vs Dubois

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For Arthur Miller’s “The Death of a Salesman” and Tennessee Williams “Streetcar Named Desire,” the middle class became a central driving force for both plays. The two focused on the desire to achieve the American Dream, while highlighting distinct social patterns which causes a weakened and weary middle class. Central to their stories are two men, Willy Loman and Stanley Kowalski. Willy Loman believes there is a better America for him; however this America is clearly out of his reach. Stanley Kowalski never complains about the America he lives in, instead he claims to be a true American, born and raised. As a proud American he claims to be a social leveler, refining his current America and getting rid of what he deems unfit. Loman and Kowalski…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman“ is a play illustrating the life of a man wanting success but takes his life for his family to be financially stable. At the story’s heart is a tragic depiction of the protagonist, a man who wants to be successful, who wants his kids to be successful, he wants to live the American dream. Miller balances the literary devices of of flashbacks, motifs, conflicts and characterization to perceive the cost of the American Dream.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play “ Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, presents a common view of the American dream. The main character, Willy Loman, struggles to become a successful salesman; he’s trying to make himself feel better by lie to his family and himself. He holds onto a strong belief in the American dream.Willy cannot face the reality and begins to daydream how to success. Although he gets fired by his boss, Willy never seems to give up on his dream, and refuse to accept a job that Howard offered to him in order to retain his pride. In this play, Miller creates a character in Willy, whose determination, belief, and dreaming illustrate the person within a capitalistic society.…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play, Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, there are a number of ways Willy Loman shows his version of the American Dream. The most obvious way is him thinking that any man who is manly, good looking, charismatic, and well-liked deserves success and will naturally achieve it. Willy Loman buys into the dream so thoroughly that he ignores the tangible things around him, such as the love of his family, and imposes this dream on his boys who become paralyzed by the falseness of it. In the end, Willy demonstrates that the American Dream can also turn a human being into a product whose sole value is his financial worth.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman's Suicide

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the ashes of the Great Depression, the American Dream lives. Willy Loman, a salesman, drives on endlessly, searching for buyers and a reason to continue. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman perfectly captures the struggle of everyday Americans looking to find success in the struggling economy of early 20th century America. Miller’s artfully crafted play proves through the character of Willy Loman that everyday people can have the flaws and experiences that create tragic heroes.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When most people think of a hero they think of superheroes, a famous celebrity, a great sports player, or their parents. Would someone call a forgetful and stubborn person a hero? Chances are they would not. In Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman,” Willy Loman is not a tragic hero because he does not fit Aristotle’s assertions that a tragic hero must arouse pity in the reader, feature a hero that is good, and feature a hero whose downfall is “brought upon him not by vice and depravity but by some error in judgment.”…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “The ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American” (Dictionary.com). The American Dream is “a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S” (Dictionary.com). The image of America is presented negatively in the novel The Great Gatsby and the play Death of A Salesman because it is depicted as a materialistic lonely place.…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 2031 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The Loman way, was it the hard way or the correct way? In Death of a Salesman, the main character, Willy Loman is a traveling salesman and is living his own version of the American Dream. He travels the northeast region of America, through numerous towns and hotels to support his family. His wife Linda and his two sons, Biff and Harold aka Happy, live in their home in Brooklyn, New York that is nearly paid off. Throughout the movie, Death of a Salesman ,[ Volker Schlöndorff,1986] and the play that I read (Literature, A Portable Anthology, 2nd Edition, pg. 1026 – 1104), my observation was that Willy was tired, unhappy, and felt like a failure. In Jacobson’s article, he says “What Loman wants, and what success means in Death of a Salesman, is intimately related to his own, and the playwright’s sense of the family. Family dreams extend backward in time to interpret the past, reach forward in time to project images of the future, and pressure reality in the present to conform to memory and imagination. These “ideals,” these dreams, can be examined in terms of four variables: transformation, prominence, synthesis, and unity.” (Jacobson, 248.) His main concern was his son Biff’s future. Two things I have noticed were that Willy Loman had high expectations for his son and was an overbearing father to Biff Loman. Willy Loman was at the end of an approximately 34 year long career. He had begun to see himself as a failure and he started having delusions. What is the meaning to the story: 1) Do we work hard to support our family and force our expectations on our children? 2) Do we work hard to support our family and then give our children freedom to choose their own futures without guidance? 3) Or do we help them achieve health, happiness, and success by encouraging pursuit of their dreams?…

    • 2031 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When it comes to families, all ours are different and what separates our family from the next person is the way we act toward each other. What makes a tight family is how they can communicate with each other, not putting one person over the other and treating everyone just as equal. However in”Death of a Salesman’’ by Arthur Miller, the Loman family was pure an example of a dysfunctional family. They were a family who fed off lies, dreams of success, and phony relationships. Arthur wanted to send the message of how there’s a difference between working hard for success and finding the “in’s and out’s”, the way Willy believes. He might want to take advice about success from Booker T. Washington who said” success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” Arthur Miller shows with Happy, Willy, and Biff that success is not only seen as a goal but also as a weakness. Each character plays a big role on why the family is so dysfunctional; the only character who seems normal was the mother. The relationship Willy had with his boys was night a day between Biff and Happy. However his “golden child” wasn’t so much a “golden child”.…

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Willy Loman’s ultimate American dream was a fantasy. He believes any person can rise from misfortunate beginnings to greatness. Willy searches for a moment in his memory where he started to fall off. Willy’s flaw is that he’s delusional with the reality of his work ethic. Willy doesn’t let his own children find themselves. “Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays