The False Hope of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman

Zachary Moore Professor Lindquist English 102 2 April 2013 The False Hope of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman The American Dream is something every American family strives to achieve some families push too hard to get to the place where they feel that they have achieved this dream; this is the case in the life of the Lomen family. The Lomen’s are the typical American family in the 1940’s. Willy and his wife Linda are a middle class family with two sons named Biff and Happy. Willy is an ageing traveling salesman that is struggling to accept the fact that he is not as successful as he would like to be. His sons have also not lived up to the standers of Willy’s dreams either. In Willy’s eyes to attain the American Dream you have to be well liked, have a nice house, make lots of money and have a successful family. He always dreams of having all of these things but has never came close to achieving them. The fact that he has lived his whole life trying to accomplish this false hope of the American Dream is what leads to his downfall in life. The goals and standards he set for him and his family were out of reach. The American Dream is something that is not attainable for him or his family. The American Dream is to have the freedom to succeed in life it is not measured by the amount of things you have or how well like you are. Willy set unrealistic goals in life for himself and his family thus giving him the false hope of achieving the American Dream. The false hope of the American Dream leads to the demise of Willy because of his ideas for reaching this dream were deeply rooted in pride, abandonment and betrayal. Willy was a very prideful man in all aspects of his life he took pride in his job and his sons. Though the pride was almost always fabricated in his head it was always there and he displayed it everywhere and in almost everything he did. This pride was not a reality for the most part the Lomen family struggled to

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