Preview

Willy Loman and the American Dream

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2002 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Willy Loman and the American Dream
Willy Loman, in the play Death of a salesman, believes that being physically attractive and well liked by people, are the only necessary ingredients to attain the American dream. Willy works his entire adult life trying to become an astounding salesman, such as Dave Singleman. In Willy’s mind, Dave is the epitome of a successful salesman and “thus, the dream has shaped in Willy’s mind. All his life has been spent trying to imitate this person” (Danqing 27), until he finally realizes that his hard work has got him nowhere. “I’ve got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” (qtd. in Delbanco and Cheuse 332). All of the actions Willy makes and the choices he decides upon, come back to greatly affect him and his family. Willy Loman in Death of a salesman becomes a victim of society’s superficial expectations as he relentlessly tries to pursue his idea of the American dream. Willy so greatly desires a life with money and admirers that he eventually drives himself crazy as he tries to attain his dream. Willy is constantly mumbling on about nonsense throughout the play. He talks to himself, he talks to people that he creates as figures of his imagination, and he day dreams about the past. Over hearing him arguing with himself, leaves Biff and Happy worried about their father’s state of mind. Linda, Biff, and Happy are talking in the kitchen as Willy walks out, continuing to ramble on and on to himself. Biff’s fears are heightened when “Linda reveals that Willy’s car accidents have actually been suicide attempts” (Moss and Wilson, par. 23). Not only does Willy talk to himself, he also gets caught up in memories and finds himself talking to his deceased brother, Ben, out loud. As Charley and Willy are playing cards the image of Ben enters the room. Willy, speaking to Charley, remarks, “I’m getting awfully tired, Ben” (302). As he continues to carry on conversations with Ben and Charley simultaneously, Charley catches on to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The characterisation of Willy is but one of Miller’s strengths in the play, for he cleverly uses time to show how Willy’s mind has been manipulated by the stress of his failings. Willy experiences flashbacks which his mind perhaps uses in order to protect him from the harsh truth of his present life. Willy’s two sons, Biff and Happy are fully grown, with Biff having turned sour towards his father and rejected the vision his father had for him. Still, Willy in his vulnerable state transports himself back to the time when Biff was a young, promising high school athlete who idolised his father and his ideals. Instead of encouraging academic achievement, Willy ensures his sons that if they are ‘liked’ they will ‘never want’. Sadly for both Willy and Biff, this was a delusion which saw Biff become the very…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play Death of a Salesman Willy Loman takes his life, to make his family financially stable, something he couldn't do when he was alive. His perception of the American dream was to be well-liked in the world of business, but this is what causes his death. He had too much pride in himself, he lives his life in the wrong way. He thinks that you don't have to work hard to be successful but to know people in the business and be well-liked by them. Once Willy realizes what his life was like he went crazy and loses it, resulting to his tragic…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the play the main focus point is Willy’s volcanic relationship with his eldest son Biff, in which he is on the same path as his father. “WILLY: Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff. (Act 1)” Willy sticks to his gut and hopes that Biff will be the greatest major business entrepreneur. He’s desperate for Biff to follow in his foot steps even though his advice is not the reality of the new world they live…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better 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

    In Deaths of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a salesmen who is trying to achieve the American Dream just like everyone else in the world. In his head he believes to be this well liked and huge successful salesmen. In reality he is more of a self-conscious man who tries to live his fantasy he has in his head while being deceitful to not only himself but his own family as well. Throughout Death of a Salesman, Willy has several slogans that he attempts to live his life by.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people go through life without a purpose or doing a job they hate. In Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman thinks this isn’t the case for him. He is working the best job in the world, being a salesman, like his hero Dave Singleman. Dave Singleman still sells from his bed and Willy admirably thinks this is because he loves it. The real reason is because Dave never made enough to retire. However, Willy doesn’t know he is gravely mistaken and has failed to realize who he really is. This has caused him to instill these mistaken qualities in his sons, Biff and Happy. Willy’s lack of a father figure plays into his flaws such as obsession with money and hubris. He has had some virtues as well like putting his family first and working…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman’s obsession with the American Dream and its ideals has strongly affected the people Biff and Happy have become. Due to Willy’s teachings and influences, both his sons lead a different life from what they expected. Willy believed that his sons’ attributes would lead them to a successful lifestyle with no conflicts. Yet, being well-liked and attractive lead both sons to live a lie, nowhere near success. Biff becomes an underachiever who can’t hold a job, and feels dissatisfied with the fact that his life has been based on a lie. Happy lives in his brother’s shadow, becoming his father’s younger self, lying and manipulating reality to his favor.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 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

    With failure comes consequences, unfortunately Willy fails to acknowledge severity of his. Near the end of the play Willy’s advice seems unreliable in Biff’s eyes due to Willy’s failure to acknowledge his defeat in life and many of his past mistakes that only Biff knew about. Willy chased his American Dream for far too long leading to the destruction of him and his…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy’s inability to recognize the actual reality of his situation is first seen during the scene where Ben is introduced. In this scene, Ben tells of their father’s success as a salesman and his own rapid success with diamonds in Africa. As a result of this “interaction”, Willy believes that either he or his sons will have a similar kind of success. The confused man does not take into account that Ben happened to be extremely lucky…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One major flaw of Willy is his reliance on false hope. This can stem from his son, Biff. As seen in imaginings, adolescent Biff looks up to Willy as a great man, causing him to seek for his approval. In high school, Biff has many athletic achievements and is well liked. His awards cause for Willy to have high hopes in what he can conquer later in life. This developed vastly and became an influence in Willy’s mood. When he has a sense of hope to hold onto, he is liberated of his daily pressures. When Biff and Happy are at the restaurant with…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Willy was delusional, Ben's character would appear. Willy always seemed to be happy when he talked to Ben, even though he was really talking to himself. Ben would offer advice to Willy when Willy thought about him. After the restaurant incident, in which Biff and Happy abandon Willy at the steakhouse, Willy was once again "visited" by Ben. Ben told Willy how his family would be financially stable from the insurance money if Willy died. This "conversation" is what influenced Willy Loman to kill himself in an automobile accident.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As with Hamlet, Death of a Salesman has a major theme of family. Willy believes in what he considers the promise of the “American Dream”, owning a house, having a wife, two children and a white picket fence and the idea that a “well-liked” and “attractive” man will lead to a life of fortune and riches. Oddly enough he becomes obsessed with that idea after his brother tells him that he can become rich if he had gone to the jungle with him, but Willy believes that you have to have a job in the city and be a travailing salesman to have what he considers the American Dream. That assumption is based on the…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Willy Loman has a very specific dream, a contorted version of the American dream. Willy dreams of being successful and providing for his family, but also to be popular and well liked: a spin off the classic American dream, which is generally just to have a happy life. Driven by his need for success and popularity, Willy ignores his calling for nature and throws all his heart into becoming a salesman. Willy is enthralled by the story of Dave Singleman, his inspiration and idol. “I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ‘Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and…

    • 2822 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most famous work written by Arthur Miller is a play that talks about a typical working class family living in the United States during the 1980's. Because many people feel identified to this story, it became an American classic. My expectations of this story were achieved, for the title you can imagine there is going to be a death, but I didn't expect a suicide. The authors goal is to expose the problems that a working class family has to face and how each family member could react to them. During the story, Miller reveals the reality of many people who work hard and try to reach the American dream, it also exposes the unemployment situation that many elderly people suffer, employers decide to reduce their jobs or in the worst case, as…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics