Stunting For The Jones In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman
Stunting for the Jones
Stunting is a word used to describe a person who is showing off or trying to get attention by performing a stunt and being someone they are not, when in actuality your life is a disaster. In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the main character Willy Loman is a salesman whose quintessential American Dream is flawed and directly linked to his self-worth and his eldest son Biff’s achievements. Consequently, Willy’s failure to achieve his idea of the American Dream, becomes results what he believes is a personal failure and identity crisis. As a man deep in the memories of the past and controlled by his fears of the future, Will views himself a victim of bad luck accepting very little responsibility for his failures. However, it was not an ill-fated destiny that drove Willy to commit suicide and destroy his family; it was his distorted set of values. As a young boy, Biff, Willy’s oldest son showed athletic promise and charming personality that made him proud. Willy instilled in Biff and Happy; that in order to be successful in life all you needed was personality and great looks. He put little emphasis on hard work and repeatedly throughout the play applauds his boys for their popularity. For example, when a neighbor boy, Bernard attempts to get a young Biff to study for his Math regents, Willy …show more content…
The exploration of the theme of failure and identity within a success oriented society is something which not only had relevance for those who believed in The American Dream but which still has great significance for our own contemporary society. For today's audience, Willy Lowman remains a symbolic figure of failure, partly because of society's false value system but partly because of Willy's own inability to confront life with
Stunting is a word used to describe a person who is showing off or trying to get attention by performing a stunt and being someone they are not, when in actuality your life is a disaster. In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the main character Willy Loman is a salesman whose quintessential American Dream is flawed and directly linked to his self-worth and his eldest son Biff’s achievements. Consequently, Willy’s failure to achieve his idea of the American Dream, becomes results what he believes is a personal failure and identity crisis. As a man deep in the memories of the past and controlled by his fears of the future, Will views himself a victim of bad luck accepting very little responsibility for his failures. However, it was not an ill-fated destiny that drove Willy to commit suicide and destroy his family; it was his distorted set of values. As a young boy, Biff, Willy’s oldest son showed athletic promise and charming personality that made him proud. Willy instilled in Biff and Happy; that in order to be successful in life all you needed was personality and great looks. He put little emphasis on hard work and repeatedly throughout the play applauds his boys for their popularity. For example, when a neighbor boy, Bernard attempts to get a young Biff to study for his Math regents, Willy …show more content…
The exploration of the theme of failure and identity within a success oriented society is something which not only had relevance for those who believed in The American Dream but which still has great significance for our own contemporary society. For today's audience, Willy Lowman remains a symbolic figure of failure, partly because of society's false value system but partly because of Willy's own inability to confront life with