A Foolish American Dream in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Willy Loman is responsible for his own downfall. Willy finds his
own hero and tries to become the hero in his own existence. Willy tries to
become a very successful businessman, at the start of his career he thinks
that no one can tell him what to. Willy is not good with people, he is
good with his hands, he is not a good salesman and he chooses the wrong
career. Willy often makes up stories or changes the stories he knows
because he cannot face the truth of his life that he has not accomplished
as much as he has planned. Willy's downfall is his own doing which is
brought about by his unrealistic dreams, his pride, his career choice and
his failure to manage life's problems.
Willy, at a young age, noticed an old salesman who worked at an age
of 80 and made a lot of money. The old salesman took orders from no one, he
made his own orders and everyone did as the old man said. When the old
salesman, Dave Singleman dies, all the buyers came to his funeral. All the
people Dave ever knew came. There were thousands mourning his death. From
that point, Willy Loman found an awesome dream which he followed the rest
of his life. Willy became a salesman. Willy is the most unqualified
salesman ever! He never sold a thing. Willy stops seeing the truth at one
point of his life and he relies on his own lies to numb his pain. The pain
of knowing he cannot and wont be able to become Dave Singleman. He is
Willy Loman, who is good at fixing the house. He is not cut out for
travelling from city to city and selling goods to people he has never met
before. Willy dramatically dies living out his dream, the dream that never
suited Willy Loman.
Willy does not allow people to tell him what to do. He believes
that he cannot be bossed around and that he is too important to fall under
anyone's authority but his own. Willy teaches Biff and Happy not to take
orders from anyone. He thinks this will make Biff, Happy and himself
“Can’t you see what he’s doing...He’s finding out how much we’re charging so he can undersell us...And Father’s face would light up with a kind of pleasant surprise...But Corrie, people will save money when they buy from him...I wonder how he does that.”(Ten Boom, 28)
This false confidence from Willy may temporarily give him and his wife a positive mood, but it does not do him any good in the long run. He uses this false confidence to make his wife happy, and to put away her worries. Willy almost sounds like Lennie from Of Mice and Men, which further emphasizes how detached he is. He is also tricking himself into thinking that he is doing well, which has a negative effect. Happy also exhibits this false confidence in Act One, when talking with Willy.
According to Miller, a tragic hero is someone who dies for personal dignity. Willy does die for his dignity. “Those who act against the scheme of things that degrades them.”(Miller. Tragedy of the Common Man) Willy, in his ideas and action of committing suicide, fits in that category. In act 2, Willy reveals his desires to win back Biff’s respect by committing suicide.
A white picket fence surrounds the tangible icons of the American Dreams in the middle 1900's: a mortgage, an automobile, a kitchen appliance paid for on the monthly - installment - plan, and a silver trophy representative of high school football triumph. A pathetic tale examining the consequences of man's harmartias, Arthur Miller's "Death of A Salesman" satisfies many, but not all, of the essential elements of a tragedy. Reality peels away the thin layers of Willy Loman's American Dream; a dream built on a lifetime of poor choices and false values.
Success: Accomplishing Your Dream Completing the "American Dream" is a controversial issue. The American Dream can be defined as having a nice car, maybe two or three of them, having a beautiful, healthy family, making an impact on the world, or even just having extra spending money when the bills are paid. In the play "Death Of A Salesman," by Arthur Miller, the "American Dream" deals with prosperity, status, and being immortalized.
Willy was an old man with a wife and two sons. He worked as a salesman
Willy Loman equates success as a human being with success in the business world. When Willy was a young man, he heard of a salesman who could "pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, make his living." 8. This salesman is Willy's inspiration; someday to be so respected and so well known that he can still provide for his family, even at an old age. Of course, Willy is no good at being a salesman because his heart isn't in it.
Willy Loman’s character in Death of a Salesman portrays him as a tragic hero. Willy Loman continued to want his recognition and his reputation but never forgets about his family. These characteristics describe him as a tragic hero in Death of a Salesman.
Willy lived everyday of his life trying to become successful, well-off salesman. His self-image that he portrayed to others was a lie and he was even able to deceive himself with it. He traveled around the country selling his merchandise and maybe when he was younger, he was able to sell a lot and everyone like him, but Willy was still stuck with this image in his head and it was the image he let everyone else know about. In truth, Willy was a senile salesman who was no longer able to work doing what he's done for a lifetime. When he reaches the point where he can no longer handle working, he doesn't realize it, he puts his life in danger as well a others just because he's pig-headed and doesn't understand that he has to give up on his dream. He complains about a lot of things that occur in everyday life, and usually he's the cause of the problems. When he has to pay for the repair bills on the fridge, he bitches a lot and bad mouths Charley for buying the one he should of bought. The car having to be repaired is only because he crashes it because he doesn't pay attention and/or is trying to commit suicide. Willy should have settled with what he had and made the best of things. He shouldn't have tied to compete with everyone and just made the best decision for him using intelligence and practicality. Many of Willy's problems were self-inflicted, the reason they were self-inflicted was because he wanted to live the American dream. If he had changed his standards or just have been content with his life, his life problems would have been limited in amount and proportion.
According to this definition, we can see that human resource management should not merely handle recruitment, pay, and discharging, but also should maximize the use of an organization's human resources in a more strategic level. To describe what the HRM does in the organization, Ulrich, D. & Brocklebank, W. (2005) have outlined some of the HRM roles such as employee advocate, human capital developer, functional expert, strategic partner and HR leader etc.
An organizational human resources department utilizes the hiring and firing process to meet the organization’s personnel needs. Organizational human resource departments are charged with the oversight of an organizations administration department. The practice of hiring and firing people is a process employer’s conducts on a daily basis. This process has to be done in a proper manner and not in haste. The implication that can occur from the improper hiring and firing process could and can have a positive or negative impact on an organization. Therefore, employers must carefully evaluate their decision to hire/fire individuals and its impact on the organizations’ workplace environment and others employees. Human Resource Management is important for an effective organization. In today’s organization, HRM is valuable to the organization because of increase legal complexities and its known for improvement in productivity. However, management should realize that poor human resource management could result in an outburst of hiring process followed by firing or layoffs. According to (Satterlee 2013, p. 194), “Hiring the best candidate who is also a good fit for the organization is crucial for the success of an organization, because a poor hiring decision will have repercussions across the entire organization”. Satterlee made a valid point because poor hiring could have an impact on the bottom line performance of the firm. In other words, HRM is the contributing factor to the success of the organization including motivating and maintain the staffs. The purpose to the motivation is to ensure that all employees grow to a full potential. According to (Sims 2006, p. 5), “HRM efforts are planned, systematic approaches to increasing organizati...
According to our textbook Human Resource Management (HRM) is the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees’ behavior, attitudes, and performance. “The human resources management process involves planning for, attracting, developing, and retaining employees as the HRM planning provides the rights kinds of people, in the right quantity, with the right skills, at the right time (Lussier, 2012, p. 240).” According to our textbook the typical responsibilities of the Human Resources department fall into three categories, and they are administrative services and transaction, which handle hiring employees. The second involves business partner services that focus on attracting, evolving, retaining employees by having a clear understanding
Willy's goal throughout life was to climb out of his social class. As a salesman, Willy was a failure and he tried desperately to make his sons never end up like him. As a result, he loses his mind and his grasp on reality. Throughout the story, Willy often has flashbacks of the conversations that he and his brother Ben once had and the author intertwines them in past and present very nicely.
Human Resource Management (HRM) can be defined as “the set of programs, functions, and activities designed and performed in order to capitalize on both employee as well as organizational effectiveness. It is a management function that helps organization in recruiting, selecting, and training, developing and managing
Willy's main flaw is his foolish pride, this it what makes him a tragic hero. Yet there are many facets to his personality that contribute to the state he and the family are in during the play. His upbringing of the boys is one major issue, he raised them with the notion that if one is well-liked, he need not worry about qualifications, he believed that if his boys were popular they would come out on top. Sadly, he doesn't realize that the only way an ordinary person can get rich is through work (represented by Bernard) or through luck and good timing (Ben), and Willy missed the boat when it came to ...