Death Of A Salesman American Dream Essay

One of the biggest themes of “The Death of a Salesman” is the American dream. The American dream is a concept where you are rich and powerful and you have the perfect life. This is something Willie desperately wanted and tried his very best to achieve it but by the end of the play he's dead. Oddly, his fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likability is a lot more gritty, and more rewarding towards the understanding of the American dream that identifies hard work without complaining as a key to success. What is interesting to me is that even though he wanted this dream, he did not want to work for it. Not only that but he constantly contradicted himself, as in a perfect life, he would not have committed adultery. Yet,

Another theme was abandonment. His father had left him and his older brother when he was young and I personally believe that is what could have led to his psychological downfall. Instead of cherishing his sons the way they were, he tried to change them and even ignored the youngest son Happy. Instead he focused on Biff’s betrayal to him, which is another theme in this book. Willy's primary obsession throughout the play is his oldest son’s betrayal of his ambitions for him. Willy believed that he had every single right to tell Biff what to do and to expect the absolute most out of him. He wanted him to be a successful young man yet when Biff refused he took it as an insult, for in a way he could not sell his dream to his own son, so how could he sell to random strangers? A great symbol in this book is the seeds. His desperate attempt to try and grow the vegetables signifies his shame about his job and the fact that he was not doing well in it. He was not able to help his own sons any more than his own abandoning father helped him. The seeds represent for Willy the opportunity to prove himself and his job both of the salesman and as a