Death Of A Salesman American Dream Essay

It has been said the “Death of a Salesman” is a harsh criticism of the American Dream. The idea of the American dream is seen as a chance to go to a country with an empty frontier to be explored, where a man could be whatever he wanted, rather than having to do what his father did. Salesman challenges the effects of the American dream.

One of the central themes of the story is the struggle of each character's pursuit of the American Dream. This can be seen by each of the Loman men following their own versions of that dream.

In the play "Death of a Salesman," Arthur Miller creates Willy Loman, the protagonist, to be a salesman. To Willy the American Dream is the ability to achieve success through the appeal of the people. Willy believes that personality is the key to success, and because of this his career begins to collapse as his abilities as a salesman fail to increase. Then when he uses “personality” to get a raise, he gets fired instead. As you can see, Willy’s version of the American Dream never pans out.

This idea is presented when ben says, “William, when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich!”

Willy is covetous of his brother’s success. Ben’s character signifies that a few people can achieve the “rags to riches” version of the American Dream. This could be what influences Willy’s idea of the American Dream. Willy never saw the amount of work that Ben put in to go from “rags to riches”, thus he just assumes it related to the personality of his brother, and not the hard work and dedication it had.

Biff, Willy’s son, is pulled by two different dreams. One dream is brought forth by the pressure his father puts on him to become part of the business and sales world. Whereas, the other dream involves nature and working with your hands, which is what Biff would really rather