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Literary pieces wrt the american dream
American Dream in American novel
American Dream in American novel
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An American dream is a dream that can only be achieved by passion and hard work towards your goals. People are chasing their dreams of better future for themselves and their children. The author Arthur Miller in Death of a Salesman has displayed a struggle of a common man to achieve the American dream. Willy Loman the protagonist of the play has spent his whole life in chasing the American dream. He was a successful salesman who has got old and unable to travel for his work, and no one at work gives him importance anymore. He is unhappy with his sons Happy and Biff because both of them are not successful in their lives. Moreover, Biff and Happy are also not happy with their father Willy because they don’t want to live a life that Willy wants them to live. The heated discussions of Willy and his older son Biff affect the family and the family starts to fall apart. However, Willy is unable to achieve the American dream and does not want to face the reality that his decisions for himself and his family have lead him to be a failure in the society. In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the protagonist Willy Loman spends his whole life to achieve the American Dream by his own perception and denies facing the reality, just like nowadays people are selling themselves and attempting to find success in life.
The American dream described in the play can be achievable, but Willy’s ways of achieving that American dream leads him to a failure. According to an article published by the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, the play builds the idea of American dream that it is harmful and immoral as long as it is based on selfishness and greediness. However, the dream us described realistic when it is achieved on values that ar...
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...ut money and power, it’s about the equality of time between your work and your family needs, the better we understand and realize, the more successful we can be in this society.
. American dream is no doubt the best way to get successful in life. However, the understanding of the American dream is very important. Miller has beautifully described the life of Willy Loman following the American dream and also the opposing side of American dream with the success of Charlie and Ben. The most important part is to face the reality and believe in your-self. In Death of a Salesman, the author Arther Miller has done a fabulous approach by highlighting the life of Willy Loman following the American dream without facing the reality and accepting failure in life, as in present people are following the American dream without knowing their aim in life just like Willy Loman.
The American dream was about being self-sufficient, owning private land and given a chance to start a business with no limitations to success as the migrants lived in a prosperous country. In Of Mice and Men and A Death of a Salesman, Steinbeck and Miller explore the principles of what the American dream actually was. In Of Mice and Men, most of the characters, including George Milton and Lennie Small, have the dream of making themselves become something in the “land of opportunity” and “to have a little land”. In my opinion, George and Lennie have the most ordinary, stock American dream which is what many people who travelled to America in the 1920s were dreaming of. Whereas in A Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman has already achieved beyond the ordinary American dream by having a car, house, loving family and a well-respected job with decent wages but he does not believe he has achieved his version of the American dream, that of his two sons to start a great business together, “The Loman Brothers”. However, both Biff and Linda are more realistic and appreciate that that dream is beyond impossible. Whereas Happy has inherited Willy’s attitude and hopes to accomplish his father’s dream. In the requiem, Happy says, “I’m going to beat this racket!” and this shows that he has not realised that the cause of
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman exploits the notion of the American Dream and the promises made by the American Government towards its citizens. Throughout the play, Miller makes references to dreams that each character carries but the failure in the fulfilment of the same. He recaptures the disappointments and disillusionments that the American nation suffers from for the American Dream is as well as death. Miller was the first playwright of his time who sheds light on this fact that the dream that every American carries a torch for is dead and gone.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman focuses on the American Dream, or at least Willie Loman’s version of it. *Willie is a salesman who is down on his luck. He "bought into" the belief in the American Dream, and much of the hardship in his life was a result. *Many people believe in the American Dream and its role in shaping people’s success. Willy could have been successful, but something went wrong. He raised his sons to believe in the American Dream, and neither of them turned out to be successful either.
“American Sociology 's Investigations of the American Dream: Retrospect and Prospect” is an article that discusses the sociology and the different views that people have on the American Dream. According to this article, sociology has developed a history of studies dealing with each person’s American way of life, and the role the American dream has played on society. Because each person has a different dream they take on different roles in society. Everybody has a different job and contributes differently to society. This article is related to Death of a Salesman because of Willy’s version of the American Dream. He says to Happy and Biff, “I’ll show you all the towns. America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there’ll be open sesame for all of us, ‘cause one thing, boys: I have friends” (Miller 1440). Willy refers to the people as being kind hearted and having respect for anyone who appears physically attractive. Willy believed that in order to achieve success you must appear physically attractive and work in the business field. The role he played in society was a failed business man who struggled to be successful. He had a hard time fitting in with society creating a difficult lifestyle for
For over 100 years people have immigrated to America in hopes of achieving the American Dream. Ideas behind the American Dream date back to the Declaration of Independence which states, ‘all men are created equal’ and that they are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights’ such as ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’. Of course, the definition of the American Dream and what it means in today’s society has changed over the years, and can also be defined different ways by different people, but a standard definition would historically include a person being successful and making a decent life for themselves and their family through hard work and dedication. The idea of the American Dream is incredible, and has received the attention of many. People all over the world have dreamt of moving to the United States and starting a new, free life for themselves, but is the American Dream even attainable? In today’s society the American Dream appears to base its idea of success off of material items like money and expensive possessions, so how can someone fully achieve the American Dream when there is always something new to buy? When does the American Dream become the American Nightmare? In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1926), Jay Gatsby is the perfect example of someone desperately aspiring to achieve the American Dream, but in the midst of his endeavors, takes his eye off the prize and loses himself in the materialistic world that surrounds him. Another character that struggles in his quest to attain the American Dream is Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949). Willy dedicated his entire life to becoming a successful salesman, but focuses too much on popularity and achieving material c...
Linda, Willy’s wife, seems to have a fairly small role in the play. She believes that the American dream is achievable by anybody, and supposedly is even the reason that Willy is un...
What is the "American Dream?" How does one define success? Many people hold different views on how to obtain true happiness. One common view is the accomplishment of something yearned. A majority of individuals desire love, compassion, and a family. On the other hand, there are those concerned with self-image, material items, and the fact that money can indeed buy true happiness. In Arthur Miller's play DEATH OF A SALESMAN [published by Ted Buchholz (1993)]--the story of a sixty-three year old man named Willy Loman striving to achieve the "American Dream" and his family who suffer as a cause--contains many examples of trying to achieve material success. Willy's ultimate dream concerns following in his brother Ben's footsteps and rising to be a successful salesman. Willy Loman wanted success so badly that he lost a realistic sense of himself. He wished the same for his sons, Happy and Biff. Yet his struggle for popularity, authority, and money for success caused his downfall. Unfortunately for Willy, most of his dreams were illusions. He was unable to come face to face with this fact. Willy Loman's definition of success warped his view of himself and that of his sons.
Failure of the American Dream in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a story about the dark side of the "American Dream. " Willy Loman's obsession with the dream directly causes his failure in life, which, in turn, leads to his eventual suicide. The pursuit of the dream also destroys the lives of Willy's family, as well. Through the Lomans, Arthur Miller attempts to create a typical American family of the time, and, in doing so, the reader can relate to the crises that the family is faced with and realize that everyone has problems.
The pursuit of the American dream can inspire ambition. It can transform a person and cause him to become motivated and hard-working, with high standards and morals. Or, it can tear a person down, to the point of near insanity that results from the wild, hopeless chase after the dream. This is what occurs to Biff, Happy, and Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's book Death of a Salesman. In the play, Willy Loman is a traveling salesman whose main ambition in life is wealth and success, neither of which he achieves.
In brief, it is apparent that Willy’s own actions led to not only his own demise, but his children’s as well. The salesman tragically misinterpreted the American Dream for only the superficial qualities of beauty, likeability and prosperity. Perhaps if Willy had been more focused on the truth of a person’s character, rather than purely physical aspects, his family’s struggles and his own suicide could have been avoided. On the whole, Arthur Miller’s play is evidence that the search for any dream or goal is not as easy and the end result may seem. The only way to realize the objective without any despair is the opposite of Willy Loman’s methods: genuineness, perseverance and humility.
One major theme in Death of a Salesman is the pursuit of the American dream. Playwright Arthur Miller details main character Willy Loman’s misguided quest of this dream. Death of a Salesman was written in postwar America, when the idea of the American Dream was a way of life. The United States was flourishing economically, and the idea of wealth was the base of the American Dream. Capitalism was alive and well, and by living in a capitalist society, everyone in America was supposed to have a chance to become rich and successful. Miller makes the reader realize this dream is a falsehood, because it doesn’t always work for everyone as planned. In the play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a prime example of someone trying desperately, yet unsuccessfully, to pursue the false hope of the American Dream, directly resulting from capitalism’s effects.
The first component of the American dream, in Willy’s eyes is a successful career. Always the dreamer, he attempts to make his mark as a salesman because “selling [is] the greatest career a man [can] want” (1492; Act 2). But when he falls short of his goals, he blames the superficiality of the business world, as evidenced in his thoughts about Bernard:
In today’s society the term “American Dream” is perceived as being successful and usually that’s associated with being rich or financially sound. People follow this idea their entire life and usually never stop to think if they are happy on this road to success. Most will live through thick and thin with this idealization of the “American Dream” usually leading to unhappiness, depression and even suicide. The individual is confused by society’s portrayal of the individuals who have supposedly reached the nirvana of the “American Dream”. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Willy thinks that if a person has the right personality and he is well liked it’s easy to achieve success rather than hard work and innovation. This is seen when Willy is only concerned how Biff’s class mates reacted to his joke of the teachers lisp. Willy’s dream of success for his son Biff who was very well liked in High School never actually became anything. Biff turned into a drifter and a ranch worker. In the play “Seize the Day” Tommy who is financially unstable also pursues the idea of getting to the “American Dream” and becoming wealthy. He foolishly invests his last seven hundred dollars and eventually loses it leaving him broke and out of work. In both plays following the American Dream is followed in different characters and in both the characters are far away from it leaving them broke and forgotten by almost everyone.
Willy Loman's definition does not differ greatly from mine, although while trying to pursue this dream, Willy's mind slowly drifted further and further away from reality. The "American Dream" is the idea that any man or woman can make his or her own fortune, despite his or her past. Willy is trying to achieve success through this thought, believing that being "well liked" and working hard will be enough to ensure his success. Willy was wrong. Social class is a major factor in the death of a salesman.
In conclusion, the play represents the collapse of the “American Dream” for a typical lower-middle class family in Brooklyn during an economic depression. The story represents “the brutality of the system toward man” (Kroll). Willy, with his illusions of living the present with the mementos of the past represents the unwanted desire to accept reality. Therefore, he decides to commit suicide in a coward way and leave the insurance money to the family. Moreover, his wife sees the whole process of Willy’s death without interference in order to not hurt his pride. His sons, Biff and Happy, always had a constant pressure to achieve luxuries and comforts of the American Dream and due to that pressure they were unable to attain it. Willy dies believing in a dream that his family did not believe because they were seeing reality a little bite closer than him.