Death Of A Salesman American Dream Essay

In “Death of a Saleman” by Arthur Miller the American dream is described as a phoney dream. This is proved when willy dies. This story is of a common man who portrays the American dream, the play takes place in 1948 which is the time in which the American dream was very big. The American dream is the idea that if you work hard you will achieve success and prosperity like many people dream of a house, a family, a car and a job they enjoy as the American dream.

Willy wants to achieve the American dream. He would like to leave his thumbprint on the world. This means that he wants to to be remembered however he was a salesman which isn’t a job in which you would most likely be remembered. He also believed that being liked was the key in order

There are flashbacks in the play which show that Willy chooses to live in the past through memories and flashbacks in order to convince himself of his success. As we see Willy’s mental state gets worse, the boundaries between past and present disappear and the two start to exist in parallel Willy once says “ Don’t say? Tell you a secret, boys don’t breathe it to the soul. Someday I’ll have my own business and I’ll never have to leave home anymore” (act 1) this shows that once Willy believed that he could he could achieve the American dream and he believed that until he hit a certain point. His relationship with Biff was going bad and his affair was discovered. The American dream influenced his decisions , his flaw revolves around the fear of being displaced from his past. Around a time he was so sure of the future of his life and things were going well, he hoped that Biff would become well liked and make it to the business world. However Biff thinks the opposite and tells him “ will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens..” (pg 133) this shows the Biff did not believe in the American Dream, he calls himself “nothing” showing that future that Willy has in mind for him was not