How Does Willy Contribute To The American Dream

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Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is centered on the American Dream and the characters’ pursuits of it. Willy lived his life as a salesman, and was considered unsuccessful, as Charley said in the requiem of Death of a Salesman “a salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory” (Miller 111).Willy is an important character, he has many dreams that can be categorized as hallucinations, as well as a bigger dream that loomed over his life such as that of the American Dream. Willy was ultimately unsuccessful in his pursuit of such dreams. However, he did have a chance as his initial dream was not wrong but the ways he chooses to achieve his dreams were.
The American Dream is sought after by Willy throughout the story. Several other things branched off this ultimate goal. Such as being liked by all people, he wanted to be well liked to a degree of desperation that ultimately results from him being abandoned by his own father and brother. In Willy’s mind, he thought to be successful …show more content…

One major thing is rotted down in personal family issues from his childhood. Passed down as he tries to be someone his father wasn’t through forcefully handcrafting a perfect family that adheres only to his one set of standards. Which in turn backfires as it leaves his sons Happy and Biff, with Biff especially, a lost sense of self-identity throughout most of their lives. Another factor is Willy’s inability to listen to the advice of others as well as several false beliefs such as being well liked equating to success in business, as in the quote “Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not liked, he’s liked but he’s not well liked”(Miller 18) although being well liked is a factor in successful business willy’s prioritizing of it to an extreme extent over things like education and hard work as well as the unhealthy nature of this obsession with it lead to his

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