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Impact of Society in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman examines outside influences on the individual. These influences include society as a whole, the family as a societal unit and beliefs which the individual thinks he should espouse. In order to understand Willy Loman and the struggles with which he is dealing, the society in which he exists must first be understood. He is relying upon a slightly different set of values and motivations than everyone else seems to be, and this sets him apart. A prime example of the rest of society is Willy’s brother, Ben.
In sociological terms, Ben is a classic representative of the old, 19th century middle class, while Willy represents the new, dependent, salaried, pathetically other-directed middle class. Ben’s character is clearly inner-directed… While Willy stresses the importance of personality, of being ‘well-liked’ and acceptable to the world, of pleasing others, while insisting on proper form, dress, manner, and style, Ben ignores all of this. (Martin 56)
Willy is looking to the rest of society for guidance, to see how he needs to act in order to be successful by their terms. Yet he cannot fully let go of the belief that his way of trying to “please all of the people all of the time” is right. Society is made up of people like Ben who are focused on getting ahead. It is an industrial society which is quickly expanding; people have to move quickly to stay on top. They do not have time for the old ways anymore. Willy has been working for many years, but he has not been able to keep up. Ultimately, this is why he is let go from his job. His boss, Howard explains it to him.
Howard: I don’t want you to represent us. I’ve ...
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While there is some disagreement as to what the effect of Willy’s actions ultimately will be on Biff after the curtain goes down, it is clear that Willy’s behavior destroyed the family unit as the Loman’s knew it and destroyed Willy as well. The play does, however, end with the focus on the remaining member of the Loman family. They are still a societal unit, and they must continue to live in the material modern world as best they can.
Works Cited
Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Costello, Donald P. “Arthur Miller’s Circles of Responsibility: A View From a Bridgeand Beyond.” Modern Drama. 36 (1993): 443-453.
Martin, Robert A., ed. Arthur Miller. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982.
---. Eight Plays. New York: Nelson Doubleday, 1981.
At the beginning of the play it is evident that he cannot determine the realities of life, and so he repeatedly contradicts himself to establish that his conclusion is correct and opinion accepted. These numerous contradictions demonstrate that Willy is perturbed of the possibility that negative judgements may come from others. Willy strongly believes that “personality always wins” and tells his sons that they should “be liked and (they) will never want”. In one of Willy’s flashbacks he recalls the time when his sons and him were outside cleaning their Chevy. Willy informs Biff and Happy the success of his business trips and how everyone residing in Boston adores him. He mentions that due to the admiration of people he does not even have to wait in lines. He ultimately teaches his sons that being liked by others is the way to fulfilling one’s life and removing your worries. These ideals, that one does not need to work for success, demonstrate Willy’s deluded belief of achieving a prosperous life from the admiration and acceptance of others. This ultimately proves to be a false ideology during his funeral, when an insufficient amount of people arrive. Willy constantly attempts to obtain other’s acceptance through his false tales that depict him as a strong, successful man. In the past, he attempts to lie to his wife, Linda, about the amount of wealth he has attained during his
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Print.
Tania Bruguera is a performance, installation, and video artist. She was born and grew up in Havana Cuba; and she currently works in New York and Havana. Cuba has the toughest laws regarding freedom of expression. These laws are the reason Tania creates the works she does. Her goal is to attack the control the Cuban government has on communication of the people. She often encourages involvement from her audience. Tania explores outlets for the people of Cuba to express themselves without fear, and she pushed boundaries set by the government of the country she was born in.
Although, his narcissism exhibits the common issue with American capitalism-it leads to greediness, unhappiness, and anger. This yearning for success can also cause an obsession with appearance and the self, which is a main focus in Willy Loman’s life. He says that to get somewhere, it is good to be “built like (an) Adonis,” which he tells his sons. At one point in his life, he felt he never had to ask for anything, and that when he walked in a room, he got what he wanted because “‘Willy Loman is here!’” Eventually, Willy ages and lacks the flair that he once had, and is left with unimpressive salesman skills. Due to America’s obsession with appearance, old-age is a plague to American society. The superficiality causes those to enjoy charisma over passion. This leads to arrogance, a common American worker to be. Willy Loman is a mirror being held up to the faces of American worker-bees. He avoided risks, and continued living a monotonous, easy life. Miller is attempting to say, monotony is a dangerous habit America has. This play intends to steer readers into a direction of following their own path, rather than following the norm; the norm is nothing new, and fails to reach anything
Baym, N. (2007). he Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. A. New York: W. W. Norton.
Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, portrays the cost of selling oneself to the American Dream. Willy Loman, the central character, is madly determined to achieve affluence that he overlooks the value of his family and himself in the process. He instills in his sons, Biff and Happy Loman, that being charismatic will hand them a prosperous lifestyle. Happy trusts in his father’s ideology while Biff’s beliefs contradict them. Biff deems that success is a product of happiness and contentment, not a paycheck. Out of all the sociological theories, social conflict best emphasizes the author’s perspective of how conflict, through class and family, can deteriorate the American dream. By analyzing the play’s themes- social class and family- through the sociological perspectives: structural-functional, social conflict, and symbolic interactionist, we can predict what drives these characters to behave and perceive things the way they do.
Like countless characters in a play, Willy struggles to find who he is. Willy’s expectations for his sons and The Woman become too high for him to handle. Under the pressure to succeed in business, the appearance of things is always more important than the reality, including Willy’s death. The internal and external conflicts aid in developing the character Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
The key aspect of cultural awareness is understanding the differences between people from other countries, races, beliefs and values. Individuals who are culturally aware are accepting of other cultures; they also make an effort to understand other cultures. Others will label these cultures as “incorrect” owing to the fact that they lack the understanding of cultural awareness.
Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
The lymphatic system is a link of tissues and organs that help clear the poisonous toxins, waste and further unwanted elements that are inside the human body. The key function of the lymphatic system is to transport lymph which is a watery fluid substance holding infection that are fighting white blood cells, all over the human body.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York:
Social class is a major factor in Death of a Salesman. Willy is a salesman. Willy believes that success comes from being well liked and popular and has tried desperately to instill his notions to his two boys Happy and Biff, Willy's biggest aspirations in life. His wife Linda is extremely supportive and is Willy's only connection to reality. While raising his boys and trying to instill his "American Dream", he fails to teach them any sense of morality, leading them down to what he feels is the wrong path. At one point, he defends Biff for stealing just because he was an amazing football player. "Loaded with it. Loaded! What is he stealing? He's giving it back, isn't he? Why is he stealing? What did I tell him? I never in my life told him anything but decent things." (Pg 41. Act 1)
Based on the philosophies of Karl Marx, Marxism has developed into both a political direction and a social theory. There are two social classes: the proletariat (blue-collar) and the bourgeoisie (white-collar). This capitalist society is prevalent in Death of a Salesman. In the play, salesman Willy Loman struggles to support his family while nearing his retirement. Willy is part of what Marx describes as the proletariat class and wants desperately to believe and prove he is worthy of a higher class. By accepting materialistic ideals, Willy and his son Biff struggle to make ends meet, finding themselves routinely stuck in the working class. Biff, however, is eventually able to understand the faults of his father’s dream and attempts to gain more happiness in life by not attempting to ...
Vitamin D, also known as the “sunshine vitamin” because it can be made naturally by the human body when exposed to the sun, is a fat-soluble nutrient that absorbs calcium and works with it to improve overall health and to build strong, healthy bones. It is important in making sure that the lungs, muscles, heart, and brain work well and that the body is capable of fighting off infections. In addition to maintaining your health, vitamin D also allows for nerves to carry messages between the brain and every other part of the body. All in all, vitamin D is very important for the human body.
Vitamin D has been established as an antirachitic for over 80 years and its effects on calcium and bone metabolism have been the main focus for the majority of its research years. Despite the countless medical advances of recent years, there has been a resurgence of vitamin D deficiency around the globe. Largely due to insufficient sunlight exposure, many individuals nowadays are suffering from cardiovascular diseases which could be attributed to hypovitaminosis D. The mechanisms behind these diseases are not entirely understood, however many suggest that Vitamin D regulates bodily functions through its effects on parathyroid hormone production and the renin-angiotensin system. Vitamin D deficiency is thought to cause increased inflammatory, parathyroid effects and endothelial function failure while also increasing vascular rigidity. A close link between vitamin D and cardiovascular diseases has been established by symptoms evidenced in experiments.