Willy Loman, a travel salesman, lives in fear because his idea of the “American Dream” is distorted and not set in reality. His distortion of the “American Dream” leans itself to evaluating success and failures throughout the play. When Willy is young and truly believes in himself and the idea of having a successful life, he and his wife Linda purchase a house in Brooklyn. He is proud of the home and feels that it is far removed from the city and will be the perfect place to raise his family. As the years pass, Willy struggles to pay for his home, while the city starts to encroach and eventually surrounded the house. Willy’s house becomes “trapped” by the tall buildings that have surrounded I, “they boxed us in here.” The house …show more content…
The wire recorder symbolizes the many material objects wealthy businessmen could provide for themselves and for their families. Howard tells Willy, “the most terrific machine I ever saw in my life.” Willy wanted this lifestyle; he wanted “something he could lay his hands on” (Miller pg. ). Being successful would not be enough; Willy wanted to be able to show people the material that he had accumulated to represent his success. The wire recorder shows that Howard has reached this level of success that Willy longs for. Yet while the recorder symbolizes the wealth and power of Howard, it also represents Willy’s discouragement and failure. Willy is in Howard’s office fighting for his job, for his and his family’s security, and Howard is much more interested in the wire recorder than he is in Willy’s plight. He fires Willy, all the while playing with his new toy. While Willy is experiencing ultimate failure in the business world, the loss of his job, Howard is focusing on his own success, represented by the wire recorder. The wire recorder also reflects Willy’s inability to learn new technologies and adapt to society. Willy is an old-fashioned guy who made no attempt to change or evolve. He cannot even figure out how to turn off the wire recorder when he is left alone with it. Instead, he panics and calls for Howard to come help him. Not only is Willy afraid of new technology, but also he honestly believes that the old ways are best. Even when it becomes obvious to everyone else that his outdated sales tactics aren’t working, he still believes in them. He tells Howard the following statement as he begs for his job, “In those days there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear — or personality. You see what I mean? They don’t know me anymore.” Once again, Willy’s inability to change
After seeing both his father and brother find success, Willy attempts to prove himself to his family by chasing after his own version of the American dream. Willy grows up in the “wild prosperity of the 1920’s” when rags-to-riches tales inspire everybody, making them believe that “achieving material success [is] God’s intention for humankind (Abbotson, Criticism by Bloom). Willy’s father, a “very great” and “wildhearted man,” made a living traveling and selling flutes, making “more in a week than a man like [Willy] could make in a lifetime” (Miller 34). Even though Willy barely knew his dad, he built him u...
Willy pleads for Ben’s advice, and is constantly trying to get his attention, even though Ben has to ‘leave’. Ben is Willy’s older brother who has died. He, unlike Willy, has experienced a lot of success in the selling world. Willy is driven by Ben, and therefore tries to extract the keys to his success. Willy feels neglected when Ben does not speak with him, even though he is merely a hallucination.
Miller’s use of personification and symbolism in the book shows the situational irony that surrounds Willy. This highlights the overall message of blind faith towards the American Dream. The major case of irony in the book is Willy’s blind faith in the American Dream. This belief is that if one is well-liked, they will become successful. The truth is actually completely opposite. The real belief is that if one works hard, with no regard to how well liked they are, they will be successful. This relationship is shown between Willy and his neighbor Charley. While Willy believes likability is the only way to success, Charley works hard and does not care how people think of him. Through his hard work, Charley started his own business, and is now very successful. Willy, however, ends up getti...
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
As someone who is on the other side of success, Willy has an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. He has lost most of the business contacts he enjoyed when he was younger, and has not been successful in updating his selling methods for the generation he is now interacting with. His relationship with everyone centers on fantasies and exaggerated truths, and is an attempt to show to others that he is successful, but most see through this and it ultimately results in his alienation from society. The American Dream for Willy is elusive even though he worked hard and followed its success formula. Hi...
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 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...
When the term ‘American Dream’ was first mentioned in 1931 by James Truslow Adams, he described it as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” (Clark). When Adams mentioned the term, it had much more of an idealistic meaning, rather than the materialistic meaning it has in modern society. At the time of it’s mention, the dream meant that prosperity was available to everyone. In the beginning, the American Dream simply promised a country in which people had the chance to work their way up through their own labor and hard work (Kiger). Throughout history, the basis of the dream has always been the same for each individual person. It
...ated by her brief attendance at Rubicam’s Business College, and her even briefer encounter with Jim, the gentleman caller, cause her to retreat further into her illusory world of glass figurines. In the case of Miller’s Loman family, the tragic element is that they do not realize that the security and contentment they desire are commodities that cannot be purchased. As a result, Willy Loman does not realize that he has placed the highest value on what is no more than a myth and illusion. Willy equates success to being well-liked and personally attractive. His dreams of a better future become powerful fantasies that make it impossible for him to distinguish illusion from reality. (JANARDANAN, " Images of Loss in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Marsha Norman's night, Mother, and Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive", 7-8)
The tape recorder signifies the change in Willy's life through the advancement of technology. It also represents the end of Willy's career. This is brought about when Howard, Willy's boss and godson, shows the tape recorder to Willy and appears to be more interested in the sound and technology of the machine instead of Willy, who is fighting for his job. Howard no longer needs Willy's services and without concern fires him. This, "Willy, was like, "eating the orange and throwing away the peel".
Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman”, primarily focuses on the flaws and failures of Willy Loman, Millers’ main character in this story. Willy’s distorted and backward views of the American Dream, paired with his inability to let go of the past lead him down a road of regret and in the end his biggest failure which was his wasted life.
Willy had affected his family with the obsession of the American Dream and this has caused suffering in his family. Each family member responded differently to Willy, however he caused them all suffering. Linda lived in fear of Willy committing suicide, Biff believed he was unsuccessful most of his life, and Happy was always looking for approval which he never received. Willy’s interactions with his family affected how they felt and inadvertently because of him they all suffered. Without Willy’s obsession with the American Dream they all could have lived happier lives and if that doesn’t make one wonder how slightly twisting an ideal can ruin one's life what
Willy Loman had believed in the American Dream throughout his life, passing it on through his children. However, he had not known that his vision of the American Dream had not only corrupted himself and his children,
Moreover, the psychological view of Willy Loman is shown as a person who works as a traveling salesman and decides to commit suicide because the “American Dream” overwhelms him. As Charley says in the story: “the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell”. He is a normal person “who embodies traditional American values of success.”(Hansberry) In fact, Willy Loman wants to a great extent believe that he is one of the finest salesmen, a winner in life and a great father. For Mr. Loman, the accomplish...
Willy Loman is a firm believer in the "American Dream:" the notion that any man can rise from humble beginnings to greatness. His particular slant on this ideal is that a man succeeds by selling his charisma, that to be well liked is the most important asset a man can have. He made a living at this for 30 years, but as he enters the reclining years of his life, people have stopped smiling back and he can no longer sell the firm's goods to support himself. His ambition was one of greatness, to work hard and to be a member of the firm; and if he could not succeed in this respect, that he should at least be well-liked and be able to sell until the day of his death: When his friends would flock from all over the country to pay their respects.