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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. Corrupted by their father, Biff and Happy also can not attain success. Biff fails to find a steady, high-paying job even though he's 30, and he hates the business world, preferring instead to live on a farm in California. Happy, on the other hand, has a fairly well-paying, steady job, but still suffers from emptiness and a sense of being lost, a void which he fills by sleeping around with many women, some of whom are even married or engaged. Thus, Miller uses motifs, such as deception, theft, and hallucination, to show the pathology that all three of these characters experience in the wake of the American dream.
Miller's use of lies throughout the book reveals the madness that results from the pursuit of the American dream. Happy habitually lies to others and to himself because he cannot face reality and wants to seem better than he is. When he is at a restaurant with Biff, Happy tries to impress a girl, saying that "at West Point, [people] called [him] Happy" and that he sells champagne (Miller 102). He tries to grab her attention by talking about money and he hopes that he will be more appealing if he claims that he is rich and successful. The American dream is all about money, which Happy lacks, so he pursues the dream in his own way -- by pretending that he is wealthy because he knows that he will never be. When Willy comes into the restaurant, excited to hear about Biff's meeting with Oliver, Happy encourages his brother to lie, saying "[Biff] told [Oliver] my Florida idea" (108). Once again, Happy believes that he will be worthless to his father without money. Therefore, he tries to mask his and Biff's failure with deception, in order to disguise the fact that he has not achieved wealth. Happy learns this behavior when he is a young boy from Willy, who urges Happy to "be careful with those girls, don't make any promises" (27).
Happy Loman has grown up to be a well-adjusted man of society. He has developed from a follower to a potentially successful businessman. Throughout his childhood, Happy always had to settle for second fiddle. Willy, his father, always seems to focus all his attention on Happy's older brother Biff. The household conversation would constantly be about how Biff is going to be a phenomenal football star, how Biff will be attending the University of Virginia and be the big man on campus, how Biff is so adulated among his friends and peers, and so on. Young Happy was always in Biff's shadow, always competing for his father's attention but failing each time. Happy would resort to such antics as laying on his back and pedaling his feet backwards to capture his father's attention but to no avail. Willy would continue to not take notice of his younger son and maintain his attention on other matters that he thought were of greater importance. Growing up under these conditions is what motivated Happy to be the man he is today.
...am. It's the only dream you can have-to come out number-one man.(…) I'm gonna win for him" (p.138-139). He thus reinstates that Willy's dream is realistic and attainable. Biff on the other hand, has a firm grasp on reality, and chooses not to make the same mistakes his father made: "He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong."(p.138).The contrast between Happy and Biff definitely re-emphasises an ongoing gap between reality and illusion throughout the entire play, and brings about a better understanding of the depth of Willy Loman's tragic flaw. Hence, this strive for success as defined by the American dream has only room for a few men. An impossible dream for the average man that Happy will never attain, a dream rejected by Biff that finally searches within himself for happiness rather than in the eyes of the one that beholds this fallacious dream, his father.
Success: Accomplishing Your Dream Completing the "American Dream" is a controversial issue. The American Dream can be defined as having a nice car, maybe two or three of them, having a beautiful, healthy family, making an impact on the world, or even just having extra spending money when the bills are paid. In the play "Death Of A Salesman," by Arthur Miller, the "American Dream" deals with prosperity, status, and being immortalized.
think it’s because we no longer had to worry about freedom, we filled the gap of
With his first 10 lines of dialogue, he brings up to Biff how “about five hundred women would like to know what was said in this room.” Then, Biff and Happy shared a laugh. Almost immediately in the play, we find out how Happy is with girls and it even gets worse. Only a few lines away, Biff said “I bet you forgot how bashful you used to be, especially with girls.” The Happy replied saying “Oh, I still am, Biff.” Happy also expresses the fact that women cannot resist him. He states that he has “ruined” three of his executive’s wife just for pleasure. He rightfully enjoys it. He states on page 15, "I hate myself for it. Because I don't want the girl, and, still, I take it and — I love it!" This connects him to Willy in a way. Willy's life in the play shows a man in his attempt to forget his affair, while Happy's life includes him actively attempting to create affairs with multiple women. At the restaurant, we see for the first time how Happy treats women. He misguides them in this case from the start. Right away, he offers the women a drink of “his company’s” wine. He then compliments her looks by saying she should be on the cover of a magazine. Then, once again, he lies to the women by saying that Biff is a pro football quarterback for the New York Giants. Then, after the women leaves the stage Happy says that “That’s why I can’t get married. There’s not a good woman in a thousand. New
The perfect example of the dysfunctional American Dream is that of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Willy innermost desires result in lies and extreme failure. James Lee says, "Arthur Miller's tragic drama is a probing portrait of the typical American psyche portraying an extreme craving for success and superior status in a world otherwise fruitless." In the business of sales there is room to either fail or succeed. Willy likes to think that if he's just a nice guy he can be the best salesman ever. He continuously lies to himself, as well as his family, about his status in the business world (Miller, 49). He believes that he's on the verge of success and it will come to him soon if he keeps working hard (Miller, 84). But in reality, the only kind of financial success is that of his brother Ben. In extreme contrast to the American Dream, Ben achieves quick money from a discovery in a foreign land (Miller, 67). James Lee points out:
Miller uses the misapplication and failure of the "American Dream" to captivate the audience and make them feel sorrow for both Willy and Biff Loman. It is heart breaking to see this sixty-year-old man finally come to the realization that he is really not who he thought he was. In addition to that, the fact is pointed out by his own son, who turns out to be wiser than him. Unlike Willy, Biff finds out who he is, and that the American Dream is not for everyone.
Barack Obama made history by being elected President of the United States, twice. This is just one more example that the American Dream is without a doubt achievable. Its pursuit is not easy; it requires undeniable hard work, modesty and optimism. Armed with these characteristics, seekers of this lifestyle will undeniably succeed. Success, though, is an interesting concept, for it can entail many superficial qualities. Willy Loman, the tragic hero of the play Death of a Salesman, sees only the superficial qualities of this dream. He views success solely as likeability (linked with attractiveness), and wealth. Ignoring all methods to honorably achieve these, Arthur Miller demonstrates how Willy’s search for the superficial qualities of the American Dream lead him to his own despair.
The Characters of Biff and Happy in Death of a Salesman No one has a perfect life; everyone has conflicts that they must face sooner or later. The ways in which people deal with these personal conflicts can differ as much as the people themselves. Some insist on ignoring the problem for as long as possible, while others face up to the problem immediately to get it out of the way. Biff and Happy Loman are good examples of this, although both start from the same point, they end up going in different directions with Happy still living in his world of lies and Biff, being set free by the truth. Happy Loman is Willy's youngest son and is often over shadowed by his older brother Biff and ignored
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.
In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of A Salesman, Willy Loman strives to achieve the American Dream for him and his family. The American Dream is defined as the equal opportunity everyone in the United States has to succeed and live a fulfilling life. However to achieve the American Dream, one must be determined and persevere when faced with hardships. Failing while trying to achieve the American Dream is inevitable, but it is how one learns from their failures that matters. This is very difficult for Willy because throughout his whole life he has failed, but he is never able to come to terms with it. His obsession for the American Dream hurts him and his family. He believes that the American Dream should be obtained easily. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise when he gets fired from his job. Throughout the play, as Willy’s failures become more prevalent, he begins to lose himself and this eventually leads to his downfall. Willy just wants for his sons, mostly Biff, to become successful
To begin with, Willy's strongly believed that if an individual had lots of money and a high paying job he or she was successful. Willy this idea so much to the point that both Happy and Biff caught themselves embodying it. Biff and Happy embodied this idea mostly in his early adulthood, by believing that if they united and took on the selling business together they could maybe be successful
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 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 defended Biff for stealing just because he was an amazing football player.
The Loman boys are the final representatives of the American Dream. First, the two men represent the failure in the search of the American Dream. When the two sons make statements like, "I'm thirty-four years old, I oughta be makin' my future, and, "Pop, I'm nothing! (Miller 1884)" They know they have not accomplished success. The two do not have a clue about how to reach dreams above their parents. When their father puts down such people as Bernard it is no question of why the two are misled. In addition, Happy Loman believes that the key to the American Dream is through his father. As a boy, Happy would impress his father with statements like, "I lost weight, Pop, you notice? (Miller 1890)" These statements didn't end with his childhood. Even as an adult he would say, "I'm getting married, Pop, don't forget it. I'm changing everything. (Miller 1909)" These are clues that Happy only found happiness in pleasing his father. However, Biff Loman takes his own thoughts about the American Dream to a different level. His dream is surfaced around, "Working out in the open, (Miller 1884)" as he states to his brother. Without any rules or barriers Biff wants to accomplish this aspect of his American Dream.