Specific and Societal Shortcomings

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Specific and Societal Shortcomings

Shortcomings, whether it is of a person, society, situation, or nation, are often revealed through literature and media. In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, the specific shortcomings of American life are explored, with an emphasis on social, economic, and personal issues. Willy Loman could be seen as a possible embodiment of all of these flaws, but an argument could be equally made that he is an innocent victim, due to the inherent problems in all societies, but especially in American life.

Willy’s social skills are less than impressive. His frequent public outbursts are embarrassing to those around him and also inappropriate for someone of his age. In public, his sons feel the need to act as if “he’s just a guy” (Miller 115). His outbursts, first at his former employer’s office, and then later at a restaurant, continue to get worse and worse, causing awkward feelings between him, his friends and family, and the general public. Societally acceptable behavior is definitely not one of the eldest Loman’s strong suits. As time progresses, America has strayed further and further from this aforementioned acceptable behavior. Those from before Loman’s time would have described even his most normal actions as, especially “in the business world…, crazy”, and because of all his added “crazy” actions, he feels that those in the business world “don’t seem to take to [him]” (61; 36). He fears that his sons will be “a worm like Bernard,” and his obsession with these impressions that they would make on people ends up backfiring and practically ruining the rest of Biff’s life (40). However, it could be argued that Willy is simply a product of his environment. Everything that befalls him j...

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... downfall as well.

Many personal issues in American society are also explored through Miller’s telling of Willy Loman’s life, or rather, his road to death. These factors interact and join together, causing greater and greater troubles; his unsound economic and social statuses are both a factor and a product of his unstable family life. In a country plagued with debt and a fifty percent divorce rate, it’s obvious that the “American dream” isn’t necessarily a reality. An obsession with the “American dream” and an obsession with trying to achieve it will almost always lead to the exposure of the reality of American life—all that glitters isn’t gold. Even a seemingly perfect, nuclear family can have the biggest of issues. In some cases these issues are completely hidden, in others they are completely obvious, and yet other situations may be somewhere in between.

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