Competent vs Competitive: Death of a Salesman Essay

While the play primarily focuses on Willy’s dream, Death of a Salesman also observes Biff and his American Dream, which may be construed as the “right” one. Compared to his father’s, Biff’s dream is a simple one: own a ranch and labor in the countryside close to nature, happy and content. And yet as his father increasingly pressures him to pursue a dream more aligned to his own, Biff experiences an identity crisis of sorts, desperately seeking to please Willy by taking a job in business but always failing in his efforts. Eventually, he realizes that he cannot be his father, and, at Willy’s funeral, contrasts his earlier statement regarding Willy’s state of mind with one regarding his own person: “I know who I am, kid” (Miller 111). Though at the start of the play it was Willy who thought Biff lost, it is now the reverse. Willy, with his aspirations for renown and major success, found himself perpetually adrift in the world, struggling to make ends meet and maintain his family ties. And yet while Willy suffered at the hands of his American Dream, Biff prospered (although not monetarily) in his “proper” American Dream, experiencing true contentment in his craft. While Willy faced constant confusion and an almost bipolar personality disorder owing to his erroneous endeavors, Biff’s main insecurities and difficulties were those brought on by his father’s notion of success. In other words, Willy’s American Dream caused nothing but suffering for him and those he loved, while Biff’s American Dream would have allowed him peace of mind had it not been for his

     In Death of a Salesman, a play written by Arthur Miller, Miller reflects the theme that every man needs to be honest with him self and act in accordance with his nature by displaying success and failure in different lights. Miller embodies the theme through characters in the play by explaining how their success and failures in being true to themselves help shapes their fates. Strongest evidence of Miller’s theme is reflected in the characteristics of Biff Loman, Benard, and Willy Loman. Through out the play, these three characters never give way to other’s influence and what other’s view of being successful is.

Willy’s biggest issue with his son is that he let him down by not being any more successful than him. He feels like Biff is failing on purpose just to make him look bad. Although, he has no decent job and is single; Biff has become disoriented about life. Earlier in the play Biff tells Happy, “I tell ya Hap, I don't know what the future is. I don't know - what I'm supposed to want” (Miller266). Biff once looked up to his father as a role model, but lost all faith in him once finding out that he was having an affair. Ever since he has rejected Willy’s commitment of being a husband and also a father. To add to his ruins are Willy’s ideas of how Biff should get ahead in life. Willy taught Biff that popularity was the right way to get to the top, rather than hard-work and dedication. Trying to live by his dad’s standards caused Biff to fail high school and become unable to put forth the effort to become

“The Matthew Effect” discusses the concept that people with an advantage will gain more advantages, and ultimately become successful. There is much room for truth for this in the business world, as well as the government world. There is a well-known saying “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” Success in any field has much to do with opportunities that present themselves to a person. If he can get himself more opportunities, he can go further. The “10,000-Hour Rule” is another key to professional success. By applying this rule correctly, one can gain mastery of a subject, and create his own

Businesses are not only faced with competition within the industry they operate in. They also face competition from businesses in other industries.

Willy chooses to exaggerate his success in front of his family and even his boss in Act 2, but when he is contradicted “Now, Willy, you never averaged...” he still continues on with his façade thus further emphasizing his delusional nature. He teaches his children that they should be “liked and you will never want,” which implies that for Willy popularity is more important as it is this that will deem how prosperous one is in business as that man “is the man who gets ahead.” This contradicts the initial ideals of the American dream where you work hard in order to achieve success, and hence could be used by Miller to indicate how futile the concept was as well as how it lead to people conceiving inconceivable dreams - “He had the wrong dreams” as mentioned by Biff in the requiem.

An age-old term, as arbitrary as happiness itself, success has a different definition for each person who intends to achieve it. Many view it through personal achievements or whatever society depicts, but it is truly only defined through the eyes of beholder. Individuals may make several sacrifices to gain success, but the true question is what are they willing to do to achieve it? Paul Tough, the author of “Kewauna’s Ambition”, Malcolm Gladwell of “Marita’s Bargain”, G.K. Chesterton of the “Fallacy of Success”, and Sarah Lewis, author of “Embrace the Near Win” all have different viewpoints on how to achieve this seemingly impossible task. Through the lenses of these authors, it can be concluded that to reach the ultimate goal of success,

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy is both sympathized with and looked down upon throughout the story. Willy is a very complex character with problems and faults that gain both sympathy and also turn the reader off to him. Willy Loman is both the protagonist and the antagonist, gaining sympathy from the reader only to lose it moments later.

All throughout America, competition flows through the people’s blood like an epidemic there’s no cure for. From the age Americans are infants, it is bred into them. They are taught that there are winners and there are losers, and not to be a loser. Although some believe this kind of competition can lead to success and happiness, the outcomes are quite the opposite. This is shown in Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman when the main character, Willy Loman, not only lives his life by the myth of competition but also drives this myth into the minds of his family. This causes one of Willy’s sons to be led down a path of misguided aspirations, leads Willy to have very low self-esteem, and evokes poor relationships with others. Through this, Miller shows that competition is just a widely believed American myth which doesn’t lead to a fulfilling life.

Competition being one of the major issues that often must be addressed in the business world, it is important for a firm to learn on ways to reduce the impact of the competition. Competition is definitely an important factor in helping a business

Willy thinks being "well-liked" will grant him instant success and will open the doors to whatever he wants. He needs to accept changes within his business. Howard Wagner show no interest about Willy's status of popularity. Willy must put effort and work into his career to obtain what he wants in life. Willy's meaning of success is

"After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive," (Miller, 98). This quote was spoken by the main character of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman. This tragedy takes place in Connecticut during the late 1940s. It is the story of a salesman, Willy Loman, and his family’s struggles with the American Dream, betrayal, and abandonment. Willy Loman is a failing salesman recently demoted to commission and unable to pay his bills. He is married to a woman by the name of Linda and has two sons, Biff and Happy. Throughout this play Willy is plagued incessantly with his and his son’s inability to succeed in life. Willy believes that any “well-liked” and “personally attractive

Willy’s only ability to not run off the deep end is the hope that Biff and Happy will make something of themselves in the business world. This can be seen in the play when Willy is willing to believe in the crazy “million dollar” plan of Biff of traveling the world with a sports team. This dream is then shatters into millions of pieces when Willy comes to learn the reality that his sons will soon be following down the same path he’s taken. This reality that has enters his fragile mind leads him to suicide. Willy’s dreams were his only life source left and when that was ripped from his hands there was nothing left to grasp. Glass Menagerie that is not unlike the Death of a

“Miller sees many people’s lives being poisoned by their desire to be successful. People like the Lomans are doomed to try for success but fail, with all the resulting guilt that such failure brings. Others like Ben and Howard display an ability to make money that deems them successful but at the cost of their own moral integrity.” (Abbotson, 317)

After all, the unhindered pursuit of life, liberty and happiness is our birthright. But this is part of that visible world that Miller is punching holes in, exposing it to some of those "inescapable truths of existence." There is a dark side to the freedom inherent in our pursuit of the American dream. Things get corrupt and out of balance when greed and power replace concern for others, or when the capitalistic system degenerates into nothing more than survival of the fittest mentality. Too much emphasis gets placed on wealth. Thus Willy can not accept that the things around him are enough to have a good life. He must be rich like his brother Ben. And in a dog eat dog world its all right for those riches to be obtained by unscrupulous means - "Never fight fair with a stranger boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way," Biff is counseled. And now that Willy is old and unable to keep up with the technology, he can't even operate Howard's tape machine, and all of his contacts are retired or have passed away, he is no longer of use or value to the great economic machine. In the twilight of his life he finds that he is a "piece of fruit" whose peel is being tossed away. And as for Biff, it's not enough to be liked. You must be "well-liked." To play on the football team is not enough. You must be the star. The implication being that if you are desired by several colleges you are worth more to society than Bernard who