Consequences Of The American Dream

Similarly, Willy's downfall continues with the judgment of himself and others, due to his superficial likeability goals. For example, Willy blamed his lack of likeability and success as a salesman on his appearance. “I’m fat. I’m very – foolish to look at…I’m not dressing to advantage…” The tragic hero’s shielded vision stops him from seeing that it is himself, not his appearance that leads him to his failure at being a salesman. Hence, since he cannot accept the facts, his career never improves and he is fired from his job, shattering his perceived chance at the American Dream. In addition, Willy strongly disliked Bernard merely because he was stereotyped as a nerd. The salesman would say to Biff’s tutor’s face, “Don’t be a pest, Bernard! …What an anemic.” Willy barely knew Charley’s son, nevertheless he evaluated him solely on his appearance. Willy seemed to do the same thing with his children. He was glad that they were “…both built like Adonises”, thinking that would lead them to success.

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

Many workers today go through a low time or a struggle and give up. Today’s workers do not necessarily commit suicide when they are in a low point but they do things such as quitting the job or relying on government assistance. Willy strives to achieve the American dream and he eventually realizes that he has failed and gives up on life. This dream is a belief in America and that all things are possible if you work hard enough (Criticism of ' the American Dream' in 'Death of a Salesman'). Arthur Miller uses this story to expose the problems with pursuit of such a dream: “What Miller attacks, then, is not the American Dream of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, but the dream as interpreted and pursued by those for whom ambition replaces human need and the trinkets of what Miller called the ‘new American Empire in the making’ are taken as tokens of true value” (Bigsby). “Death of a Salesman” creates a challenge to the American Dream and shows that an American should live a prosperous and plentiful life instead of get lost and die tragically (Criticism of ' the American Dream' in 'Death of a Salesman'). Gradually throughout the play, Willy gets farther and farther away from achieving his idea of the American Dream. His income slowly decreases to nothing: “as a salesman, Willy stages a performance for buyers, for his sons, for the father who deserted him, the brother he admired. Gradually, he loses his audience, first the buyers, then his son, then his boss” (Bigsby). His problem is that he completely surrenders to the American Dream and by the team he realizes his mistake, he has nothing to fall back on (Panesar). If Willy would have embraced his natural talent for manual labor and his family’s love for the countryside, the Lomans could have a totally different lifestyle (Panesar). Towards the end of the play, Willy became overwhelmed

        Willy is like an impetuous youngster with high ideals and high hopes.  Children always have high hopes for their

Willy’s self- image that he portrayed to others of being successful was a lie that he had lived with for so long

There are many reasons why Willy failed to reach his dream of success, for one he was lazy and weak. He never made any true effort to chase after what he wanted. It was his hope that he would be able to charm himself into a nice and well compensated job. Unfortunately for Willy success doesn’t just come from popularity or personality you have to put in work to be a successful man. He is passing his flawed perception of what being successful is onto his sons when he says

The success attained by Willy?s role models, his father, Dave Singleman, and Ben, is what he envisions to be the American Dream. He only visualizes the end product, being successful, and not the process they may have gone through to achieve that success. Willy?s father sold flutes and made that his living. In an encounter with his thoughts of the past, Willy listens to Ben, his brother, who refers to their father by saying, "Great Inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime" (49). Willy assumes that by being a salesman, like his father was, he is automatically guaranteed success, and that it wasn?t something that he would have to work for. Material success, such as money, luxury, and wealth, and popularity are his goals and his definition of success. On the other hand, self-fulfillment and happiness through hard work is not. By only focusing on the outer appearance of the American Dream, Willy ignores the

Willy tried to instill in his sons, that the main success in life is to reputable. Willy strongly believes that success is strictly aligned with the impression a man makes and whether he is adored, and reputable; Willy’s numerous discussions with his sons, particularly with Biff, clarifies the value of self-image is important. Willy believed that if you became popular and were liked by many people, you would have prominent achievements. His perception of success is equated to dumb luck; He thinks men just randomly achieve

After reading the New York Times review of Death of a Salesman, I agree that “With employment continuing to lag and millions of homes in foreclosure, there are surely many men and women avoiding the mirror and its accusations, believing, like Willy, that their inability to achieve the golden ideal of financial success is somehow a personal indictment.” (Isherwood 2012). This review can be related to any point in time in society. While there is a natural flow of change society always craves the “American dream.”

This is what Willy has been trying to emulate his entire life. Willy's need to feel well-liked is so strong that he often makes up lies about his popularity and success. At times, Willy even believes these lies himself. At one point in the play, Willy tells his family of how well-liked he is in all of his towns and how vital he is to New England. Later, however, he tells Linda that no one remembers him and that the people laugh at him behind his back. As this demonstrates, Willy's need to feel well-liked also causes him to become intensely paranoid. When his son, Biff, for example, is trying to explain why he cannot become successful, Willy believes that Biff is just trying to spite him. Unfortunately, Willy never realizes that his values are flawed. As Biff points out at the end of the play, "he had the wrong dreams."

When one thinks of the “American Dream,” notions of unconditional patriotism and pride fill their mind, as if ‘red, white, and blue’ is coursing through their veins. In this metaphorical scenario, one is so enveloped in this idea of the “American Dream,” that ‘red, white, and blue’ is siphoning oxygen and blood from their brain, and they can no longer think clearly.

This again indicates Willy's lost opportunities in life. So Willy is surrounded by great successes in a society where success and money is what is respected. This means that Willy is far from respected. A technique Miller employs is using language to aid deeper meanings in the storyline.

Willy believes education is not important for his son's future. Although Biff is failing his math course and Bernard is passing Willy still accepts the fact that his son will achieve success. Being handsome, popular, and excellent in sports adds to this belief. Willy does not realize that an individual must work hard to accomplish success. He also feels he is higher in status than Bernard's father Charley because "Charley is not-liked. He's liked, but he's not-well liked." (1257) Even though he feels this way he is also jealous of Charley's business success. Willy felt too proud to even accept a paying job from Charley after his boss, Howard Wagner, fired him. The audience can see Willy's definition of success defined in the conversation he holds with Charley in Act II:

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman tells the tale of Willy Loman, a man who falls from the top of the capitalism system in a resonant crash. Being controlled by his fears of the future, and stuck in his memories of the past, Willy fully contributes to his self-victimization by putting little blame on his own mistakes. Although Willy is perceived as selfish, it is important to see that he is misguided. His character is one of a common man, he has never been anything special, but he chose to follow the American Dream and continue the “destiny” it gave him. However, in my reading of the play, I feel it was not an unlucky destiny that pushed Willy to damage his own life and the lives of his family,

Willy was not strong enough to do what he wanted to, or even to admit to himself what that might be.  Yet neither was he cutthroat enough to be able to plunge into the business world of people like his brother Ben and push all thoughts of family and keeping people happy aside.  Willy gets caught in the middle of a personal dilemma, and his feelings of self-worth because he is a human being and his own individual freedom are the cost.  Riding the fence and trying to keep everyone satisfied still did not save him from becoming a victim of his society.