Death Of A Salesman American Dream Essay

The American Dream ~ for many, it is the unlocked door that leads to happiness.  It is the hope for a future filled with success and fortune.  Although most people have a similar idea of what the American Dream is, they may have different ideas on how to achieve it.  For Willy Loman, a struggling salesman, achieving this dream would be a major accomplishment.  Unfortunately, his unusual ideas of how this dream can be achieved prevent him from reaching his goal.

Despite his son’s popularity in high school, Biff grows up to be a drifter and a ranch-hand. Willy’s own career falters as his sales ability flat-lines. When he tries to use “personality” to ask his boss for a raise, he gets fired instead. Willy’s “definition” of the American Dream is all wrong, due to the way his own sons turned out to be.

Miller also uses the hotel scene to illustrate to the reader the negative effects of trying to get the American Dream by exploring the consumerist nature. For example, Willy believes that Biff will believe his excuses about The Woman being a buyer and that he can sell Biff lies. Miller shows this by Willy’s broken speech and the ineffectiveness of his words while trying to justify himself to Biff . The effect of this is showing that Biff has seen beneath Willy’s facade which he has built up. “You don’t imagine -”, the hyphen indicates that Willy can’t think of any more excuses and he realises the futility of them and so he results to trying to act like Biff’s friend, blissfully unaware that Biff has changed as Willy’s entire persona that he built for himself as a great salesman and family man has just been destroyed. In addition to this, Willy’s understanding of the American Dream is that professional success is the only way to be happy, this is shown earlier in the play when Willy constantly wants to be up to date with the current trends so that he appears to be successful to others despite him not really wanting these material goods. Miller shows this through dialogue earlier, “Chevrolet, Linda, is the greatest car ever built.”, this shows Willy’s opinion on the car and that it is a great proof of success, this

If Willy was as liked and successful as he puts on to be, it is very likely the family would not have to stress that much about money. This false perception that Willy has of his life begins to affect his relationship with people in his family, especially his eldest son Biff. When Biff was younger he and Willy had a strong relationship. Willy was very proud of his son in regards to his athletics and believed that he would one day become very successful. Biff, as an adult, did not fully meet his father's expectations as he remained jobless for an extended period of time. Willy is very disappointed in Biff and resents him for not meeting his expectations, becoming one of the things, including Biff knowing about his father's affairs, that caused a large strain in their relationship. Willy knows deep down that he did not achieve the american dream and he is disappointed because he believes Biff is following in his footsteps and will not achieve it either.

The struggle for financial security and success has always been part society. I found this play is a little confusing sometimes. It gets confusing between Willy's imagination and his reality. Money and success seem like the most important things to Willy. Biff is conflicted with himself whether he should allow himself to love his father or hating him for cheating on his mother. Biff is further positioned in a confliction with his future and his goals in life, whether he should live life to please himself or his father. Willy is out chasing the American dream (Miller 72-75). Despite the fact that Willy was an adulterer, Linda stayed by his side as he lost his mind, Willy being delusional is part of his guilt, for being the cause of his son

Willy gives them mixed signals on what the dream is about. “Ben, becomes the measure of success and manhood for his sons to live up to” (Ribkoff). Ben is what success looks like so in Willy’s mind Ben is a true incarnation of the American Dream. Ben isn’t though, he is just a very selfish and greedy person who go very lucky. This causes the boys to have completely different attitudes towards Willy. When Biff is in high school, Willy tells him not to worry about working hard in school, even though he is failing math, and is at risk of losing three scholarships. Because as long as he is well-liked he will be fine. “What’re you talking about? With scholarships to three universities they’re gonna flunk him?” (Miller 744). Willy doesn’t teach his boys about the importance of education and how it could help them achieve “the dream”. Biff further realizes how wrong his father is about his beliefs when he finds Willy cheating on Linda with one of his clients. Biff calls Willy a “phony little fake” (Miller 795) when he realizes that his father’s idea of success is all wrong. So he ends up resenting Willy for feeding him his false ideas all throughout his childhood. Happy is a completely different case. Willy and Linda never play much attention to Happy. They focus on Biff, so Happy tries to get their attention and gain their approval at all costs. All throughout the play he says things like “I’m losing weight, you

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman tells the story of the failure of a salesman, Willy Loman. Although not all Americans are salesmen, most of us share Willy’s dream of success. We are all partners in the American Dream and parties to the conspiracy of silence surrounding the fact that failures must outnumber successes.(Samantaray, 2014)

The American Dream has brought millions of immigrants to the United States with hopes of building better lives for themselves and their families. For some, better lives mean more money, fame, and fortune. For others, the American Dream may be defined simply by achieving happiness and security. A major theme in Death of a Salesman is how the American Dream is defined by the characters differently. XXXXX.

Willy can’t understand how “In the greatest country in the world a young man with such personal attractiveness, gets lost.” (16). Almost as an afterthought he adds, “And such a hard worker. There’s one thing about Biff, he’s not lazy” (16). Willy’s confusion comes from his own mixed-up values, which are in contrast to the American work ethic. For example, Willy prefers Swiss over American cheese (16), a symbol that he really doesn’t understand or accept the qualities he needs to be successful in America. Willy can’t even stand the effects or price of success. He resents growth and competition, which he calls “maddening” (17), and keeps finding excuses for his and Biff’s failures. He can’t seem to move beyond 1928, which comes just before the Great Depression, itself a real symbol of the failure of the American Dream. And Biff carries on his father’s legacy: “He has succeeded less, and his dreams are stronger and less acceptable” (19) than his brother’s. But even Happy, who wants to “show some of those pompous, self-important executives . . . that Hap Loman can make the grade” (24), agrees with Biff that “the trouble is we weren’t brought up to grub for money” (24).

He reminds Biff to “[b]e liked and [he] will never want…” (Miller 33). Willy’s view of the American Dream also effects his job. Rather than putting effort into his work and trying to sell products, Willy assumes that he will be a successful salesman if he is popular among customers and co-workers. Willy also believes that his relationships with others should grant him the position he desires.

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.

The American Dream is one of the most sought-after things in the United States, even though it is rarely, if ever, achieved. According to historian Matthew Warshauer, the vision of the American Dream has changed dramatically over time. In his 2003 essay “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Changing Conceptions of the American Dream”, Warshauer claims that the American Dream had gone from becoming wealthy by working hard and earning money, to getting rich quickly and easily. He attributes this change to television game shows, state lotteries, and compensation lawsuits. He also argues that most Americans are more concerned with easy money than hard-earned money, and that Americans care mostly about material goods such as consumer products, big

Willy Loman's dream is an adaptation of the American Dream. Willy believes that the only things that are important in life are the successes that he achieved and the amount of friends that he made. This is easily illustrated when Willy says " It's who you know and the smile on your face! ... and that's the wonder, the wonder of this country, that a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked!" (Movie). Success is an important part of the American dream, but Willy puts too much importance on the need to achieve success. He neglects the needs of his family and chooses to remain in the mindset that as long as he is well liked he will achieve success. Although he has lost his ability to sell, Willy continues to believe that as long as he works hard good things will happen to him and his family. Willy's wife Linda realizes this and conveys these thoughts to her sons when she says "He drives seven hundred miles, and when he gets there no one knows him anymore… what goes through a man's mind, driving seven hundred miles home without earning a cent?" (Movie). Willy has delusional ideas about the American Dream. Even in the end Willy still believes that the only thing Biff needs to be successful is some

Ben, Willy’s older brother, believes that his American dream was that he started out with little, and ended up being very successful. It is ironic, because Ben brags that he came out of the African jungle a rich man, so he did not necessarily achieve the American dream, since his wealth began in Africa. Although Ben is not alive anymore, he frequently appears in Willy’s dream and can be considered as a symbol of the success that Willy desires. Another character who struggles with trying to pursue the American Dream is Happy, Willy’s youngest son. Happy possesses many of the same traits as Willy and lives the lie of the American Dream. Happy shows many signs of delusion, even believing that he is in a higher position in his store than he really is. Another character, Biff, the oldest son, also struggles with the idea of the American Dream. Biff’s main struggle throughout the play is between pleasing his father or pleasing himself. Willy wants Biff to inherit his world of sales, but Biff finds himself happier outdoors and is a farmhand. At the end of the day, Biff realizes that his happiness is more important than being rich and achieving the American dream. He returns to the farm where he makes less than $35 a week and does manual labor. Biff can also be considered a relatable character because he redefined his version of the American dream.

Willy’s obsession with success leads to the start of him living in his own fantasy world. He lives in the past, for there was hope for him then, but now he is completely subject to failure. Willy’s demise could have been avoided had he changed his dream, and had he not conformed to society. In the end his dream did not pay off, and he ultimately fell victim to the American Dream, and the deceitful ideals of freedom that factored into the