Doas Essay

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”.

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Biff Loman silently questions his ability to fulfill his father’s wishes. His father, Willie Loman, holds high expectations for Biff’s future and constantly brags to others about how successful Biff will be. Out of respect for his father, Biff conforms to the path that Willie has planned for him. In the beginning, Willie lives vicariously through his son, Biff, who has no choice but to conform in order to preserve father-son respect. However, when the mutual respect that his father holds so dear dissolves, Biff’s concealed questions expand their influence from his thoughts to his actions as Biff becomes his own man.

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the author conveys the reader about how a person lives his life when he or she cannot live the “American Dream.” Willy Loman, the main character in the play is a confused and tragic character. He is a man who is struggling to hold onto what morality he has left in a changing society that no longer values the ideals he grew up to believe in. Even though the society he lives in can be blamed for much of his misfortune, he must also be the blame for his bad judgment, disloyalty and his foolish pride.

In the play “Death of a Salesman”, by Arthur Miller, the primary theme can be seen as a conflict between man and society. In which the ambition to achieve the “American Dream” controls the life of Willy Loman and the influences he has. When success is not reached, sends Willy’s mind on a mental ride.

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is an example of a failure as a good father. He did not discipline his sons well by not punishing them. He did not set a good example to his sons by not admitting his faults. He did not make his family his number one priority. Instead, it was his work, coming before his family, his friends, and even himself. Not only is Willy Loman not a good father and husband, but he was a failure by not becoming successful, not achieving the American Dream.

“Death of a Salesman “ by Arthur Miller is interpreted differently by many people.  In the critical review titled “Family Values in Death of a Salesman” by Steve R. Centola, he characterizes Death of the Salesman as am a modern tragedy. He draws more focus on the family core values and self-exert.  In his analysis, he states that as the humans try to be competitive, they have dehumanized the American dream and have turned it into an urban nightmare. He claims that the author simply tells a story of a dying man who wants to justify the purpose of his life before he meets his death. He states that the consequences of his choices are a challenge he has to overcome to attain what he needs. Centola points out that through the realization of what Willy Loman values, it is easy to discover the reason for the conflict between him and Biff. He refers to Death of a Salesman as a tragedy of a human struggle that is rooted in the metaphysical and also based on the social and psychological concerns. He also asserts that by discussing the values of Willy Loman, readers will be able to identify the reasons behind Willy’s agenda to perform suicide.

Willy Loman had accomplished the historical American Dream but because of his ambition he did not realize it. When Willy was deciding to go with his brother to look for his father he met Dave Singleman. Dave was an ¨eighty four year old salesman who had drummed merchandise in thirty-one states and who could now simply go into his hotel room, call the buyers, and make his living in his green velvet slippers¨ (Stanton 131).This view of a tranquil and successful career made him reconsider his decision and instead of going to Alaska he chose to be a salesman. It seems that Willy saw a “father figure” in Dave, so he followed the same path, hoping he would have the same future and the same success in the field (Stanton 133). After thirty five years of his career he saw he hasn’t accomplished the success that he wanted. He devoted his life into a career as a salesman knowing that he was good with his hands, but ¨he possessed too much snobbery to admit that his own destiny was in a simple career as a carpenter¨ (“Death of a Salesman”). For Willy the difference between a white collar job and a blue collar job meant a lot, but he didn’t do much to gain a white collar one and he stayed with his old job. His career as a salesman did give him and his family the normal success people would want. Willy wanted more, and since he saw he didn’t accomplished it, he taught his kids into his

Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman follows protagonist Willy Loman in his search to better his and his family’s lives. Throughout Willy Loman’s career, his mind starts to wear down, causing predicaments between his wife, two sons and close friends. Willy’s descent into insanity is slowly but surely is taking its toll on him, his job and his family. They cannot understand why the man they have trusted for support all these years is suddenly losing his mind. Along with his slope into insanity, Willy’s actions become more aggressive and odd as the play goes on. Despite Willy and Biff’s “family feud”, his two sons Happy and Biff truly worry about their father’s transformation, Happy saying: “He just wants you to make good, that’s all. I

In his stage play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller introduces us to the family of Willy Lohan. There is greater influence of the parents to the children as is portrayed in the play. Willy Loman laxity has weighed heavily on the conduct of his sons, Happy and Biff. The main theme in the play is sustained in the play with the sons of Willy attaining their personality from their father. We learn that one’s upbringing shapes their behavior. The actions of those within one’s surrounding influence one’s behavior. This is quite evident in the case of a parent child interaction as portrayed in the play. Since most the time the child will look up to their parents, their ethical and

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

Regardless of his fraught looking to the past, Willy's character creates internal conflict which makes him to realize that he does not have the knowledge to be a tragic hero. His attempt to kill himself gives him a limited awareness to real life situation. Whereas he accomplishes a self-realization learns the essential nature of the sales career, Willy misunderstands his own failure. He is not able to control the true sensitive and mystical understanding of himself as a correct “loman” or else “low man.” Willy is too ambitious about his world that he creates

It is said that father-son relationship is an influential part of any boy’s development to becoming a man this relationship is the most eternal bond with a partner in society. The father-son relationships has been a recurring theme since the growth of literature and has immersed itself in American literature largely through playwrights to embody general themes such as the American Dream. In the Pulitzer awarded tragedies “Fences” by August Wilson and “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller the Father-son relationship is a vital piece to these remarkable classics that has defined family values in the post-depression era. Both tragedies revolve around their respective protagonist Troy Maxson and Willy Loman. They are unhappy, unsuccessful men who want the best for their families but fail to attain the American Dream because they live far from the notion. Their philosophy has deluded their reality throughout the plays then in turn effecting their family relationship especially with their sons.

Family relationships always have a way of playing a key role for the duration of most literary pieces. According to Arthur Miller’s novel, Death of a Salesman, the interaction of Willy and his sons, Happy and Biff, shows that family ties usually are connected either physically or emotionally in some way or another. Willy Loman is just like every father in a father/son bond, yet all he wants is to be a part of his son’s life. Even though Biff and Happy admire and have so much love for their father when they are younger, later down the road when they are older suddenly they realize he had failed to prepare them for the real society in life.

To begin with, Loman experiences two particular memories of his brother Ben that affect his present. In both moments, Ben is depicted as a successful man. Ben tells Willy’s boys that, “when I was seventeen I walked into jungle and when I was twenty-one I walked out. and by God I was rich!” It is evident that Willy admires and envies his brother’s prosperity and wealth. In Willy’s mind, he is defined by how much money he makes and how capable he is of providing for his family. The memory of his brother going to Africa leaves Willy feeling ashamed, regretful, and inadequate because of his brother’s subsequent financial success. His

To be or not to be a good parent? That is the question. A father-son relationship is vital for the development of a proper childhood. Without a father figure in someone's life, they are hopelessly lost in the attempt to reaching true adulthood. A father provides his son with the essential tools to live a successful life. Arthur Miller's portrayal of male role models in Death of a Salesman sets up the entire family for failure, since Willy, Biff, and Happy were affected greatly by the absence of a paternal force. Willy lost his sense of reality by getting stuck on to the falsified American Dream, therefore taking away Biff and Hap’s paternal influence. Willy tried to support Biff, but ignores Hap. He instills the same values and ideas of success into Biff that he believes, setting him up for the same failures that he had encountered. The lack of a paternal influence in Death of a Salesman reveals Willy’s failures as a father and a salesman; it has a negative impact on Biff and Hap’s journey to find their purpose in life.