Essay On Willy's Image Of America

     The single most weighted factor that edges Willie to his demise is his inability to make a living and achieve his “American Dream”. After being a salesman for many years, Willy just can’t cope with the fact that he hasn’t been successful at all. He believes that he is a terrific salesman. His imaginative thinking won’t let him accept the fact that he has become a failure instead of a wealthy businessman. Willy believes that to be well liked is the means to being

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

Finally, Willy failed greatly at achieving the American Dream. People have come to the United States hoping for a life of happiness and success, at the same time, hoping to take pride in what they do and enjoy it. Willy did not achieve the American Dream. He had no pride in what he did, although he hid these emotions. I believe he was so embarrassed because he could not make a single sale or earn a single dollar that he began borrowing fifty dollars a week from Charley, and then pretended it was his salary. He lied to his family and to himself. He did not allow himself to do what he truly wanted to do because he believed that it was more remarkable to be supposedly successful. He therefore failed miserably at the true American Dream, exchanging it for an unattainable fantasy.

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.

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

Traditionally the American dream meant opportunity and freedom for all, and Willy believed that. However, hard work could not earn him everything he thought he deserved. Willy judged himself and those around him by their material accumulation. Willy wished of having materialistic possessions but he failed to achieve them. He also desired to have the luck that Ben had ‘Walked into the jungle and when came out he’s rich ‘this show us that he is jealous of his brother.

Hogan states Willy has “ applied himself; he has been diligent and thrifty; he has extolled the businessman’s virtues; he has tried to be “well-liked. (Fitzgerald, 40).” Based on this he should have been rewarded, but no reward comes. Willy is numbly baffled by his failure. Willy didn’t achieve his American Dream because he was repeatedly stuck in his own delusion of achieving it.

His father spent time in Alaska, and his brother Ben made his fortune in Africa. For Willy these men symbolize what he could have. Throughout the play Willy talks to an imaginary Ben, asking him for advice and praising his ingenuity. The fictional Ben says to Willy and his sons, “Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich” (505). To Willy, Ben represents not only someone who he can look up to, but someone to aspire to become. Ben represents Willy’s understanding of the American Dream; Go out, try your best, and you will be rewarded because you are an American. Unfortunately this is a false understanding. Simply being an American does not entitle you to the American

Now to answer the questions how mistakenly Willy viewed the American Dream, what were his goals and his reaction when he was fired? We need to use the critical literary theory concerning Marxist notions, which in turn study the inequalities and points to main cause of capitalist governments. According to David Lehman in his article “Capitalism” publish in Harvard Review, his view about capitalist society “management has it better than labor and if this goes on long enough, the inconsistency between rich and poor has widen and keep on widening”. In capitalist countries, wealthy people have the financial factor to create enterprises, businesses and provide jobs opportunities with unequal benefits and low wages that would only be beneficial to

In the play, after meeting a successful salesman, Dave Singleman, Willy said, “and when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ‘Cause what could be more satisfying than to… be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?” (1466). Willy idolizes and envies Dave’s fame and successful career. This is when Willy form his personal definition of the American dream. By becoming a salesman like him he attempts to imitate his success by being well-liked and important like Dave.

“In order for succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.(Bill Cosby) Willy believes that a man can walk into a career and get rich quick; that it would always be so easy to be successful. Not once did Willy notice he was truly not doing well in life, his desire for success was so much greater than his fear, yet he just could not be truly successful. He is under the impression that he is “living the american dream” and frankly, everyone knows he is not. The pride that man has for oneself over shadows the true clear picture and ultimately shadows in his head that he is in fact a

Many immigrants come to the United States in search of the American Dream, an idea that one can start from the bottom of the employment food chain in hopes to become successful and live a comfortable life, despite what your background may have been. In The Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays this idea of the American Dream through an everyday, run-of-the-mill character, Willy Loman. While he did not immigrate to America, he still chases the American Dream ideal. He finds himself in dire need of financial support, and his job is unable to supply him with the amount that he needs. Willy faces several conflicts, both external and internal, throughout the play, and these conflicts affect his relationship with other characters, specifically

American Dream: Willy’s obsession to soon be recognized and financially successful. Willy’s interpretation of the American dream was wrong because in order to be successful you have to sacrifice and work hard for what you want.

To begin the analyzation of the character Willy Loman people need to understand what his dream, and why he worked so hard, was as he is constantly trying to pursue it. “The American dream is that dream of a land(America) in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone”…”(M. Weebly). Willy spent the majority of his life living in hopes that one day he would all of the sudden become rich, and everything was going to work out for him and the ones he held close. While in the “real world” common people understand how that does not happen and people do not always get what people want. The American dream is something that very few people get to experience here, while only the very upper class are the closet ones to experiencing it. “The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy”(Arthur Miller, 124). This quote is saying that sometimes people who made it to the top took big risks in their life, and did not just settle for the little things. In short terms the American dream is the way of living in that someone does not need to worry about anything because they believe that money will solve all of the problems and heal all the pain they may encounter. It was many lower class men that struggled with this idea,

The United States in the twentieth century, enters an era of modernization within its societies. New economic boom brought unparalleled prosperity to a majority of its citizens. People begin to raise their expectations, creating a belief that most economic and social problems could be solved. This new era ultimately brings the change of thought towards the american dream. People with consistent hard work without complaint will find the key to success. The modern play, Death of a Salesman, addresses the conflicts of an average american family. Willy Loman, the protagonist, is blindly guided by the false hope of the american dream. In this newly developed era, Willy cannot find success unless he adjusts to the new ways of society. The storyline closely defines “the modern dilemma,” with problems incorporated into the plot. All Willy wants for himself and his boys, is success in the business world, but encourages his family that the values of the american dream will carry them