How Is Willy Similar To 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.

     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

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman we see the negative effect of having an absent parent. The main character Willy Loman is a salesman who constantly struggles with trying to be what he considers “successful,” and “well liked.” He has two sons Biff and Happy and is married to Linda. Willy also struggles between illusion and reality; he has trouble defining and distinguishing the past from the present. Between his financial struggles and not feeling like he accomplished anything, he commits suicide. Throughout Willy’s life he was constantly abandoned, by both his father and his brother at very young age. Since Willy has no reference to look up to, he is somewhat left to figure things out on his own. In Willy’s mind, everything he

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

Willy's attitude is a dangerous thing to himself and his family because his constant bragging gives his family and himself a false sense of who he is. Willy thinks that if you have money then you will be well-liked. To Willy, being well-liked is everything. In his way of thought people without money are not well-liked and if you are not well-liked then you are

In Death of a Salesman, Willy often ruminated on his past and attempted to relive certain situations and experiences. This later developed into delusion, as Willy often talked to himself and experienced hallucinations. Willy also enjoyed bragging, and frequently edited parts of reality when recounting the past. This was in favor of portraying a certain image of himself. In doing so, Willy created a facade of the perfect and well-liked man. Willy’s stories become so convincing that his family, as well as himself, believe that this representation is, in fact a true depiction. The ideology that charisma is the driving force to success is derived from Willy; he teaches this to his sons Biff and Happy. Miller writes in Willy’s conversation to his sons, “Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. “Willy Loman is here!” That’s all they have to know, and I go right through.” (Death of a Salesman 21). This ideology demonstrates that Willy fits

To begin, Willy could be described as having a case of misguided life goals paired with self-deception. Willy was unable to admit to his faults. His pride was so boisterous that he would lie to his own family, borrowing money every week from his neighbor, Charley, and claiming that it was his salary. Due to extreme insecurities, Willy compulsively lied to himself and his family in effort of making himself feel better about who he really is, disguising his self doubt and inner anxiety with profound arrogance. Willy raised his sons to believe that in order to be successful, one must be well liked. “Be liked and you will never want.” (1.3) He often lied to them and exaggerated his success, which led them to believe that everything was as good as he claimed them to be. Willy even encouraged deceit in his oldest son by urging him to steal things and cheat on tests. In Willy’s own delusional world, he is a largely successful and well liked salesman with sons destined for greatness, taking every opportunity to brag about these false perceptions. He lied about almost everything, even the quality of

As a salesman, Willy shows he perceives himself highly when talking to Linda about his job: “I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England” (14). One can also see Willy’s inflated sense of self-worth when he talks to his children about his job: “They know me, boys, they know me up and down New England... I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own” (31). However, even though he is extremely confident about his value as a salesman to his family, the reality of Willy’s reputation at his job is almost completely opposite: “I’m fat. I’m very—foolish to look at... they do laugh at me” (37). Although he essentially brags to his family about his expertise in business, Willy acknowledges the reality that his career is much less successful than he expects it to be. In fact, the inner turmoil inside of Willy from his unrealistic expectation of himself of being a fantastic salesman leads Willy to become mentally unhealthy, and eventually results in Willy committing suicide when he believes that he doesn’t have any self-worth anymore. Willy’s previous inflated self-worth is demonstrated yet again at his funeral, when no one shows up even though Willy thought he had a lot of friends from his job: “Why didn’t anybody come...

​Willy Loman, in the play Death of a salesman, believes that being physically attractive and well liked by people, are the only necessary ingredients to attain the American dream. Willy works his entire adult life trying to become an astounding salesman, such as Dave Singleman. In Willy’s mind, Dave is the epitome of a successful salesman and “thus, the dream has shaped in Willy’s mind. All his life has been spent trying to imitate this person” (Danqing 27), until he finally realizes that his hard work has got him nowhere. “I’ve got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” (qtd. in Delbanco and Cheuse 332). All of the actions Willy makes and the choices he decides upon, come back to greatly

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."

Furthermore, Willy is unable to admit his faults. His pride is so great that he even lies to his own family, borrowing money weekly and then saying it is his salary. He tried, in the past, to justify his affair with a strange woman when caught by Biff. He will not admit that he has made mistakes, for he will not sacrifice his pride. In all respects, Willy has failed to be a good father, or even a father of mediocrity. Instead, as a father, he is a pathetic and selfish failure, which is furthermore defined in every other aspect of his life.                                    Moreover, Willy is a textbook example of an anti-hero. He has never been successful, even in his prime, yet lives in a daydream of the “good old days”, refusing to accept reality. The reader therefore strives not to be like the protagonist, but rather, unlike him. He is not respected, even by his sons, and most frequently is disregarded by those around him. Even at his funeral, the only people who attend are his wife, his two sons, and his neighbor, Charley. He never achieved the love of those he interacted with, never gained any honor, and completed his life as a failure, never gaining success in business or in life. Any reader would desire to be,

The fact that Willy is driven by material goods is undeniable. He is an individual who is intensely sensitive to his outer image. This may be an insinuation made by Miller that adhering to the American Dream has the potential to cause a person to be shallow, greedy, and possibly trivial. Furthermore, following the American Dream may be correlated to becoming overly invested in how other people perceive them. This idea is consolidated by the importance that Willy places on being well liked. It is Willy's goal in life to have everyone around him like him and to gain a well established sense of importance. Additionally, as Willy comments that he should have bought the same refrigerator as Charley, it signals that he is a man who will never be

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 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

Willy is the type of person who lives on the safe side, with overcautious tendencies. He is afraid to do what he wants in life, afraid to live his life fully, afraid to do what is best for him and afraid to take a little risk from time to time. Although one can understand that he is cautious because of his limited income, home mortgage and bills, his over cautious personality is certainly not serving him. Willy does not understand that he cannot play it safe his whole life and expect to reach his highest potential. He does not understand that he must take some risk. Willy can either choose courage or choose comfort but he cannot choose both. If Willy would simply make an attempt to get out of his comfort zone and be mindful and attentive