Is Willy A Victim Of The American Dream

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 also has strong feelings toward appearances. He even goes so far as to tell his kids “That’s why I thank Almighty God you’re both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want” (1594). Even Willy’s views of himself are romanticized; he thinks he is essential to his job, even though we soon find out that he isn’t. He goes on and on to his sons about how much people like him, and how he has so many friends and so much respect everywhere he goes.

At one point in the play, Willy says, “Biff is a lazy bum”(16). Moments later in the same conversation with Linda, Willy adds, “There’s one thing about Biff, he’s not lazy”(16). Even when confronted by his boys, Willy is unable to deal with the truth, that his sons won’t amount to very much at all. He ignores reality very well, and instead of pointing out that Biff hasn’t established himself yet, Willy tells Biff, “You’re well liked, Biff….And I’m telling you, Biff, and babe you want…”(26). The boys are clearly aware of their status and the status of their father, and Happy is found putting Willy’s personality in a nutshell, “Well, let’s face it: he’s [Willy] no hot-shot selling man. Except that sometimes, you have to admit he’s a sweet personality”(66). Obviously, Willie’s failure to bring up his children effectively, and his delusional thinking including denial of reality helps fortify his depleting condition and confusion.

The relationship between Willy and Biff is complicated. Actually, Biff is everything for Willy. He doesn’t do well as a salesman anymore, so this situation makes him depressed but at least there is Biff. So Willy believes that Biff will reach the success and his dreams will become true. That makes him want Biff to take some responsibility, in other words this is a big pressure on Biff. “How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!” says Willy and then Linda says “He is finding himself Willy.” Then Willy answers again “Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!” This shows how Willy mad at him because he thinks they couldn’t reach their dreams because of Biff. Willy says “Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. I’ll put my money

On the other hand, Willy is also emotionally involved with Biff because his son’s success of failure is his own. By becoming rich and influential, the handsome, personable Biff was slated to provide his own modest advancement. By making his fortune in the business world, Biff would prove that Willy had been right in turning down

Willy thinks, as most children do, that he is more important than he actually is.  At various times throughout the story, he brags about himself, calling himself a great salesman.  He says that he is known everywhere. In daydreaming of

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

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

Ever since Biff walked into the affair between Willy and “The Woman”, Biff hasn’t been able to speak and look at his father the same; this causes Willy to think that Biff hates him. Also, Willy could still be upset about how he may ruined Biff’s chance of going to summer school for his failing subject. From there, Biff could’ve gone to college and become more successful than his father. Willy becomes happier when Biff attempts to talk to Bill Oliver because he wants him to be the successful man that he could’ve been before.

In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is the well-developed protagonist of the story. Willy struggles throughout the story with daydreams and delusions that he confuses with reality. These delusions have a huge effect on the story and greatly impact Willy’s life. Willy has a difficult time keeping his bills paid with his job as a traveling salesman. He works long hours and drives long distances for very little success. His delusions cause him to believe that his work is successful when it is far from it. “Willy is self-deluded, believing wholeheartedly in the American Dream of success and wealth. When he fails to achieve this, he commits suicide—yet until the end he never stopped believing in this American Dream” (Sickels).

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

One thing that continues to come up in "A Death of a Salesman" is the fact that Willy has this huge desire to be "well liked." This is more important to him than being accomplished or having a good job. He constantly tells Linda and his kids that it is more important to be "well liked" than to be successful at work or in school. He lies to his kids about the fact that he is "well liked" which eventually leads to his two kids growing up as failures. Seeing how his lies have hurt, not only himself, but his children too, Willy decides to do what in his mind, is the only thing he can do to save help his family. He decides to kill himself and then maybe he will have a lot of people show up to his funeral which would mean that he is well liked. Of course no one shows up to the funeral but Willy 's

After evaluating Willy's characteristics it frightens me a little realizing my personal goals and motives are not too different from his. When I speak about Willy (even on my one pager) unintentionally I give him sympathy for his actions only because my daily lifestyle is similar to his. I do not believe I am the only student on campus who takes challenging classes, go to college, get a job and achieve the "American Dream", since society has also outlined this path in order to achieve success (similar to Willy's path as a salesman). Although I do realize Willy is losing his self-identity by embedding himself to his goals causing other problems such as complicated family relationships. As the audience, we hope Willy will

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

He is a salesman. His importance is derived from that designation. Thus, his self-dignity is directly related to his occupational success. According to Willy, some weeks he averaged two hundred dollars, in actuality it was closer to seventy. However, he still found solace in that he was doing what was expected of him.  One example of his incessant need to be successful  as a salesman is, that he misses many opportunities which life affords him. He could have gone to Africa and become a rich man, but he stayed in New York simply because he is a salesman. Here is merely another example of his identity being associated with his vocation.