Poverty In Death Of A Salesman And Fences

Racism and lack of opportunity where the Maxson’s live, play a monumental part of why the whole family is in shambles. In the beginning of the play, Troy is frustrated at his job and lack of economic and monetary achievement, he proceeds to say:

life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

The play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, takes issue with those in America who place too much stress upon material gain, at the expense of other, more admirable human values. Miller uses flashbacks to provide exposition, to foreshadow the upcoming tragedy, and most importantly to reveal character traits. An analysis of the main character, Willy Loman, illustrates the underlying theme that the concern over material success breaks down the bonds between men that form the basis of a smooth-functioning society.

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

In the play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is the main character and he has high expectations for his one boy Biff. He wants Biff to be like him but he pushes him to more than he can handle. Willy is an older man who is starting to lose his mind. Willy has mental problems which causes him to see things and do things, he also attempts to kill himself a couple of times. Will one day was driving in his car and he all of a sudden he forgot he was driving, “No, its me, its me. Suddenly I realize I’m goin sixty miles an hour and I don’t remember the last five minutes. I’m-- I can’t seem to-- keep my mind to it.” This quotes shows how he keeps forgetting things that have happened. Willy also is a salesman for a job and he has to travel a lot but he does not like to travel so he tries to change what he does. He tries by going to his boss and asking about the job where he can stay in one spot and not travel. He asks to work in one spot and offers to be payed less, once his boss doesn’t go with the plan he gives another price range, “I tell ya, Howard. The kids are all grown up, y’know. I don”t need much any more. If I could take home---well, sixty-five dollars a week, i could swing it.” “Howard, all I need to set the table is fifty dollars a week.” These two quotes shows how he kept offering lower and lower when he didn’t get the job. Willy is very similar to Troy Maxson. Troy and Willy expect the same out of their boys, to be successful. Troy was a big sports person and wants his son to be the same, “Though he used to be able to

Willy was illusive thinking that he was good enough to get a better a job, instead he end up looking as a

Having a father figure in your life can help shape your life. Fathers are disciplinarians and caretakers. Often, it may seem that boys will try to copy their fathers to be just like them. They will seek their father’s approval in everything they do. The relationship between a father, and a son is an essential one. This relationship can determine how a boy will grow up into a man, what good habits will he pick up from his father or what bad ones. Although the fathers in Death of a Salesman and Fences; Willy and Troy wanted what's best for their sons, they did more harm than good. A terrible father and son relationship can cause a strain on the son's mind by constantly needing praise from their dad. Thus, Biff and Cory's relationship with

Troy claimed that the reason he did not become a major-league baseball player was racism, although he was over forty at the time and too old to play (Wilson). In the same way, Walter Lee decided that the reason why the money was stolen was that the world is divided into givers and takers, and that the givers will always be weighed down by the takers (Hansberry). These parallels reveal the Catch-22 in African-American society during the time period which the main characters experienced. Either stay where you are and work hard, but never/slowly progress, or try to work hard and achieve your dreams but be cut down constantly while doing so and have a limited chance at success. Additionally, this reveals that the numerous struggles that Troy and Walter Lee have endured in the past, like jail time or finding employment, have a long-term impact on them by making them dislike society as a whole. Likewise, the gender roles in the 1950s lead to an expectation for the man to be the main provider. Both Troy and Walter Lee dreamt to be the epitome of masculinity give their family a “stereotypical, middle-class American” life by working hard. Thus, they could not accept that they provided basic needs for their family with someone else’s money, and that they failed to meet these standards. As a result, they blamed their shortcomings on others instead of their own

It is here when Troy describes how his father was a share cropper with that we are able to understand how things worked around that time, “The only thing my daddy cared about was getting them bales of cotton in to Mr. Lubin” (Wilson 991). When Troy left his father’s house at the age of 14 we get a broader picture of how things looked around that time in American history. “Got up here and found out… not only couldn’t you get a job…you couldn’t find no place to live” (Wilson 993). This quote explains what was going on in urban areas where the blacks were the very poor minority and it also served as an explanation of why the whites thrived in it (Deindustrialization). The play also shows that although it was difficult for Black Americans, progress was there, for instance with Troy and the purchasing of his home which was hard to come by for many other Blacks.

They are poor as well and they know what it is like to constantly have to fight just to reach what they want in life. Both families have gone through different situations that have kept them from their dreams, but they never forgot the importance of family. There is many similarities and differences between these play that make them unique in their own way.

Life is full of many trials and tribulations, and the Loman family, in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, was stranger to neither. As life threw what it had at the family, their poor emotional resources become more and more obvious as one observes their reactions to the economic struggles the family faces. In Ruby Payne’s A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Payne discusses how important it is for individuals to have emotional resources, which are often learned from role models. As the Loman boys, Biff and Happy, grow up, they look to their parents to learn how to emotionally respond.

The concept of sports plays a big role in both stories; as both main characters, Willy and Troy, have sons who wish to play sports in school. But the sons, Cory and Biff, had very different reactions from their fathers. Willy, was very supportive of the idea, whereas Troy, disagreed with it and did everything in his power to stop it, and he succeed. Willy believed that if his son became a famous athlete, he will have a bright future; however, this did not happen because Biff found out about his affair. While Willy was supportive and understanding, Biff’s father, Troy, was the opposite of Willy. Troy did not want Cory to play sports due to his own experience in the past with how he was treated when he wanted to

Is the year 1957 in the Industrial city of Pittsburg. Troy Maxon is fifty-three years old. He has been married to Rose for 18 years, this devotion to him has led her to ignore the more difficult aspects of his character. Furthermore, one of the literary elements used to spotlight this issue is on its plot and dialogues between its characters. The plot explores the roots of Troy Maxon, whose past emerge during the curse of the play, and shows a fourteen-year-old boy, who grew up motherless and under the care of a brutal and abusive father. For this reason, he decided to run away from his home and set out on his own in the north of Pittsburg. s with no job a

Although being successful is a lot more than that, it's having people who care about you, being healthy, and content with who you are. This article will help me to show how Willy was never able to accept what being successful really is, rather than what the American ideals of being successful are. This will help me to show that this faulty idea of success led to his

Throughout this play Miller portrays his main character, Willy Loman, as senile, unsuccessful and slightly insane. Willy’s deranged personality is in part because his father abandoned him at a young age. Willy also feels abandoned by his cherished brother Ben. Ben went off to become a big success and rich. Willy sees this and it helps lead him to feel inadequate as a man