Salesman American Dream

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”.

The premise of the American Dream is that everyone has the right to pursue their dreams and happiness, and with hard work and ambition it can be realized. The only problem with this idea is that it is not necessarily true for everyone, especially Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman is a character who deeply believes in the dream, which for him is financial success, but his delusions of what success is and how to become successful ultimately prevent him from achieving the dream. The minor characters in the play highlight Willy’s flaws and failures, which destroy his dream. This story is about Willy Loman, a salesman, who is a suicidal, unsuccessful, father to his sons Biff and Happy and jealous of his neighbor Charley. As shown through the play, Charley’s success and Biff’s failures clearly highlight Willy’s flaws and failures.

Similar to Gatsby, Willy Loman from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, bases his "American Dream" on the idea that public acceptance would bring him wealth.  Willy believes that appearing well liked makes him successful.  Willy has based his life on the idea that if you are "well liked, you will never want" (Miller 33).  Moreover, he believes his sons' appearance will make them successful because they are "both built like Adonises" (33).  Furthermore, Willy's obsession with money leads him to equate the value of an individual with their financial worth.  Willy idealized his older brother Ben because "he is rich" (41).  Willy, reflecting on his own worth, concludes "you end up worth more dead than alive" (98).  Finally, Willy thinks that being a popular and successful businessman will win him the love of his wife and children.  Willy lies to his family, by telling his sons "[if there is] one thing boys: I have friends"(31).  He also exaggerates terribly by telling his wife he sold "five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston" (35).  In his final imagined discussion with his brother Ben, Willy concludes that by taking his own life he will finance his son's business venture, and "[Biff will] worship me for it" (135).

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

Willy Loman, the central character in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, is a man whose fall from the top of the capitalistic totem pole results in a resounding crash, both literally and metaphorically. As a man immersed in the memories of the past and controlled by his fears of the future, Willy Loman views himself as a victim of bad luck, bearing little blame for his interminable pitfalls. However, it was not an ill-fated destiny that drove Willy to devastate his own life as well as the lives of those he loved; it was his distorted set of values.

The relationship can easily come off as him having consistent admiration, believing that his sons’ looks and popularity will allow them to succeed to the point of becoming almost godlike. WILLY: That’s just what I mean, Bernard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y’understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him. 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. 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. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman; Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Viking, 1949.33. Print. Willy has convinced himself that he and his family are exceedingly important and admired when in fact, they are extremely irrelevant. Willy ignores the fact that some men become successful through their own hard work and dedication, or by being born with a silver spoon. Whenever someone who Willy considers unattractive actually becomes more successful than him, he proceeded to deny them of their credit, claiming that they aren’t really successful or going to last long in the business world, and if their level of success becomes too great, he nitpicks at everything they say or do, to justify why he still considers them unpopular. Willy’s standby logic is that if someone is not well liked, they can never get far in

He first showed us his bride, for example in act 1 When Linda said “Willy, dear. Talk to them again there’s no reason why you can’t work in New York”, he stated that they didn’t need him in New York, and that he’s vital in New England, which shows how he falsely insisted that he’s a critic player in his business in order to boost his sense of self-worth, arguing that he is an important man. Another admirable thing about him is that even though he talked about his brother Ben’s success, he didn’t envy or resent his brother, it was quite the opposite, Willy idolizes his big brother, and he always went for him for advice in his imagination. However, it was later discover that Bill’s success was earned by cheating when Bill fights Biff, Willy’s older lazy unsuccessful son. That led us to know why Willy is such a loathsome character. As stated before, Willy Loman was a very ambitious man, so what will happen when he doesn’t reach his goal? He is a naive person who only live in his dream world, satisfying himself by lying to himself and his family, living in and delusion where he was a successful salesman, with a perfect successful family. Reading about him tend to leave a sour taste in the reader’s mouth, because it became clear that he is not popular, well-liked, or even good at his job. He never was, and he will never be, he was such a poor-willed,

He had turned out to be progressively hopeless as he'd advanced from a devoted, cherishing father, however not without blemishes, into a self-destructive, capricious man. In his universe of hallucination, Willy was that enormous fruitful sales representative, notwithstanding he secured his significant uneasiness and self-question with outrageous self-importance. Occasionally unfit to keep up this picture of quality, Willy loses hope and begs effective individuals around him for direction and support. In spite of his endeavors, it turns out to be certain that Willy Loman isn't famous, very much loved, or even great at his activity. Truth be told, he never was. Probably, he never will be. Willy is a somewhat shaky person. He tries to improve himself

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, the protagonist, is an interesting character in how he is written. He is a static character who remains the same throughout the play. This is in contrast to other characters throughout the play, such as Biff, who changes his approach towards his father from earlier in his life to the present and end of the play. Willy is constantly deluding himself about his position in life- from how much money he makes, to how people view him (such as Charley or his boss), to how he treats the people he cares for. Willy believes himself to do the very best for his family, but has cheated on his wife and ignores Biff’s desires for what he wants to do with his life.

“ For many the American dream has become a nightmare” The American dream is “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” The fight for and fail of achieving this dream is seen widely in the book Death Of A Salesman by Arthur Miller. The way Willy Loman saw the American Dream to be like included two specific things being, Wealth and Success. There are three main aspects of the main character, Willy Loman's Personality and Character traits that lead to his downfall and his deep fear of abandonment and betrayal.

Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, addresses the ongoing conflicts within one family. However, he also uses the play to offer an indictment on the American capitalist system, and in it he exposes the potentially harmful and destructive myth built around the American Dream and the struggles to obtain it. Through the protagonist, Willy Loman, Miller demonstrates the struggles of obtaining the American Dream. Willy does not  realize that he is living in a capitalist society and continues to use the wrong methods to attain success and accomplish his American dream. In the end, his dreams never comes true and the only way he believes he can give meaning to his life is by ending it.

The American Dream is the idiomatic goal to which American society has long subscribed, the belief that fame, riches, respect, popularity, or any other form of wealth can be attained through hard work. In Arthur Miller's famous play, Death of a Salesman, the concept of this dream and its influence on ordinary people are observed through the Loman family and their acquaintances. The family includes Willy Loman, the play's titular salesman, his wife Linda, and their sons Buff and Happy. While much of the detail focuses on the character of Willy, each of the characters displays their own fallacies, quirks, and inner beliefs and motivations over the course of the play. Linda Loman serves as a perfect example of Miller's excellent character development,

There are many angles that Willy Loman can be examined from to sort out what type of man he really was. He was a man who lacked vision,

The phrase “American Dream” has often been ascribed to the prosperity of the United States, but the explication of this expression lacks consistency amongst the citizens in this country. The diversity of opinions comprised in the American society causes significant variation to the interpretation of this term from person-to-person. An example of these discrepancies is depicted in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. In this play, Miller uses several different characters as a function to illustrate the widespread disparity of beliefs regarding the appropriate philosophy for the pursuit of happiness in America. Willy Loman (the central character in the play) is used to represent a highly capitalistic society. On the other hand, Willy’s son

Willy Loman is a man on a mission. His purpose in life is to achieve a false sense of the "American Dream," but is this what Willy Loman really wants? In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller analyzes the American Dream by portraying to us a few days in the life of a washed up salesman named Willy Loman. The American Dream is a definite goal of many people, meaning something different to everyone. Willy's version is different from most people though; his is based more on being well-liked and achieving monetary successes rather than achieving something that will make him happy. Willy never becomes part of the "American Dream" because he never follows his true dreams and