Willy Loman And The American Dream

The interpretation of the American Dream can be different or the same between people. When people come to America or they are already living in the country they want to live up to the American Dream of making it big in life and becoming rich fast. In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman, a working class salesman, believes being well liked and popular is the true way to achieve the American Dream. His values are passed down to his son, Biff Loman, who follows his father's examples, until he realizes his own true American Dream.

Since the beginning of its time, America has set a global standard for offering chances at prosperity and career opportunities for qualified adults. Its people have been implicating the idea of the “American Dream” into its culture for many years and has become widely recognized by individuals all across the world. People pack up their lives and families to travel to American soil to try at a chance of a better life, and in doing so, they too venture on a path to achieving this so commonly understood “American Dream.” Arthur Miller, a well-known literary writer in America, seems to disagree with this national phenomena, offering a different view in his play Death of a Salesman. In this play, he demonstrates through the life of an average

The Atlantic and Aspen Institute conducted a survey with Penn Schoen Berland to study how people viewed the American Dream in 2015. “72% said they are living the American Dream or expect to in their lifetime, 85% are happy with their lives overall, 72% are happy with their jobs, 86% are optimistic about the future, and 67% feel financially secure” (Feloni). One of the most memorable explanations of the American Dream was delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. for human equality. That said, the American Dream can be symbolized however the protagonist portrays and interprets it. Everyone’s opinion is a reality in their own eyes. This is factual in Arthur Miller’s play, “Death of a Salesman”, and Booker T. Washington’s speech, “The Atlanta Exposition.” The theme of both works uses a pathos approach to depict the obstacles they had to overcome in order to reach what they defined as the “American Dream.” The protagonists shared similarities as it relates to social acceptance, but their stories part different motifs of business success, monetary value, human equality, and compromise in an antagonist American Dream.

Over the years a lot of plays have been written with the same kind of themes throughout. The “American Dream” is a standard that we can see in both the Death of a Salesman and The Great Gatsby. The thought of an “American Dream” is often seen as glorious, yet something to work hard towards. This isn’t always the case however. At times people hold their “American Dream” at a higher standard that may be less achievable. Although it is great to follow your own dreams, you do need to be able to know what is realistic and what is not. This is the case in both of our stories.

In 1949, the forlorn life of Willy Loman is introduced in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. At this time the American Dream was something everyone craved during the peak of suburbia. The American Dream was the golden standard of living like Donna Reed, all wrapped up with a white picket fence. To Willy Loman, The American Dream was not the golden standard, but the only standard. His wife Linda dutifully greeting him as he came home from a successful day as a salesman, and sits down to dinner with his sons Biff, the former football star and now successful salesman that takes after his father, and Happy, a husband and father of three who lives a humble life. This idea infested Willy’s mind to such an extent that reality was swept away.

The American Dream is a concept defined in many different points of views, every individual has their own interpretation to the actual definition. During the play “Death of a Salesman” the character Willy Loman has envisioned his own American Dream into his mentality that one needs to have charisma to prosper. The protagonist Willy Loman is introduced to the audience as a man who was able to get “deals” anywhere he traveled to, in his words “when they hear my name they stop everything and go on to greet me”. The character Willy Loman expresses himself as one “popular man”, during his time as a salesman he has made “amazing sales” and never even struggled.

Thus, in Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the different components of the American Dream can either work together, or destroy an individual in their pursuit of their ultimate goal are represented through Willy’s pursuit a tight-family unit and extreme wealth.

“Death of a Salesman” is a book like no other. Willy Loman is a protagonist like no other. Every aspect of Willy Loman is contradicted by another aspect of his. He is the main character, but he is the adversary. He wants to be successful, but he never makes any effort towards success. Throughout the novel, the reader is not expected to support Willy and his rash decisions, unlike most protagonists. Arthur Miller establishes a connection between the reader and other characters in the novel who are hurt by Willy and his actions. Based on the ideology of the American Dream, Willy Loman is unsuccessful, unlike a traditional protagonist, and resemblant of a traditional antagonist, making him a complicated protagonist.

Death of a Salesman and the American Dream In his play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller utilizes the character of Biff to expose the falsity of Willy Loman's beliefs and desires, especially with regards to his belief in the American Dream. Biff's assessment of Willy is accurate; Willy's values are misplaced and deluded. The “wrong dreams” Biff describes are Willy's confusion of material wealth, possessions and popularity as meaning success in life and relationships, and his delusion with certain aspects of these ambitions. These “wrong dreams” all stem from the context of post-war American consumerism and the American Dream: that everyone has the opportunity in America to achieve wealth and prosperity.

Willy strongly believes in the American Dream, that anybody can achieve wealth, but his version of it is one that is nearly impossible to obtain. Everybody except Willy has lived the dream, his brother discovered a diamond mine, Charley his neighbor owns a chain of stores, Charley’s son Bernard became a lawyer, and Howard inherited a company from his father. Ben being that main influence on Willy’s beliefs of the American Dream causes Willy to believe that if you look good, manly, and are well liked, that you would automatically achieve success.

Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, is a great novel for life lessons and the true meaning of the American Dream. The novel tracks Willy Loman, an unreliable, self-bamboozled voyaging businessperson. Willy accepts wholeheartedly in the American Dream of simple achievement and riches, however he has never accomplished it. Nor do his children satisfy his trust that they will succeed where he has fizzled. At the point when Willy's illusions start to come up short under the squeezing substances of his life, his emotional well-being starts to unwind. The mind-boggling strains brought on by this difference, and additionally those created by the societal objectives that drive Willy, shape the vital clash of Death of a Salesman.

Throughout Death of a Salesman, the author, Arthur Miller, incorporates his own idea and opinions about the American Dream into the lives of the Loman family. In the play there are many depictions of the American Dream, and it is known that Death of a Salesman is a harsh criticism of the American Dream. However, it may be that the author wanted to clarify our definition: What is the American Dream? The answer depends on which character you ask.

In Death of a Salesman, the play’s main character, Willy Loman, fits nearly every cliche there is about middle aged men who have accomplished nothing. As sad as it is to say, Willy is not only a realistic character, but a character possessing traits commonly found in modern American society. He is the adult that no one wants to be, but grows up to be nonetheless. Willy Loman is a type of person commonly found in today’s America, possessing many undesirable, yet common, traits, such as him hating change, trying to control and live through his children, and maintaining hope in the American Dream despite it failing him repeatedly.

Embedded deep within the historical the play ‘Death of a Salesman’, penned by the late Arthur Miller greatly portrays a specific ideology in regards to values, dreams and goals. ‘Death of a Salesman’ vividly showcases the American dream that society tends to strive for even in the early 1900’s, the era in which the play was written. That dream of being a successful business person or vendor. As well as the theory that image and physical attributes are most important to gaining fruition! Miller does a unique job throughout the characters, Willy, Ben, and Biff to portray how diverse the American dream is in regards to one's perspective.

In the classic American drama “Death of a Salesman,” Arthur Miller spins a profound and complex narrative around a deluded and shallow shell of a man. In a story overflowing with intimations about the nature and morality of man and the ramifications of mistruths and fantasy, there is one message easily held as predominant: that of Willy Loman’s futile pursuit of the American dream and the reality of its death within him—and the unfortunate sector of humanity that he embodies. This interpretation is so dominant and alluring, in fact, that it neatly obscures a more subtle message seeded patiently by Miller throughout the narrative. While the death of the American dream might be lamentable, it is the death of trust in “Death of a Salesman”