Willy Loman's American Dream

     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 "Death of a Salesman" Arthur Miller was attempting to create fully rounded characters. He wanted to figure out their emotional reactions to the failure of the American Dream. Willy Loman tried to pursue all the optimism of a salesperson. Charley is the neighbor of the Loman family. He is practically the definition of an American ideal. He is hardworking, successful, kind, and generous. He even offered Willy a job because he realized Willy was struggling financially. Charley says to Willy, “you want a job?” So Charley is just trying to give Willy a helping hand. Willy is a little jealous of Charley so Willy refused the job. Charley eventually said to Willy, “When the hell are you going to grow up?” Willy only earns commission on his sales job and he has not been able to make a lot of money. Charley has also paid the mortgage on Willy’s house even though Willy keeps saying he will pay him back. Unlike Willy, Charley raises his children to study

Since Willy could not reach the dream himself, he bargained his identity for money, so his son could “live the dream” that he never could. Willy states to Happy, “ The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich!”(41) When Willy believed that he could amass fast money for his family, he thought about killing himself. All he could think about was the money that could be earned for his family; “Remember, it’s a guaranteed twenty-thousand-dollar proposition” (125). Willy became obsessed with the idea of quickly obtaining this dream, and thought the only fix was to make his son successful. Willy thought you could easily achieve this dream with just personality and popularity. He was clouded by this dream and became senile, which eventually led to the loss of his identity. The money itself stole Willy’s identity in which he became a “low-man” in the process of trying to achieve his

Finally, Willy failed greatly at achieving the American Dream. People have come to the United States hoping for a life of happiness and success, at the same time, hoping to take pride in what they do and enjoy it. Willy did not achieve the American Dream. He had no pride in what he did, although he hid these emotions. I believe he was so embarrassed because he could not make a single sale or earn a single dollar that he began borrowing fifty dollars a week from Charley, and then pretended it was his salary. He lied to his family and to himself. He did not allow himself to do what he truly wanted to do because he believed that it was more remarkable to be supposedly successful. He therefore failed miserably at the true American Dream, exchanging it for an unattainable fantasy.

Willy foolishly pursues the wrong dream and constantly lives in an unreal world blinded from reality. Despite his dream Willy constantly attempts to live in an artificial world and claims “If old Wagner was alive I’d be in charge of New York by now” (Miller 14). As a result, Willy often ignores his troubles and denies any financial trouble when he says “business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me of course” (Miller 51). Another false segment of Willy’s dream includes the success of his two sons Happy and Biff. Biff was a high school football star who never cared about academics and now that he needs a job says “screw the business world” (Miller 61). Ironically, Willy suggests that Biff go west an “be a carpenter, or a cowboy, enjoy yourself!”, an idea that perhaps Willy should have pursued. Constantly advising his boys of the importance of being well liked, Willy fails to stress academics as an important part of life (Miller 40). Furthermore, Willy dies an unexpected death that reveals important causes of the failure to achieve the American dream. At the funeral Linda cries “I made the last payment on the house today... and there’ll be nobody home” to say that she misses Willy but in essence his death freed the Lomans from debt and the hopes and expectations Willy placed on his family (Miller 139). Very few people attend

The success attained by Willy?s role models, his father, Dave Singleman, and Ben, is what he envisions to be the American Dream. He only visualizes the end product, being successful, and not the process they may have gone through to achieve that success. Willy?s father sold flutes and made that his living. In an encounter with his thoughts of the past, Willy listens to Ben, his brother, who refers to their father by saying, "Great Inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime" (49). Willy assumes that by being a salesman, like his father was, he is automatically guaranteed success, and that it wasn?t something that he would have to work for. Material success, such as money, luxury, and wealth, and popularity are his goals and his definition of success. On the other hand, self-fulfillment and happiness through hard work is not. By only focusing on the outer appearance of the American Dream, Willy ignores the

Although Willy sees this goal to be the most beneficial way to make his family happy, it creates roadblocks in their relationships, so when Willy dies, nothing really is left for his family except a little bit of money, but little to no caring thoughts or memories. He believed that his primary job was to make his family proud by going as far as he could in his career, but what his wife and sons truly wanted was to connect with him and have meaningful interactions with him. This dichotomy of opposing goals is very important to the tension of the show

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

Ultimately, choosing the person with the best dream in Death of a Salesman can be done in a variety of different ways. The best dream could mean the dream with the largest rewards, the dream with the most realistic goals, or many other different ideas; however, to me the “best dream” would be the dream that is the best outcome with goals set to be just slightly more difficult than can realistically be achieved. This would push the one dreaming to continuously strive for more than their current situation, without being so daunting as to seem hopeless. Therefore, I believe Biff has the “best dream” out of any other character. Biff’s dream to own a ranch is both one that is extremely rewarding and likely just out of his reach.

Being well liked is a vital trait in his opinion. He believes this is important to their ability to be successful in achieving the American Dream. Willy, however, is mislead. You do not need to be well liked in order to be successful. This is the first time we see Willy's failure to take the ideals set by the American Dream and apply them improperly into his and his sons lives.

The year is 1949, and it had only been four years since the end of World War II. The United States had emerged victorious and relatively unscathed from world conflict. Moreover, the depression of 1929 which inundated the United States of America, was eradicated by progressive programs. One of the programs was Social Security, introduced in August of 1935, was now available to a society that was living longer. These perfect conditions created unprecedented prosperity within the United States of America, and gave birth to a new condition called, “The American Dream.” Willy Loman, from Death of a Salesman, was a troubled 63 year old who found himself struggling in the later part of his life both economically and mentally. These cacophonies of failures culminated in his sense of overwhelming and lethal guilt in not obtaining the American Dream.

Contradicts what Willy’s image of America because he believes that America is the land of the free. This statement explains that there is constantly more and more people on this earth so there is more competition so the ones that want to succeed have to want and it and really work for what they want. This quote also explains why at the beginning Willy talks about an impressive year he had back then where he averaged a solid one hundred dollars a night being one of the best salesman to the difference towards the end of the movie when Willy gets fired because there's too much competition and they do not know if Willy is good enough to make them profit. So America can still be the land of the opportunity you just have to be willing to work hard enough for your dream and it is only the and of the opportunity for those who are willing to make the most of their opportunities. A prime example is Bernard, he took his opportunity by studying hard in school and becomes very successful. A bad example is Willy because he thinks you can succeed by being popular having everyone like you and your

Growing up in the busy historically rich area of Harlem, New York, Arthur Miller’s childhood was thriving with a mixture of influences, views and cultures that found their way into his mind and body through all five senses. His family was greatly respected in the community having owned an extremely successful women’s clothing manufacturing business. This amount of wealth and success led to a lavish lifestyle where Miller’s family had the opportunity to own a summer house in Far Rockaway ,Queens with a chauffeur. This situation ,however, ended pretty abruptly with the stock market crash 1929 forcing Miller and his family to lose almost everything they owned. In “The Death of a Salesman” the idea of success is constantly talked about or played

Whether it’s nature or nurture, the environment someone lives in will have at least some effect on the person living there and what they believe. A person’s country is a large part of their identity, whether they love or hate it. Willy Loman lives in the United States, surrounded by a culture of people obsessed with material goods and commercial and social success. This culture of consumerism, one full of capitalist propaganda, directly affects his character and, in turn, the meaning of the work as a whole.

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