How Does Willy Loman Show Abandonment

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“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, is a short play told of the life of Willy Loman, protagonist, as he recounts memories as he talks to himself. Willy is a sixty-three-year-old traveling salesmen. Willy Loman is also a man of many trades but throughout the play, he seems to show abandonment. Willy has been left behind since he was an adolescent by those he cherishes. Willy expresses these ideas of such abandonment through his father, his brother, and his own abandonment to his family. Being merely four years old, Willy, and Ben, his brother, were abandon by their father who left for Alaska. The lack of a father figure leads to Willy’s lack of guidance and concern. “WILLY [pulling Ben away from her impatiently]: Where is Dad? Didn’t you follow him?... I discovered after a few days that I was heading due south, so instead of Alaska, I ended up in Africa.” (Act 1. 1042-43.) The idea of abandonment felt is through Willy’s longing for memories about his father. If Willy’s dad had been around, then he wouldn’t have to go to his brother for countless memories. Willy is fond of the past rather the present. “WILLY: No, Ben! Please tell about Dad… and some …show more content…

Ben left the Willy behind in hopes of finding their father in Alaska when Willy was an adolescent. With Ben leaving, he caused Willy to develop this false interpretation of what the “American Dream” is. Willy takes interest in Ben being so success and rich. Willy looks up to his older brother and sees that everything Ben does is right. After their father left, Ben, being the oldest, was supposed to be Willy’s “go to man “serving as not only a sibling, but a father figure too. Ben abandoned Willy just as much as their father did. Ben visited very rarely in his trip to and from Alaska. Willy feels as though he—along with his family, could’ve been successful had he gone to Alaska with Ben. Ben is a mirror image of what Willy Loman could’ve been but failed to

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