Arthur Miller's Death Of a Salesman Exposes Morals and Values of American Culture
Arthur Miller's play, "Death Of a Salesman" is a very elaborate play that tells the story of a man's dream to achieve greatness from nothing. It almost seems to make fun of American society's competitive nature, "Imagine? When the mail comes he'll be ahead of Bernard again!" Willy(1215)
The title "Death Of a Salesman" leaves nothing to the imagination of how this play ends. Indeed this is a story about the noble, cowardly death of Willy Loman, a traveling salesman.
Arthur Miller used the efficient idea of using flashbacks to allow the play to take place within a few days instead of years. Willy Loman as the central character, lives with his wife, Linda and has two sons, Biff (elder) and Happy.
Willy Loman who is quite literally a "low man" has so many personality traits accurate to real life, this is no surprise since Miller based Willy's character on his uncle, Manny Newman. Miller said, "That homely, ridiculous little man had after all never ceased to struggle for a certain victory, the only kind open to him in society - selling to achieve his lost self as a man with his name and his son's name on a business of his own"
Willy was defiantly in a struggle however, he was certainly not in a struggle to convince himself he was doing better than he really was, "I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own." Willy (1165).
Willy Loman did not want to die, he went to Ben to seek approval of what he thought would please the family"...Ben, I want you to go through the ins and outs of this thing with me. I've got nobody to talk to, Ben, and the woman has suffered, you hear me?" Willy (1210) He also proved this with his many "near incidents" and the rubber pipe. According to "Suicide:The facts and myths" by Judi Marks, "Attempted suicides are a sorrowful form of communication, but they're also trial runs for the final event."
Anyone who commits suicide actually does not want to die and reality, just wants a solution to end their problems or pains. In this case Willy's problem was he thought he was so well-liked by society, however what he wanted most was for his sons to like him, and for his wife to not have to suffer his torment anymore.
Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy are all characters that use self- deception as a way to mentally escape the terrible reality of their lives. As the play progresses, and ends Biff is truly the one and only character that becomes self- aware. At the end of the play Biff accepts the lies his family and him have been living in for years. Biff makes huge changes mentally at the end of the play, which cannot be said for the rest of the Loman family.
Willy Loman’s character is capable of making errors. He believes he is a very successful salesman and well liked. He also thinks that the company likes what he is doing. He once said, “I’m the New England man. I am vital in New England” (Miller pg. 32) Because of his false belief about his success Howard fired him. After he got fired charley offered him a job, but he refuses to accept, because he is too proud and jealous to work for Charley. His actions were wrong because at no time was a successful salesman. He is not a powerful character. Willy lives in his fantasies where he is the man. Who goes out to another place and comes out rich, he is love by everyone and admired by his family. In real life, he is lazy and does not live up to his own ideals. “As Aristotle explains, a tragic hero must be one of noble character and must fall from power and happiness.”(Www.ccd.rightchoice.org/lit115/poetics.html) but Willy neither has a noble characteristic nor does he fall from power because he does not have a position of power.
Is advertising the ultimate means to inform and help us in our everyday decision-making or is it just an excessively powerful form of mass deception used by companies to persuade their prospects and customers to buy products and services they do not need? Consumers in the global village are exposed to increasing number of advertisement messages and spending for advertisements is increasing accordingly.
There are a number of reasons why Willy committed suicide, but we are never given specifics. First, there's his job. He's no longer good, the younger men are passing him by, sales no longer rely on the game he was taught as a young man; Willy had been replaced by those with new ideas and techniques, while he refused to change with the times.
Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman”, primarily focuses on the flaws and failures of Willy Loman, Millers’ main character in this story. Willy’s distorted and backward views of the American Dream, paired with his inability to let go of the past lead him down a road of regret and in the end his biggest failure which was his wasted life.
Machiavelli, Niccolò, and Robert Martin Adams. "Chapter 17." The Prince: A Revised Translation, Backgrounds, Interpretations, Marginalia. New York: Norton, 1992. 46. Print.
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a story about the dark side of the "American Dream". Willy Loman's obsession with the dream directly causes his failure in life, which, in turn, leads to his eventual suicide. The pursuit of the dream also destroys the lives of Willy's family, as well. Through the Lomans, Arthur Miller attempts to create a typical American family of the time, and, in doing so, the reader can relate to the crises that the family is faced with and realize that everyone has problems.
Authors write with a purpose, sometimes this purpose is hidden and political, while sometimes it challenges the norm, while yet other times they write just to tell a moving story. In the end, however, all writers have the same goal: to produce a work that causes their readers to think about the plot and use their own mind to decipher the meaning. Arthur Miller is an exceptional author who possesses talent that exceeds the traditional author. Miller is one of the authors who chooses to challenge political figures, the norm, and many other assumed things about society, at least for his time. Arthur was born in 1915 and died in 2005; this gives a relative idea of the time period in which
Death of a Salesman is centered around one man trying to reach the American dream and taking his family along for the ride. The Loman's lives from beginning to end is a troubling story based on trying to become successful, or at least happy. Throughout their lives they encounter many problems and the end result is a tragic death caused by stupidity and the need to succeed. During his life Willy Loman caused his wife great pain by living a life not realizing what he could and couldn't do. Linda lived sad and pathetic days supporting Willy's unreachable goals. Being brought up in this world caused his children to lose their identity and put their futures in jeopardy.
“The Prince”, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a series of letters written to the current ruler of Italy, Lorenzo de’ Medici. These letters are a “how-to” guide on what to do and what not to do. He uses examples to further express his views on the subject. The main purpose was to inform the reader how to effectively rule and be an acceptable Prince. Any ruler who wishes to keep absolute control of his principality must use not only wisdom and skill, but cunning and cruelness through fear rather than love. Machiavelli writes this book as his summary of all the deeds of great men.
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli isn't about one man's ways to feed his power hungry mindset through gluttony, nor is it just explaining altercations between a nation's states. This writing is regarding to how one's self-confidence can make them become powerful in a society and also, the way morals and politics differ and can be separate in a government. Originally, Machiavelli wrote The Prince to gain support from Lorenzo de' Medici, who during the era, was governor of Florence. As meant as writing for how a society should be run, this book has been read by many peoples around the world who want to have better knowledge of the perfect stability of beliefs and politics required to run a good civilization.
Machiavelli illustrates several key points in what it takes to be a "successful" Prince. In chapters 5-10, Machiavelli is giving us a true image of the coldhearted reputation he has carried throughout the years. He explains his ideas on taking over a "free" state or republic and how to conquer and rule with the peoples loyalty and respect.
...for the shame in his life, so he blinds himself and asks to be cast out of the city, but Willy takes the cowardly way out by committing suicide, which is punctuated by the lack of people as his funeral.
...maintain that advertising exists primarily to create demand among consumers. People have certain types of wants and needs, and they are perfectly capable to discover it for themselves. People today just need food, clothing and shelter everything else is superfluous and additional stuff. Advertising are able to create demand that would not exist just by manipulating people’s min and emotions. Advertising is master in manipulate reality and fantasy, by creating “magic show.” It is true that advertising has been a powerful mechanism that distorts our whole society’s values and priorities. On the other hand, advertising educate people about several issues. In political terms, it moves mass of people and persuade them to vote for a candidate. And, of course, in terms of economy, contributes in the development through the consumption of the costumer.
Similarly, numerous advertisements on mass media has also created adverse impacts on society. Critics substantiate this fact by giving argument that advertising of expensive products cause sense of depravity in the poor people. In addition, daily thousands of advertisements are destined to an individual through different mind process of a person.