The American Dream is defined as the ideal that every US citizen has an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work. While many strive for this ideal, some take it to the extreme by letting it run all components of their life. In his play “Death of a Salesman”, Arthur Miller repeatedly interrupts Willy Loman’s present state of mind by infusing various interruptions and challenges his grasp on reality by feeding a false truth that constitutes man’s blindness to the American Dream. Willy changes his interpretations of reality according to his needs in the present moment by utilizing interruptions, specifically the Red Chevvy and Ben, in order to construct elaborate fantasies that allow him to mask the mounting evidences of his own …show more content…
For example, while describing driving to work that day, Willy states that he was “suddenly going off the road” while he “was thinking of the Chevvy” (19). Here, Willy distracts himself from current failure in his work by reliving the past until he’s forced back into reality by a loss of control. Additionally, after becoming frustrated over the topic of Biff’s return, Willy states that the “Chevrolet … is the greatest car ever built” while reminiscing over his past life when his kids were younger (34). Therefore, Willy recognizes the failure of Biff as failure of his own by continuing to mask those feelings with memories of success. On the other hand, Ben interrupts Willy’s mind in order to cultivate his false fantasies. For example, Ben’s first appearance is triggered by Charley’s comment towards Biff’s return with the metaphor, “when a deposit bottle breaks you do not get your nickel back” (44). Here, Ben provides relief from the burden of Biff’s failure on Willy by constituting his actions with his own experiences. Furthermore, Ben’s last appearance is made
Willy pleads for Ben’s advice, and is constantly trying to get his attention, even though Ben has to ‘leave’. Ben is Willy’s older brother who has died. He, unlike Willy, has experienced a lot of success in the selling world. Willy is driven by Ben, and therefore tries to extract the keys to his success. Willy feels neglected when Ben does not speak with him, even though he is merely a hallucination.
Willy is like an impetuous youngster with high ideals and high hopes. Children always have high hopes for their future. They all want to be astronauts or millionaires. Willy always believes he can achieve that kind of success. He never lets go of his wistful life. “…What (sic) could be more satisfying than to …pick up a phone and call the buyer, and without even leaving his room…”(Miller 81)? He dreams of being the man who does all of his business from his house and dies as a rich and successful man. Furthermore, Willy also dreams of moving to Alaska where he could work with his hands and be a real man. Biff and Happy follow in thei...
Success: Accomplishing Your Dream Completing the "American Dream" is a controversial issue. The American Dream can be defined as having a nice car, maybe two or three of them, having a beautiful, healthy family, making an impact on the world, or even just having extra spending money when the bills are paid. In the play "Death Of A Salesman," by Arthur Miller, the "American Dream" deals with prosperity, status, and being immortalized.
Willy’s need for the “drug” reassures himself that everything will turn out okay and that his family will be happy once again like it was in the past.
Although Willy sometimes has flashbacks, examining them, as well as his thoughts, helps the reader to understand and relate to him better. Willy had very high, but unrealistic expectations for his boys, especially Biff; he thought that they would be guaranteed success. This is illustrated in the quote, “I see great things for you kids, I think your troubles are over. But remember, start big and you’ll end big.” (pg. 64) Willy was convinced that Biff should become a great star and could not accept the fact that Biff had turned out less than perfect. This is demonstrated when Willy says “My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school?” (pg. 16) It is easy to see that Willy thought the world was against him and that his life would never amount to anything. When he says “I’m always in a race with the junkyard,” (pg. 73...
Throughout the play, Willy has hallucinations of his brother Ben, who left Willy when he was young, “Well, I was just a baby, of course, only three or four years old,” (Miller 47), and the man later offered to take Willy with him, but Willy had a dream “There’s a man eighty-four years old-” (Miller 86) and he felt that he was going to accomplish that dream. “Willy retreats into a dream world consisting of his roseate recollections of the past and of fantasies,” (Hadomi), he hallucinates often, and this is a better way of saying he’s delusional. He did not, he failed miserably, he had to borrow money from Charley “If you can manage it-- I need a hundred and ten dollars,” (Miller 96), then he pretended it was a loan from him “I’m keeping an account of everything, remember,” (Miller 96), that he would pay back “I’ll pay every penny back,” (Miller 96), but Linda and Charley knew he was not going to pay any of it back. Willy had a hard time accepting defeat, and he wanted his boys to succeed where he failed, but Biff was always better with physical labor “when all you really desi...
But at the start his presence he is more diffuse as he spreads with all the characters in the flashback. Later Ben is still apparent but only when Willy is alone in a flashback. As the flashbacks are happening in the past, the present is still there. So as Willy is talking to Ben, Linda is confused to who Willy is talking to. The 'laughter of the past' is heard during the play from the woman Willy was having an affair with.
Willy Loman experiences flashbacks of past events, and hallucinates that have never occurred. He uses flashbacks with The Woman to escape present problem. His delusions are so powerful; he loses touch with reality, like in the case of The Woman in the restaurant and with his brother, Ben, and Charley. His delusions become so strong by the end of the play, Willy cannot interpret what has actually occurred and what is a delusion. He has a flashback with his brother, though he fabricates what his brother says. Willys’ delusions are what ultimately lead to his final act of suicide.
causing him to always go back in time. By Willy always replaying these good thoughts in his mind shows how he cannot accept the fact that his relationship with Biff has changed and will never go back to the way it used to be. One also sees how Willy gets really mad when Linda buys a different type of cheese as one sees when he says, “I don’t want a change! I want Swiss cheese. Why am I always being contradicted” ( Miller, 17). Willy clearly does not like change, even though it is something as simple as cheese. Willy is always saying how he does not like change but then Linda goes and buys another type of cheese. Things like the change in Willy’s relationship with Biff and the change in the type of cheese lead to Willy always starting fights with his family. Although Willy faces many changes that are hard to face for him in his own life one sees how he also faces many difficulties as things change for him in the social
Willy’s fabricated dreams affected both him and his family negatively. The lives of both, Biff and Happy, were ruined and once he realized the fallacy of his dreams, he too was left ruined. While, Linda suffered great emotional pain. To prosper in life, In Miller’s view in the play, and become an ideal person, an individual must let go of all false dreams and see through the façade; for only hard work will result in success.
An American dream is a dream that can only be achieved by passion and hard work towards your goals. People are chasing their dreams of better future for themselves and their children. The author Arthur Miller in Death of a Salesman has displayed a struggle of a common man to achieve the American dream. Willy Loman the protagonist of the play has spent his whole life in chasing the American dream. He was a successful salesman who has got old and unable to travel for his work, and no one at work gives him importance anymore. He is unhappy with his sons Happy and Biff because both of them are not successful in their lives. Moreover, Biff and Happy are also not happy with their father Willy because they don’t want to live a life that Willy wants them to live. The heated discussions of Willy and his older son Biff affect the family and the family starts to fall apart. However, Willy is unable to achieve the American dream and does not want to face the reality that his decisions for himself and his family have lead him to be a failure in the society. In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the protagonist Willy Loman spends his whole life to achieve the American Dream by his own perception and denies facing the reality, just like nowadays people are selling themselves and attempting to find success in life.
Prosperity, job security, hard work and family union are some of the concepts that involves the American Dream, generally speaking. Some people think this dream is something automatically granted; or in contrast, as in the story “Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller, as something that has to be achieved in order to be successful in life. The play takes issues with those in America who place to much stress on material gain, instead of more admirable values. American society is exemplified with Miller’s work and demonstrates how a dream could turn into a nightmare. Arthur Miller’s, “Death of a Salesman”, is a play that portrays the author’s life and the psychological problems that brings the collapse of the American Dream for this in a lower-middle family in an economical depression.
Willy still struggles to find out why his son, Biff, has not made anything of himself yet. Instead of a stable job, Biff has been a farmhand across the country earning only $35 a week (Act I. Scene I). Willy does not know where he has gone wrong with raising his kids, with his job, and overall with his life (Krutch, 308-309). To find the solutions to the problems driving him insane, Willy looks to his past. While he is day-dreaming he actually talks to himself and makes his family worried about his health and sanity. He daydreams and feels as if he is actually encountering the past once again in his journey. Willy is desperately trying to find out what has gone wrong in his life, why no one responds to him in the positive way that he used to, and why Biff does not have a stable job or a family. Through his trek to finding his mistakes in life, Willy finds r...
Failure of the American Dream in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman 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.
In today’s society the term “American Dream” is perceived as being successful and usually that’s associated with being rich or financially sound. People follow this idea their entire life and usually never stop to think if they are happy on this road to success. Most will live through thick and thin with this idealization of the “American Dream” usually leading to unhappiness, depression and even suicide. The individual is confused by society’s portrayal of the individuals who have supposedly reached the nirvana of the “American Dream”. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Willy thinks that if a person has the right personality and he is well liked it’s easy to achieve success rather than hard work and innovation. This is seen when Willy is only concerned how Biff’s class mates reacted to his joke of the teachers lisp. Willy’s dream of success for his son Biff who was very well liked in High School never actually became anything. Biff turned into a drifter and a ranch worker. In the play “Seize the Day” Tommy who is financially unstable also pursues the idea of getting to the “American Dream” and becoming wealthy. He foolishly invests his last seven hundred dollars and eventually loses it leaving him broke and out of work. In both plays following the American Dream is followed in different characters and in both the characters are far away from it leaving them broke and forgotten by almost everyone.