Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
American dream and the death of a salesman
American dream and the death of a salesman
American dream and the death of a salesman
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: American dream and the death of a salesman
Comparing Death of a Salesman and The American Dream
In Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman and Edward Albee’s The American Dream, Willy Lowman and Mommy possess the trait of superficiality. Their priorities are to look good and be liked, and this contributes to their misguided paths to reach success. This attribute is one of many societal criticisms pointed out by both authors. Arthur Miller criticizes society for perceiving success as being liked and having good looks. He illustrates society’s perception through Willy, who thinks the keys to success are being popular and attractive. Willy transmits this philosophy to his sons by ignoring their education and personal growth and setting an example that popularity is most important. Edward Albee criticizes society for the same thing. He points out the wrong priorities in life such as emphasizing good looks and the wish to be liked at the expense of deeper ethics and morals. Through Mommy’s incident with the hat, which showed she wanted to be liked, and her problems with her own son’s physical and mental faults, which showed she cared too much for good looks, Albee shows how society is misguided in its methods to achieve success.
Miller’s Willy shows many times that his idea of success goes no deeper than the superficial by teaching his sons the wrong path to a successful life. When Biff was in high school, Willy had already started to teach his son the false values in which he believed. When Willy found out Biff had stolen a football and was caught by his coach, who did not get angry, Willy responded by using the incident as an example of the importance of his philosophy.
"That’s because he likes you. If somebody else took that ball there’d be
an uproar." (...
... middle of paper ...
...ve path in the form of Bernard, who unlike Biff and Happy, does well in school, is not well liked by others, and is a relatively unattractive man. However, his goals are more within reach because he is prepared to work hard and is less concerned with the opinions of others.
Works Cited and Consulted
Albee, Edward. The American Dream. Toronto: Plume, 1997
Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Costello, Donald P. “Arthur Miller’s Circles of Responsibility: A View From a Bridge and Beyond.” Modern Drama. 36 (1993): 443-453.
Hayashi, Tetsumaro. Arthur Miller Criticism. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1969.
Martin, Robert A., ed. Arthur Miller. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Viking, 1965.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that the journey is not the same for every individual. Media often leads its viewers toward a “one size fits all” version of success that may help themselves, but will rarely help the viewers. This is seen in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller includes multiple instances of symbolism and personification to reveal to the reader the situational irony in Willy’s life, underlining the theme of self-deception in regard to the American Dream.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”(Tucker p.56) This quote by Winston Churchill relates to Biff, Willy’s oldest son, and how he gave up on life once he found out the truth and reality about his dad. Upon finding his father cheating on his mother, Biff decides not to take the summer school math class which would have allowed him to graduate high school and go to the University of Virginia. Biff was raised by his father to believe that success and wealth in life were two of the most important goals to achieve. Upon finding the truth of his father’s life, Biff realized his father had neither of these qualities and felt he had lived a life based on falsehoods. Biff left his home to pursue the life of a rancher, which caused him to loose contact with his father. The ties between the two began to unravel even more. Willy’s inability to accept that his son knew the truth about him cheating on his wife only deepens the distortion of his life’s reality. When Biff finally returns home upon his mother’s request, he is unsympathetic about the failing of his father’s mental health, which further worsens the relationship. Biff is the only member of the family that knows the truth behind who his father really is and is the only one to accept the fact that his father is trying to commit suicide.
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is remembered as one of the greatest minds in military history. His revolutionary approach to warfare changed the course of history and the principles which governed his style of leadership are still valued today. Although he had an illustrious career of over 25 years and expanded the French Empire from Portugal to Russia, his reign came to end at the hands' of his enemies. The Battle of Waterloo was Napoleon's last stand as a military commander and will be examined for his use of the principles of the operations process. Napoleon failed to implement these activities effectively and is ultimately responsible for the loss of the battle. Napoleon was able to lead his men, but was unable to overcome his failures. He failed to understand the operational environment which affected his subordinates ability share an understanding of the environment. He failed to direct his forces and functions which lead to the loss of initiative and lacked in violence of action. Finally, Napoleon failed to assess the battle continuously and accurately which kept him from adapting when necessary. After a hard fought battle at Waterloo, Napoleon was defeated.
A white picket fence surrounds the tangible icons of the American Dreams in the middle 1900's: a mortgage, an automobile, a kitchen appliance paid for on the monthly - installment - plan, and a silver trophy representative of high school football triumph. A pathetic tale examining the consequences of man's harmartias, Arthur Miller's "Death of A Salesman" satisfies many, but not all, of the essential elements of a tragedy. Reality peels away the thin layers of Willy Loman's American Dream; a dream built on a lifetime of poor choices and false values.
The toxicity of success is portrayed through famous literary works such as The Great Gatsby and The Death of a Salesman, while dealing with an overarching theme of American success. F. Scott Fitzgerald beautifully portrays a wealthy upper class society in The Great Gatsby, which has extreme corruption, hidden by it’s allure, while much of this upper class is pompous and selfish, as well as being so heavily judgemental that is it difficult to be accepted by these people. Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman uses the narcissistic Willy Loman to shine light on the capitalist, middle class America, who’s life revolves around superficial success, which represents the overall flaw in the capitalist system: proclivity; this leads
...ig concepts, such as equality before the law, but he also did what would benefit his country. It is important to understand that since France had just exited a revolution, it was pretty fragile; one big mistake and France might have ended up in another one. Napoleon was not only a child of both the French Revolution and the Enlightenment, he was also a very intelligent person. His cunning and his wits led him to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest enlightened despot of all time.
Bonaparte was born in 1769 on the island of Corsica just as France conquered it. At age ten, Napoleon was sent to military school outside Paris. At sixteen, he graduated and became a lieutenant in the artillery. When the French revolution broke out, Napoleon sided with the new government. Along with the help of his army, he dissolved the revolutionary government and made himself emperor. Saying he was saving the Revolution, Napoleon established a new government that stressed equality. Through his prowess, Napoleon greatly enlarged the French Empire. Though he ran...
Willy grew up believing that being “well-liked” was important to becoming a success. He envisioned Biff, the once great high school athlete, becoming a success for the wrong reasons. In contrast, we see Willy’s friend Charley who lived the real American Dream as a successful man in the business world. Through Charley we see the rewards to chasing this dream, such as the access to more money, and being able to have a flexible enough job to offer Willy a spot. On the other hand, the Loman family was not lucky enough to have any type of reward from the hunt for this success. Through this play, we see how the American Dream drove Willy Lohman and the family crazy and obsessed with a false fantasy. Arthur Miller shows us that the American Dream is valid, but those who hope to substitute popularity and lucky breaks for hard work are likely to
Napoleon’s military career is what eventually led to his prominence. Napoleon began his military career above most of the other men his age. He rapidly made his way through the ranks eventually gaining a great support system. As the directory leaned more and more heavily upon the military, a coup d’état developed. Because of his military expertise, he immediately became first consul of France. The empire of France was soon to grow once Napoleon was in reign. In the 1790s the French army was near one million men, an advantage in the Austrian wars as well as future ventures. Wars raged with other European countries in the early 1800s. Napoleon was able to beat the continental coalition, thus gaining territory for France. France annexed some of Italy but also controlled states such as Spain, Holland ...
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Auaccio on the Mediterranean Island of Corsica. He was born to a poor family of lesser nobles on the island of Corsica. His family consisted of seven brothers and sisters and his father who was a lawyer. James Thompson's article "Napoleon Bonaparte" enlightened us about his father being a lawyer. His father was also his mother because she passed away when giving birth to Napoleon. So that meant that originally his nationality was Corsican-Italian. Being from Italy, he despised the French at that time. In 1784 to 1785, Napoleon attended the Ecole Militaire in Paris. That was the place where he received his military training. He studied to be an artilleryman and an officer. He finished his training and joined the French army when he was 16 years old. The year before he went to school at the age of 14, France had annexed Corsica, so he went to French schools. Napoleon possessed a brilliant mind, tireless energy, and tremendous ambition. In his own words, Napoleon himself once believed to be a "man of destiny." Believing in his self-fulfilling prophecy, military exploits, and his ruthless efficiency Napoleon rose from obscurity to become Napoleon 1, Emperor of France. (Thompson 128)
Barack Obama made history by being elected President of the United States, twice. This is just one more example that the American Dream is without a doubt achievable. Its pursuit is not easy; it requires undeniable hard work, modesty and optimism. Armed with these characteristics, seekers of this lifestyle will undeniably succeed. Success, though, is an interesting concept, for it can entail many superficial qualities. Willy Loman, the tragic hero of the play Death of a Salesman, sees only the superficial qualities of this dream. He views success solely as likeability (linked with attractiveness), and wealth. Ignoring all methods to honorably achieve these, Arthur Miller demonstrates how Willy’s search for the superficial qualities of the American Dream lead him to his own despair.
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.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York:
In Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman’s warped view of the American Dream caused tragedy in his family because he stressed the importance of popularity over hard work and risk-taking over perserverence. *Willy grew up believing that being "well-liked" was important to becoming a success. He believed that being well-liked could help you charm teachers and open doors in business. *He is proud that the neighborhood boys flock around Biff and respond to Biff’s athletic abilities, and in the same breath scoffs at the nerdy Bernard, who is too focused on school and his studies to be popular. Even though Biff turns out to be a failure as an adult, Willy holds on to the hopes that a business man who Biff met years ago will offer him a terrific job if Biff can be his old likeable self and recapture the confidence and grace he had as a teenager.
Is it right to blame society when the stronghold of trust in the American Dream diminishes or dies? The critical point in Death of a Salesman was the mission for this dream. Miller depicts this in his character Willy Loman and his deceived mission of this dream. Arthur Miller's outline of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman was created in post bellum America. Around then, the thinking was more than essentially a declaration; it was a lifestyle. In attempts to further the onlooker's understanding of the story, one must portray the American Dream. After World War II, the United States thrived and flourished monetarily. The possibility of achievement was the establishment of the American Dream. The possibility of a free market framework was reborn and by living in a capitalistic free market, everyone in America had an open door to get rich and be productive. To put it fundamentally, the American Dream was portrayed as "an American flawless of a playful and powerful life which all may want: the American Dream addresses a reaffirmation of standard American hope. Arthur Miller makes the spectator grasp the dream is a lie, in light of the way that it is not for everybody. In the play, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is an impeccable outline of somebody who is attempting to search for this dream. “Death” in the title insinuates Willy's authentic destruction. The play is tormented with conspiring and refusal of reality and self-image, in which don't permit Willy Loman to accomplish independent satisfaction. Willy Loman's life is far from merry and successful.