People have dreams and aspiration that they fight to achieve. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun the characters of Biff and Walter, Jr., are fighting to achieve there dreams by any means necessary. Their families support them in their endeavors to become a successful businessman. I believe that the characters of Biff and Walter, Jr., are both character who are struggling to achieve their dreams and provide a better life for their family.
In Arthur Miller’s Death of a salesman the play is based on one man trying to reach the a personal dream while unknowingly hurting his family. During Willy Loman’s life he caused his family to be damaged by living a life that he could no longer fulfill. His sons Biff and Happy realized what their father is going through and are their for him in his time of need. Willy traveled around the east coast selling merchandise but as he grew older he lost his ability to travel. Willy tried to force his dream on to his sons Biff and Happy after he realizes that he can no longer cut it for his traveling job. He risks his life and is eventually fired after a lifetime of hard work. Willy subconsciously decided that he need to create a future for his children. His realization that he can not fulfil his dream crush him and he starts to complain about
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But they were both able to understand that people must sometimes put aside the dreams for the better cause. The death of Willy shows Biff what can happen if you get obsessed with your dream. Likewise the lose of the money from the death of Walter, Sr., shows Walter, Jr., what will happen. Both of them finally understand in the end that life is not about money, power and possessions, but about family and friends. Family and friends will be there in your times of need and in your times of success, and will always love
Have you ever found money coming between you and your family and disrupting love and life? Money can destroy families and change them for the worse. In the Raisin in the Sun, the author Lorraine Hansberry, uses events of her life to relate and explain how the Younger family, of Chicago's South side, struggles and improves throughout the book. One main cause for their family's problems is because of money and how it causes anger to control the family. The play deals with situations in which the family is dealing with unhappiness from money. Walter, the man of the house in the Younger family, tries impressing Travis, his son, too much with money instead of teaching him the more important lessons of life. Walter also dreams to invest in a liquor store and make a lot of money and becomes overwhelmed and badly caught up in his dream. Lastly, the Younger family is much too dependent on the check their Mama is receiving. The family has lost the fact that their mama tries to tell them, before, freedom was life but now money seems to have the controlling factor in life. When money becomes an obsession for a family, problems occur.
Through a series of events, Biff gradually comes to a realization of what is necessary for success. First, we are shown a part of his childhood where Biff is told that "the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead." This idea appears in direct contrast to Bernard, one of Biff's childhood friends, who works and studies hard. Biff decides that Bernard will not succeed because he is "only liked, not well-liked," and being well-liked is the cornerstone of success. Nonetheless, later in the play we see that Bernard has become very successful, underscoring one of the messages in the play, that success is not just a result of popularity. Second, we are shown a scene in Boston soon after Biff has just failed math for the year. He discovers his "heroic" father having an affair. Biff comes to the painful realization that his father's values, his views, and everything that Biff had made the foundation of his life, are all completely "fake" and "phony." Unfortunately, he has nothing with which to replace it. Lastly, Biff decides to leave to try and find himself, but an argument develops between Biff and Willy. Biff begins to see himself as like his father, "nothing," just an average man trying to make a living, and quite possibly failing. Biff's earlier image of his father's greatness has crumbled entirely, leaving a lost young man trying to find his way. Biff realized that he now needs to find his own values in life. He has finally tasted reality and now must dive head first into the pot, without any real preparation.
Have you ever worked long and hard on a project, only to realize that it was effort wasted and the project was totally meaningless in the end? That is just what occurred in the play The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Willy Loman, the protagonist, spent decades in mind numbing work, only to discover that he had “built his life on shifting sand” (Nicholas). Through the course of his journey, Willy kept on the straight and narrow highway, which he thought would bring success and happiness. He often contemplated when he would draw his last breath and if he should. Willy begins to realize the futility of his journey when his son Biff Loman returned from college after he had flunked out. Willy had a prevailing hope that his son would amount to something, that he would be successful and become someone great. The cold and brutal reality was that both Biff and Willy were still living in the past. It takes until the final scenes in the play, for Biff to finally comprehend what his dad wanted for him; which was for him to go get a job in business instead of chasing his senseless dreams of being a rancher in Texas. It is in those final moments that Biff steps
Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry are known as two of the greatest African American writers during the 1950s. Facing racial discrimination, both projected this into their work. Black empowerment is a commonality between their pieces. In Harlem, these authors meet and became best friends. Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” is based on answering the question from Hughes’ “Dream deferred.” Hansberry’s play answers what happens to dreams deferred through her characters as Mama pushes away her dreams for her family, Walter’s dream of a liquor store is crushed, and Beneatha does not want to become a doctor. In her play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine uses Beneatha, Walter, and Mama to show the negative consequences that occur when a dream is deferred.
In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a salesman who has worked his entire life away and in looking back upon his life he feels that he has not made any overall achievements to be proud of. In his older age he struggles with internal and external conflicts in regards to his own personal choices and trying to make sure that his sons make good live’s to support themselves with. Willy’s wife is a woman who is overly understanding and loving when it comes to her husband; and even though he treats her disrespectfully in most instances she is undoubtedly devoted to him. She continues to believe in his work and abilities even when he no longer has the capability to see his own actions through. Miller shows in his play that as Willy fights to make successful live’s for his children and family he is only separating them farther and leading himself to suicide, because of their overall difference in views upon life and his own self doubt.
This motif of abandonment and betrayal is carried through to Willy’s son, Biff. Biff feels betrayed whe...
In Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman the character Biff, the son of Willy and Linda Loman, and the character Bernard, the child of the Loman’s neighbors Charley and his wife, are considered to be foil characters to each other. Biff, the golden boy of the Loman family, and the one that had everything in high school, grows up to be a failure and a disappointment to his family. Bernard, the nerd friend of the Loman boys, and the one who dreamed he had what Biff had in high school, grows up to be a successful lawyer and makes his family proud.
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.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a tragic play about an aging and struggling salesman, Willy Loman, and his family’s misguided perception of success. In Willy’s mind, being well-liked is more important than anything else, and is the means to achieving success. He teaches this flawed idea to his sons, Biff and Happy, and is faithfully supported by his wife Linda. Linda sympathizes with Willy’s situation, knowing that his time as an important salesman has passed. Biff and Happy hold their father to impossibly high standards, and he tries his best to live up to them. This causes Willy to deny the painful reality that he has not achieved anything of real value. Willy’s obsession with a false dream results in his losing touch with reality and with himself.
Arthur Miller, A play writer in the twentieth century, wrote a play entitled Death of a salesman that won him the Pulitzer Price just a year after its release. In the play Miller expresses the life of a 60 year old salesman that undergoes through lack of success in his life and sees the same thing happening ,to his two grown sons now in their mid-thirties, as the American dream faded away being replaced by capitalism in the late 1940s. The play starts of by introducing Willy Loman, the protagonist, and tells the story of the final twenty four hours in Willy’s life all the way to his death and funeral. Between that time laps the audience is able to see Willies past thanks to his constant daydreams, along with his sons past and wife and their current situation all the way to Willies suicide. Willy kills himself in order to get achieve his dream of being successful and having a lot of money the way Willy in vision his death to be just like the death of a salesman in which everyone across the nation would attend his funeral. Unfortunately for Willy his dream died along with him as no one attended his funeral but his family and friends or “Friend” in this case considering that Willy only had one remaining friend the rest had died or believed that he had selfishly killed himself. Throughout Millers vivid play writing and expressive thoughts he is able to capture the audience attention and convey the message that People are so often scared of reality that they hide from it by living I the past. In death of a salesman Willy Loman decides to neglect reality by living in his past ultimately leading to his death due to lack of success and failure.
...nsidering he was popular and favored in high school. Due to the lack of communication between the son and father, Biff mostly sides with his mother Linda, “Stop making excuses for him! He always, always wiped the floor with you. Never had an ounce of respect for you” (Miller 39). It is difficult for Biff as well, because of the colliding dreams that he obtains, from Willy’s dreams. Rather than cherishing a family relationship, relationships are being broken apart due to different expectations and pressures of success.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller concerns itself with the fall of a simple man perpetually in a steadfast state regarding his own failure in a success-driven society. The protagonist of the play, Willy Loman, will follow a tragic trajectory that will eventually lead to his suicide. Arthur Miller's tragic play is an accurate portrayal of the typical American myth that sustains an extreme craving for success and a belief in the illusion of the American dream, a dream attainable only by a handful of people. Having chosen a career in sales Willy Loman constantly aspires to become 'great'. Nevertheless, Willy is a poor aging salesman that considers himself to be a failure when comparing himself to his successful father and brother, but he is incapable of consciously admitting it. Consequently, Willy will measure his level of success with the level of success attained by his offspring, particularly his eldest son Biff. Their difficult relationship contribute to the play's main plot. Willy unfolds his deluded perception and recollection of the events as the audience gradually witnesses the tragic downfall of a man shadowed by a mental illness that has already began to take it's toll on his mind and personality.
Biff is an interesting character. He seems to adore his father, but he really doesn't. He finds out that his father has an affaire, and he looses all respect for him. He ends up forgetting everything Willy said, and steals something from every job that makes him loose it. He wants to change his father, and will do this by shockingly awakening him to the reality that something is wrong with him, and Biff tries to get his father to stop trying to kill himself. He wants his father to love him like he loves his father, but he will not, because of his mood swings, ...
represents that even when individuals go through conflict either internally or externally the first step to getting better is understanding the problem and moving on from there. Biff and Happy Loman are brothers in the play, The Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller. They are two very contrasting characters; the two brothers both deal with conflict in an entirely different manner, which leads to a completely different end result for each character. When two characters start out with the same perspective, you can clearly identify the differences between them as the characters adapt and revise who they were.
In conclusion, Biff will not follow in Willy’s footsteps due to the fact that he has no motivation or desire to go into the business world. Willy dies thinking that his life was a success because of the money he is leaving for his son whereas it is not, at least in the way he thinks. Biff breaks free from Willy’s false dream and tells Happy: “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong... He never knew who he was” (111). Happy does end up taking the money to start a business and while that was not Willy’s main aim; it is something rather than nothing.