Popularity, Physical Appearance, and the American Dream in Death of a Salesman

Willy believed good looks, material goods, and likeability would guarantee his sons this dream. Willy's perspective will eventually lead to his fall as the protagonist of the story. Willy also lies about many things throughout the story to make his image look better than he really is, "Linda asks how much Willy has sold and although he initially lies about the amount, Linda patiently waits for the truth, which is that he has barely made enough to pay the bills." (Arthur Miller) Willy's American dream is to be known to everyone and financially successful. Willy doesn't believe in hard work and honesty to achieve the highest respect but instead focuses on personal appearance and social judgement.

After years of chasing the wrong dream, Willy refused to admit his failure, spiraling his mentality downward as he struggles to differentiate between his dream and reality. He had the potential to become a carpenter, to do what made him happy, and he threw it away. In the end, he lied about how popular, well-liked, and good at his job he was in order to justify his suffering, and this is evidenced by the lack of people that showed up to his funeral. He truly was a “low man”. Tragically, Willy firmly held onto his misguided dream because it was all he had left, and he continued to believe in it until his inevitable

Willy wants to become a great man in life and fails on numerous occasions. Unlike Keanu, and Gatsby, Willy can be coined a failure and dies a “failure”. He yearns for the “American Dream”, and believes if he has that he will get the success, and respect, especially out of his family that he desires. Willy works his whole life to achieve success, but finds it very difficult to achieve. He never ends up finding it.

Dave represents a sort of father figure to Willy, and so Willy follows the same path in hopes to create the same future and succ... ... middle of paper ... ...impression that wealth and status are the keys to fulfillment in his life. Miller uses Willy’s beliefs of success and inability to show his love for his family, to show Willy's flawed view of the American Dream. His lack of understanding life and confusion about the real American Dream make him wrongfully teach his sons in what it means to be successful. Also, his failure is due to never really understanding what it means to succeed. Willy is a salesman, but what he sells is the wrong American Dream.

Even though he is a common man he fails to live up to the standards of being a tragic hero because he never accepts nor admits to his own errors. He, therefore, loses his dignity. One of his biggest errors is his failure of be a good father. Willy Loman’s character is capable of making errors. He believes he is a very successful salesman and well liked.

Miller uses many characters to contrast the difference between success and failure within the play. Willy is a salesman whose imagination is much greater than his sales ability; he is also a failure as a father and husband. Biff and Happy are his two adult sons, who follow in their father's fallacy of life, while Ben and his father are the only members of the Loman family with that special something needed to succeed. Charlie and his son Bernard, enjoy better success in life compared to the Loman's who attempt to succeed but constantly seem to fail. Willy Loman is the main character and protagonist in Death of A Salesman.

What an academic!” (Miller 33). As a result of Willy’s emphasis on admiration rather than education, Willy saw Bernard as an unlikable nerd, with a little chance of gaining acceptance in the competitive, post-academic world; Bernard only had the smarts and not the charisma to be a professionally accepted. However, the situation is ironic since Bernard ends up being professionally successful, arguing a case in the Supreme Court, yet does not boast or seek approval from others, while Willy’s children boast of their nonexistent success in the business world. Bernard’s character baffles Willy, who cannot understand Bernard’s humility. This enforces the wrongful nature of Willy’s American Dream because Biff and Happy who were well-liked as teenagers, struggle to excel in their careers (Ardolino 33).

This eventually brings about Willy’s death. He has imagined that he is worth more dead than alive and the insurance money from his death will be the catalyst for Biff’s success. Willy has also blinded himself regarding the success, or lack of success, of his sons. He believes Hap to be an “assistant to the director” at his job, but Hap’s position is barely influential, if at all. He has elevated Biff’s past employment experience with Oliver to that of a leading salesman, when in reality he was simply a shipping clerk.

The Loman’s complicated views of success make it hard to achieve happiness: Willy and Happy are focused on Willy’s dream of money and popularity, while Biff is willing to tell the truth, and admit that being a salesman is not the right job for any of them. Willy’s idea that success comes from popularity and wealth is something he just can’t achieve, and he has been lying to himself for so long that he has become delusional. Willy’s dreams of success are inspired by the life of his deceased brother Ben who quickly became a very wealthy man in life. Ben being his hero, bringing Willy to build his own twisted definition to success that is closely related to the classic “American dream”. To Willy, success means wealth, a happy family, big house, popularity, and to be praised.

Willy could have been successful, but something went wrong. He raised his sons to believe in the American Dream, and neither of them turned out to be successful either. By the time Willy got to be an old man, his life was in shambles. *One son, Biff, was a hopeless dreamer who wasn’t able to hold on to a job. He could have been successful through an athletic scholarship, but he blew the chance he had to go to school.