• Home Page
  • Role Of The American Dream In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Role Of The American Dream In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Improved Essays
Show More
The play Death of a Salesman sheds light on the many factors of society today. In regards to, peoples value, dreams, goals, and success. This play helps advertise the American Dream theme. The American Dream is what many endeavor, not only today but even as late as the 1900’s. The American Dream is portrayed as being successful and wealthy to help your family. This contributes to the physical peculiarity in hopes of obtaining fulfillment. In the play, Willy Loman is a man in his sixties who has tried many time to obtain the American dream over many years. Every time failing to become like his idol Dave Singleman. Willy spent his entire life trying to achieve this dream, and accomplish success. Great deals of people today want to accomplish the same thing when it comes to having a successful life. These individuals might spend their whole lives trying to maintain this goal. Because people are so focused on this, they never really get to live an enjoy life. They think that being rich …show more content…
Everyone assumes that money and success will help to lead them to a perfect life. We all know that nothing in life is perfect, this is taught throughout life. Many decide that is they achieve this success that they will be forever happy, and be able to provide for the people who mean the most to them. Willy Lorman did his best to be someone he wasn’t just to conform and gain acceptance into the world of success. Soon after realizing that this indeed did not bring him happiness because this isn’t what he was called on earth to do. He instead needed to find something that genuinely made him happy, much like most of us in the world today. Do something you love to do, not because of how much it will make you or the popularity it will bring. Because money doesn’t buy happiness, but time can. The more time you spend ding something you love, the happier you will

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Self-Misadversity Through Adversity In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman
    • 1061 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Self-Misadversity Through Adversity In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

    Willy Loman wants to ensure his independence by proving that he can be a well-loved and successful salesman in business, regardless of that he meets a lot of adversities in his career as a salesman. Willy’s biggest dream is to be like Dave Singleman, a successful but rare salesman who can make a living by “picking up his phone and calling the buyers” when he is eighty-four years old. After Willy meeting Dave, Willy feels that he can be a highly respected and valued salesman and ensure his success by hard working. However, since Willy lacks ability, he cannot become a rich and respected salesman, even though he drives to New England every week when he is young. As he gets older, the situation gets worse.…

    • 1061 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing The Great Gatsby 'And Death Of A Salesman'
    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparing The Great Gatsby 'And Death Of A Salesman'

    His visions of reaching the goals of being able to provide for his family and set an example for his sons gets deteriorated by his infidelity, contradictions to himself and his family, and his incapability to see his life for what it is. His motives for obtaining money, and being successful enough to reach what he thinks is the American Dream, are blindsided by his obsession of reaching this goal; so to the point that he pushes away his family, the reason he began this journey in the first place: “Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground”(Schlöndorff). Willy’s infidelity to Linda, and utter obsession of being “well-liked” chip away at his moral compass and virtues, being another reason as to why he’s unsatisfied with his life. Willy is under the assumption that the more liked an individual is, the more successful they will become, and with this, associates happiness with popularity.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing The American Dream In Death Of A Salesman And Fences
    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Comparing The American Dream In Death Of A Salesman And Fences

    The Search for the American Dream The American Dream is different for all people, and it provides different opportunities for different races. But even with all the freedom the American Dream gives, for some people it is an eternal struggle to survive underneath it. Characters from Death of a Salesman and Fences outline the struggles between both of the races. Both families live parallel to each other and try their hardest to pull through underneath the boot of the American Dream.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Status Quo Journey
    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Status Quo Journey

    Through his portrayal of his complicated protagonist, Miller suggests that in order to appear to maintain a successful status as Willy Loman does, societal expectations force individuals to live in accordance with the social norm and not in terms of their own passions or…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Research Paper On Willy Loman
    • 1494 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Research Paper On Willy Loman

    “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller details the last two days of William ‘Willy” Loman, a sixty-three year old salesman’s life. The plays shows Willy’s private conversations about his past and present, which all lead up to him eventually committing suicide. Willy Loman’s life philosophy would be best summed in a quote by Calvin Coolidge, a former president of the United States, “The chief business of the American people is business.” Willy took pride in being a salesman and earning a name for himself and wealth in his family. He valued wealth so much so that he even went as far as to try and force his lifestyle on to that of his children, Biff and Happy.…

    • 1494 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Willy Loman's Pride In Death Of A Salesman
    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Essay On Willy Loman's Pride In Death Of A Salesman

    The notion of success in American society is a woeful reminder of how people will accessibly shed off their moral and ethical principles in the desperate effort to fulfill their dreams and ambitions. They will try their best to do whatever they need to do in order to attain that dream even if it requires their dignity to be jeopardized. This ties into the issue of the American Dream. This is because in the play, Willy Loman has a twisted vision of it since to him “the dream is not achieved by hard work and determination, but by being ‘well liked’” (The American dream in Death of a Salesman).…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Willy Tragic Hero
    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Willy Tragic Hero

    In search of the American dream, one may unknowingly have their lives corrode away little by little. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is out in search the American dream, seeking to become wealthy in order to love and support his family. However, a crucial flaw suspends him from success, causing him to almost perfectly fit into Aristotle’s ideology of a tragic hero. Yet Arthur Miller does not create Willy as one among kings, rather Miller forges an everyday man, with the same potential for greatness as a classical tragic hero. Throughout the play, Willy gradually develops into the mold of a modern tragic hero, as his struggles with hubris become a major blemish that is constantly ignored and unnoticed by Willy; and, eventually this weakness…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Foils In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman
    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Foils In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

    The individuals we surround ourselves with in our life often have an influential sway on our behaviour and motivations. Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is no exception to the impact others have on our lives, however the people in Willy’s life do not influence him positively, but rather act as people for him to blame despite his faults being only his own. The people in his life, the secondary characters to his tragedy, all work to provide better depth and perception of Willy Loman as he strives to achieve the American Dream. He surrounds himself with people who are all meant to help him in being successful however their efforts are proven to be wasteful as Willy acts on his own mind. He ignores the advice of others and his…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    What Is The Biggest Fear Of Becoming The American Dream
    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What Is The Biggest Fear Of Becoming The American Dream

    The American Dream has become into an aspiration that people has given up. The people hasn’t only gave up, but also it has made them believe that there is no way out. The America’s social system and class are viewed as barriers that enable us to lose hope of reaching the “American Dream” due to barriers such as capitalism, fear of taking risks, low wages, and becoming the illusion that the American dream is possible. The biggest fear for any person in the United States and throughout the world… that has abstain them from becoming the next Henry Ford… it has been and always will be the fear of taking risks. In the Death of a Salesman, Willy a tumbledown man who aspires to accomplish his dream of becoming successful and acknowledging that all…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Death Of A Salesman American Dream Analysis
    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Death Of A Salesman American Dream Analysis

    The American dream is the ideal that every U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. It is a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S. The Death of a Salesman and The Atlanta Exposition Address both tell a story of men striving to achieve the American dream. In The Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman strives to make it rich by being a salesman. We are never told what Mr. Loman is selling and maybe this is so all individuals will relate to him.…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparison Of The American Dream In Death Of A Salesman And Fences
    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Comparison Of The American Dream In Death Of A Salesman And Fences

    The American dream was an ideal that every U.S. citizen, no matter their race or social status, would have equal opportunity for success. The American dream was a beacon of hope for those who had nothing left in their life going for them. The American dream inspired and improved the lives of many to chase after what they truly wanted and needed. For two men, however, the American dream did not live up to its name. From the plays Death of a Salesman and Fences, the characters Willy Loman and Troy Maxson are two fathers who became tragic heroes that caused their own downfall due to their different outlooks on the American dream.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Dysfunctional Family In Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller
    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dysfunctional Family In Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller

    “Death of a Salesman” is one of the most important plays in Twentieth Century American Theatre. Arthur Miller creates tragedies that are easily relatable for Americans. For instance, his play “Death of a Salesman” uses the idea of a dysfunctional family through out to support its plot. The play is centered around its protagonist, Willy Loman. Willy is a salesman, but also an old man, and from the title of the play the readers of the play can easily conclude what happens to him by the end of the play.…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    A Raisin In The Sun And Willy Loman Analysis
    • 1699 Words
    • 7 Pages

    A Raisin In The Sun And Willy Loman Analysis

    Willy Loman’s version of the American Dream is one in which popularity, financial success and being well-known and respected in a community. Willy is a hard working business man who is always meeting with new people; it’s part of his job. Willy must have an enthusiastic persona about him to help him in the world of sales. His personality strongly influenced his idea of the American Dream; he believes that popularity is the key to economic success. Willy’s plan is to become well of and for his sons to be top sales representatives in the US.…

    • 1699 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Willy Loman And The American Dream Analysis
    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Willy Loman And The American Dream Analysis

    Willy Loman infers about the importance of hard work and how the greatest country in the world can ultimately make a luxurious lifestyle a reality. Willy struggles to provide a decent lifestyle for his family. He wants that opportunity for his family and he makes it known extensively throughout the play. This is Miller’s establishment of Willy’s character. Willy’s life ironically comes to an end after he consoles his family after his economically status experiences a drastic change.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    How Does Death Of A Salesman Reflect The American Dream
    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages

    How Does Death Of A Salesman Reflect The American Dream

    Abstract: Arthur Miller is known for addressing serious social issues in his plays. His Death of a Salesman reflects the American society of the times in which it was written. The main character, Willy Loman is the victim of the American dream that makes him strongly believe in the possibility of attaining wild and grand success in a land of immense possibilities. Willy takes his own life in his vain pursuit of success. Death of a Salesman met with instant success when it was first staged in 1940’s, as the Americans could instantly connect with the tragedy of Willy.…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings