Allusion In Death Of A Salesman

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, readers get an insight into the struggle of a middle class family that can't live a comfortable life due to the demands of a poor paying job with little rewards and promise. The man of the family, Willy Loman, can’t give up the past glorious success he once had as a traveling salesman. He has two dysfunctional sons, Hap and Biff, whom never made anything of their lives, who never sought out for a higher quality of life, who leave and eventually come back to their parents to depend on them. The woman of the house seems to be the only person with a conscious mind; however, even she has errors when acting as an enabler for her husband. All of these factors contribute to a desolusion that causes the members …show more content…
The dysfunctional sons feel hopeful to $15,000 so that they can start a business. Although their intentions are reasonable, they seem to forget the things that made them distrustful. For example, Biff asks for a loan from the man he once stole from. Initially, he honestly believes that he can be trusted with $15,000. “: I think I’ll go to see him. If I could get ten thousand or even seven or eight thousand dollars I could buy a beautiful ranch.“(15) This is illogical thinking on his part considering that he has never held a job without stealing from it, yet he has the audacity to “take them up” on their offers, revealing a sense of entitlement in order to advance in their lives. Here is an example of how Biff even admits to stealing his way out of every job he’s ever had. “I stole myself out of every good job since high school! “(98). In this excerpt. Biff explicitly expresses that he has never been able to become a legitimate employee because he could never stop himself from stealing. This is the illogical thinking on his part, which in the end contributes to the delusion in the family, yet it’s isn’t just them alone. To make matters worse, their delusional father also believes that they have a shot at $15,000 and openly encourages them based on how they have a certain charm to them but never on a characteristic that are true. “ You know sporting goods better than Spalding, for God’s sake!”(44). Here we see Willy say that …show more content…
The difficulties have hit this family hard and it will argued that this is the result of a deteriorating ideal that many have come to known as the American Dream- that may every American have the chance to be successful just as any other person. Yet people who take a position not for what they have done, for example in a company, but rather from what they inherited from their families are considered unworthy for the position. But is that, the act of passing down one’s legacy to their family, not part of the