The play follows the story of a traveling salesman, Willy Loman, and his last 24 hours alive before his death. It follows his life and has many flashbacks where Willy is remembering his family and is eager to find where he went wrong in life to be going through this mid life crisis of having to be distant from his family as well as financial woes. This play was written through the late 1940s and during that time period it was the end of the second world war and so not only America, but the whole world was looking for a new era and fresh start. Willy and his family lived in New York, which was the city that was the most popular place to live in.
Cultural Context
After World War 2, America hopped onto a new period of “economic prosperity”. …show more content…
The author blames America for giving millions a false myth built around a capitalist materialism that was brought upon by the postwar economy. The play and its conflicts was not only influenced by the culture of America at that time but also to the authors personal life. “As Willy in the play was influenced by Arthur’s Uncle Manny Newman who was also a salesman and saw a competition between his son and Arthur.”
There were different attitudes towards the American dream that were portrayed by each character differently in the play. For example, Willy strongly believed in it which made him also believe that he was always at the top, “big”, and always “well-liked”. This was because he believed he could achieve anything if he just did what others saw acceptable and what others wanted, not what he truly wanted. As for Biff, Biff wanted to be independent and saw the American dream as something only achievable is you do what you want to do. He was a failure and did not believe in himself at times but he picked himself up and believed that the American dream was only possible if he did what he wanted to do, he did not care much about the dream, or being “big”, he just wanted to make his father proud, even if they were on bad terms half the time, he still cared about him, he also only wanted the money and to pursue a job he enjoyed and fit him
Cultural Context
After World War 2, America hopped onto a new period of “economic prosperity”. …show more content…
The author blames America for giving millions a false myth built around a capitalist materialism that was brought upon by the postwar economy. The play and its conflicts was not only influenced by the culture of America at that time but also to the authors personal life. “As Willy in the play was influenced by Arthur’s Uncle Manny Newman who was also a salesman and saw a competition between his son and Arthur.”
There were different attitudes towards the American dream that were portrayed by each character differently in the play. For example, Willy strongly believed in it which made him also believe that he was always at the top, “big”, and always “well-liked”. This was because he believed he could achieve anything if he just did what others saw acceptable and what others wanted, not what he truly wanted. As for Biff, Biff wanted to be independent and saw the American dream as something only achievable is you do what you want to do. He was a failure and did not believe in himself at times but he picked himself up and believed that the American dream was only possible if he did what he wanted to do, he did not care much about the dream, or being “big”, he just wanted to make his father proud, even if they were on bad terms half the time, he still cared about him, he also only wanted the money and to pursue a job he enjoyed and fit him