You may have read Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at some point in your life. Whether it be in your youth, when your high school thought it'd be educational, or in your adult life when you've run out of things to read. At any age, Death of a Salesman sends a clear message on the American Dream, the idea that from any origin, with proper work and dedication, one can achieve anything. The titular salesman, Willy Loman, finds himself grappling with this very concept, and whether or not it still holds true as it did in his youth. In this article I'll explore Willy Loman's thoughts on the American Dream and how it applies to the reader today.
Willy Loman believes that "personality always wins the day" (Miller I. 46). The idea that sheer charisma, …show more content…
His father fills his head with ideas of grandeur, the same rhetoric many high school student, including myself, have heard their entire lives: you're unique. While everyone has things about them that make them unique, such as Biff Loman's love for football, everyone faces the same struggles in life. When Biff got out of high school, he found himself lost among a sea of people, he wasn't particularly smart, or educated, he couldn't hold a job for longer than a few months. He would end up back at home, persistant that somehow life wasn't fair to him. Biff has tried so hard to succeed, fulfilling the path of the American Dream, but chasing the impossible dream planted by his father, he's resigned to failure. He says in a quote from act I page 13, "I’ve always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I’ve done is to waste my life" (Miller). These pitfalls of the American Dream seem common place, everyone faces them, and holding close to the ideal that somehow you alone are the protagonist or the special character in their own story, is a recipe for disappointment. Biff's problem is that when he did start the track of the dream, he gave up. He felt like he couldn't succeed, and that's why the American Dream is failing. It takes persistant hard work, even when things are difficult to succeed. "The jet engine of prosperity is economic freedom, especially the freedom to take risks" (Feulner). And taking those risks is vital, if one shuts down like Biff does in Death of a Salesman, that person will never
Willy Loman believes that "personality always wins the day" (Miller I. 46). The idea that sheer charisma, …show more content…
His father fills his head with ideas of grandeur, the same rhetoric many high school student, including myself, have heard their entire lives: you're unique. While everyone has things about them that make them unique, such as Biff Loman's love for football, everyone faces the same struggles in life. When Biff got out of high school, he found himself lost among a sea of people, he wasn't particularly smart, or educated, he couldn't hold a job for longer than a few months. He would end up back at home, persistant that somehow life wasn't fair to him. Biff has tried so hard to succeed, fulfilling the path of the American Dream, but chasing the impossible dream planted by his father, he's resigned to failure. He says in a quote from act I page 13, "I’ve always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I’ve done is to waste my life" (Miller). These pitfalls of the American Dream seem common place, everyone faces them, and holding close to the ideal that somehow you alone are the protagonist or the special character in their own story, is a recipe for disappointment. Biff's problem is that when he did start the track of the dream, he gave up. He felt like he couldn't succeed, and that's why the American Dream is failing. It takes persistant hard work, even when things are difficult to succeed. "The jet engine of prosperity is economic freedom, especially the freedom to take risks" (Feulner). And taking those risks is vital, if one shuts down like Biff does in Death of a Salesman, that person will never