Death Of A Salesman Theme Analysis

Earning The Right To Die Through out Death Of A Salesman two major themes are shown and brought up within the story. The first being how capitalism and ‘The American Dream’ will ruin you are a person. Wither it is through financial means, or a personal fulfillment way. The second theme is a pervasive feeling of existentialism. Living the life given to you at birth or thrust up on you by your peers; verses choosing the path which will make you happiest as a person. These are not the only themes in the story, just the main ones which make up the bulk of its arc.
The story follows an old salesman named Willy and his interactions with his job, his wife, his two deadbeat sons all the while dealing with his declining mental state. Willy follows the American Dream. Settling down with his wife in a home they are paying off with a job he has put his life into. Willy does not get the American Dream everyone wants. One which has you owning your home, with a long and rewarding career behind you, the kids have grown a left and you can enjoy the retirement you have earned. Willy instead lives the more realistic out come. Due for retirement, still paying off his house, kids unable to get decent work and have come back to live at home, with a long and tiresome life of labor both in the rear view and as far as he can see forwards. …show more content…
They are simply laid before them with their own choice being what leads them down them. Death Of A Salesman takes the reader for a ride down one of those roads and shows them the outcomes of it. The story shows the trappings of the American dream and how the Capitalistic system cares more about the person as an item, rather than a living person. The reader is shown how this system endorses cycles of this thinking, and how existentialist thinking can brake you free from it. It is a simple story of one man who has been torn up by the dream, and refuses to accept